Why You Should Blog | Freelance Graphic Design Blog

Your Business Needs A Blog :: Part 2

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Why You Should Blog

Last week I talked about why your business needs a blog; and because I was fearful that if I made the post too long, you would get bored, I broke it into two parts.  This post will focus more on the increase in traffic aspect of why you need a blog.

How does a blog increase website traffic?

I mentioned last week, that if the content was informative and helpful to the reader, it could result in a purchase.  What I did not mention was that the content is the reason why the visitor landed on your blog post.  They searched for something on a search engine site like Google, and your blog post was one of the relevant search results that they clicked on.  With a little search engine optimization (SEO) help, your blog post may have been in the number one position on the search results page of their query.

Another reason why your blog post was where the visitor could see it in their search results, instead of being buried on page fifty-seven, is because you have been consistently blogging.  In the eyes of search engines, your website is considered relevant not just because that particular post was relevant to the visitor’s query, but because your site is “updated.”  Search engines take into account whether a website is being maintained or updated with fresh content.  Consistently blogging from your site adds new content, and new content is updated content in the eyes of search engines.  If you are not blogging, adding new products or updating the content on your website in any way, then search engines see your site as being stale.  Stale sites get buried on page fifty-seven.

Many businesses have a website designed, and because the information does not need to be changed very often, they only update them once or twice a year.   Normally this is only done to change the copyright year in the footer of the site or remove a staff member’s name that is no longer with the company.  Consider this scenario:  Company A sells pecans, has competitive prices and offers excellent customer service, but only updates their website once or twice a year.  Company B sells pecans that are priced above average and has a couple of complaints with the Better Business Bureau (BBB), but blogs weekly.  Customer C searches the internet to find pecans for sale and Company B shows up in Customer C’s search results on page one.  Company A is on page fifty-seven.  Although Company A is the better choice for buying pecans, Customer C will likely never find that out.

If you created a web site so that you could have a web presence, take it one step further and add a blog.  By doing so, you will increase your web presence and your earning potential.

Why You Should Blog | Freelance Graphic Design Blog

Your Business Needs a Blog :: Part 1

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Why You Should Blog

When working with new web design clients, one of the questions that I ask when sorting out the content that will go on their website, is whether or not they will have a blog.  Often times, their answer is in the form of a question, “Do I need one?  My answer is always “yes.”  I truly believe that every business should have a blog because it is a relatively low cost way to market your business.

Having a blog drives more traffic to your site.  Before I started blogging for my business, I was averaging less than 10 visitors a month.  Not per day or per week, but 10 visitors per month.  Granted, at that time I was still working as a graphic designer in corporate America and freelancing only on the side.  I built a website like most businesses do, to establish a web presence and showcase my portfolio.  In my free time, I built an unrelated site to blog about some of my interests in natural hair, art and healthy living.  Within a few months, I was averaging over 1,000 visitors per month on that site.  10 visitors per month for a business that helps put food in my mouth compared to 1,000 visitors per month for something I do for fun, about random stuff that I like?  Yes, I thought the same thing you are thinking right now.

When I decided to freelance full-time, I also decided to dedicate time to blog for this site as well as my other site.  Actually, this site has become a significantly higher priority over my “fun site.”  Within a few months time, I saw my site traffic triple to over 30 visitors per month.  In a year’s time, I was averaging over 100 visitors per month and I only posted a new blog post once a week.  Not only did my website traffic increase, but it was what I consider “quality” traffic.  I blog about topics relating to: graphic design, marketing for small businesses and projects that I have done.  The services that my business offers relates to the topics that I write about.  As a matter of fact, most of my blog posts are born out of the questions that I get from clients; and friends and family that like to pick my brain.  That means that the majority of the visitors to my blog fall within the demographics of my client base.  In my opinion, that makes it “quality” traffic.  The added bonus is that this “quality” traffic only costs me the time it takes for me to sit down and type.

This leads me to my next point.  Having a blog can increase revenue.  It is all about the content.  If you have quality content related to your products and/or services, it can influence a visitor to want to learn more about your business, which can lead to a purchase.  How many times have you turned to the internet for information on a particular product or service and ended up on a blog?  If what you read was informative and helpful, did you do some further browsing on that site?  Did you make a purchase or contact them for further information about their services?  If you answered yes, then you fell within the category of being “quality” traffic for that particular site.  I have had several clients that were the result of landing on one of my blog postings and many more inquiries into the services that I offer as a result of reading my blog.  Again, the cost to market in this way for me, is just time.

