Having Your Blog Work for Your Local Organization
Blogging has been hailed as one of the best marketing resources accessible to marketers today. In the end, it’s an integral factor of ongoing search engine optimization (SEO) and an outstanding method to establish your business as an industry leader. A well written and constantly maintained blog can prove you and your team as true matter area experts, building trust and confidence among readers.
But what if your clients aren’t on the internet? What if your customers are next door, or around the corner, or a few blocks away? For local bricks-and-mortar businesses, does blogging still make sense? It surely does, but it also needs a slightly different approach.
Be Local SEO Savvy
When your viewers comes from a certain city, town, or even neighborhood, you’ll want to include that name into your blog. For example, if you’re a florist in the Georgetown area of DC, you’ll want to include the words “Georgetown” and “DC” along with your other targeted keywords. But be careful-you’ll still desire your copy to sound natural and make sense.
Incorporate Local Stories
One wonderful way to incorporate those geographical keywords is to cover local news stories on your blog. choose stories wisely! That Georgetown florist might want to record about the local gardening club’s events, or keep readers up to date on what’s happening at the Botanical Gardens. Act as a curator, offering news that’s related to your readers both for where it happens and its significance to your company. You can also reach out to local news reporters and share your coverage-which could glean you some great PR when the opportunity arises.
Reach out strategically
Join with local non-profits and community groups. Keep up to date on what they’re doing, and offer your blog as a platform for them to share their information. In turn, they’ll likely promote your blog whenever you run a story about them-giving you some excellent “cross pollination.” This step also sets you apart as a business that’s concerned in supporting your community.
Recruit the Right Guest Bloggers
Including guest bloggers has multiple benefits: it relieves some of the burden of writing on a regular basis; it provides power of voice to the blog; and it can garner new traffic. Ask your community leaders to write posts on concerns that impact your community. Or reach out to local fans who can bring about a fresh perspective to your product. Our Georgetown florist, for instance, could inquire the president of the local gardening club to share her top tips for growing roses. The president will likely let her social network know that she’s written an article for you!
Reward Your Readers
Consider running special offers or discounts for your blog readers. If you remain focused on engaging your viewers, it will be easy for you to determine just the right offer. Focus on offers that reward brand loyalty over time, rather than one-off deals. Also bear in mind that your blog is a soft marketing tool, a place to educate, entertain, and create relationships. To that end, limit self-promotional posts to no more than ten percent of your whole content.
Even for local businesses, a blog is an exceptional online marketing tool. The secret is to use the platform deliberately, without losing view of a blog’s principal function. So long as you remember that readability and quality content come first, you’ll be on the way to blogging success!