Blogging as a form of marketing your business is fairly inexpensive.  If you have a website, then you already have a domain name and hosting.  You may have to get with your web designer if you are not very technically adept, but it will be fairly easy to add a blog to your existing site.  If your website was built within the last two years or so, chances are that it is already built on a content management system (CMS) like WordPress.  Websites that are built on platforms like WordPress make it easy to add a blog.  Other than time, which I consider a cost, most of your out of pocket expenses to blog will be related to content creation.

Can you spell and write a decent sentence?  Then you can probably write a blog post.  If not, you can pay to have one written using a freelance writer or a service like scripted.com.  If you are not sure where to find a freelance writer, check out sites like odesk and elance.  Not sure what to write?  Think like your customer.  What would they want to read?  What information would be helpful to them?  Remember, it’s not about you, but about them.  Help them and they will reward you with their patronage.

Think Like Your Customer, Make More Revenue

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You hear it asked all of the time, “How do I make more revenue?”  The simple answer is to think like your customer.  This simple rule can make a world of difference when applied to your marketing plans, product development and the services you offer.  Often times, businesses approach their marketing from their own perspective, making money.  Your business’ goal is to sell, sell, sell, but you can actually sell more if you try to think from the perspective of your customer.  Put yourself in their shoes.  Ask yourself why your current customers buy your product or use your service?  Yes, it solves a problem that they have, but what made them buy your product or use your service over something or someone else?  If you can identify what that is, you can use it to your advantage and begin to look at your business through their eyes.  Give them what they want to see, hear and how they want to see and hear it.

No one, not even you, wants to be “sold to,” but businesses constantly bombard potential customers with “buy me,” “try me,” “I’m great!”  It’s all about them, the business, the product, the service.  What about the customer?  Step into their shoes and make it about them and not about you.  Here is a fictional example to illustrate my point, Lucy is a tax professional who’s clients love her because she is a certified tax professional.  This eases their minds and gives them confidence that their tax returns are done right, because they are afraid of being audited.  In her flyers to new potential customers, she uses this to her advantage.  The sales copy on the flyer plays on the fear of being audited while showcasing the fact that she is a certified professional and her years of expertise.  She even lists that in 5 years, she has only had one client selected to be audited, and she was able to help them through that process with a favorable end result.  Potential clients that view the flyer are still being “sold to,” but the language feels more relevant to them.

If you take this approach, thinking like your customer, you will be able to better engage them and sell to them.

KISS:: Keep It Simple Stupid

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The KISS acronym is a common term used within a variety of industries, namely marketing.  While I think it is a great concept and rule of thumb, I am not very fond of the “stupid” part.  I feel that whoever came up with this acronym thought it would be cool if it spelled out the word kiss and added an extra letter.  Nevertheless, it is a great rule of thumb when coming up with marketing concepts and design pieces.

I often tell my clients that less is more, which is keeping in line with KISS, but what does that really mean?  From a design perspective, less has more impact.  If you received a marketing piece that was full of text with maybe a few images sprinkled in here and there, how likely are you to read ALL of it?  If you instead received a marketing piece that looked sparse in comparison with the amount of text how likely would you be to read ALL of the text on that piece?

Any marketing piece that you create has a purpose.  You want to provide information to your potential client, whether that is information about a product or service that you offer or to inform them of a promotional offer.  By using less and keeping it simple, you have more control over what that potential client takes away from your piece.  If you have too much text and just too much going on in your piece, then the potential client will only take a portion of that information with them if any at all.  You also are unable to dictate which information they took with them or at what point they became tired of reading and stopped.

In design-speak, we often talk about “white space” and most designers are quite fond of it.  The reason why we love white space so much is because it gives you the power to control the viewer’s eye.  By keeping it simple and using less graphics, colors, images, fonts, etc. we are able to draw attention to what is really important in a piece and direct traffic or the viewer’s eyes through it.  White space does not have to literally mean white.  White space is just a term to refer to copious amounts of clear space; space that is void of graphic elements or text that would command the viewer’s attention.

Ultimately, if you are creating or having a marketing piece created, you want it to work for you.  By keeping it simple, you put the power in your own hands to get that done.  Make it complicated and the potential client will make all of the decisions for you and probably not in the manner that you would like.

3 Tips to Get Through the Slow Times

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If you are like me, your business has slow seasons and busy seasons that consistently happen at the same time every year. Here are a three tips to help you get through the slow times.