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Updated September 14, 2023
Subtitle
These fundamentals can make your blog your most potent marketing and branding tool
Synopsis
Suppose you do not include all the essential information your readers seek when visiting your blog. In that case, they will leave your site feeling disappointed without making an emotional connection to you, your products, or your services. Making sure your blog has, at the very least, these six items will go a long way to helping your readers make a positive emotional connection with you and your company.
What You Will Learn
1. You will learn some essential items that most readers expect from your blog.
2. You will learn how these items will help you understand what blogging is really about.
3. You will learn how and why these fundamentals can make your blog your most potent marketing and branding tool.
Introduction
Your blog can be a powerful way for your readers, customers, audience, and market to connect with you on a practical and emotional level 24/7/365. The blog is now the most basic and essential marketing tool needed for today’s small businesses.
Suppose you do not include all the information your readers want when visiting your blog. In that case, they will leave your site feeling disappointed without making an emotional connection to you, your products, or your services. And because of this, many will not return to your blog or buy your products or services.
Here Is a Quick Run-down on the Essential Information You Must Include in Your Blog:
Expectation # 1. Quality Content, Not Quantity
Content, content, content. Content is king. We have all heard these two phrases before. The problem is that too many blogs still don’t provide quality content. Quality content proves you know what you are talking about. Practical, useful, insightful, honest, and helpful content that delivers the information your audience seeks is the best way to build an audience.
Quality content will bring your readers back for more. Quality content will also show you have respect for the subject matter, as well as the audience. Then, your audience will trust you, your information, and your blog. Hopefully, these same people will choose your products and services over your competitors.
Always remember: the quality of your content is much more important than the quantity of content. Please don’t believe all the blogs about blogging that tell us the opposite. Those sites show how little respect they have for you, themselves, and their audience. And they give blogging a bad name.
Expectation # 2. Biography / Personal Information
This section is the place to show your credentials in a positive light. Show how your experiences, education, career, jobs, accomplishments, awards, etc., prove you know what you are talking about. But be very careful not to exaggerate. The instant your readers get the slightest hint that you are exaggerating, boasting, or lying, you will lose their respect and trust – forever.
Your readers, customers, and clients will give you some leeway to boast about your accomplishments. They will usually write this off as pride. But this can be a fine line, so be careful – error on the side of understatement. They will never believe you again, never come back to your blog, and never buy your products and services.
Expectation # 3. Contact Information
You must make it as easy as possible for your readers to contact you. For some businesses, an email address is enough. For others, an email and telephone number are essential. You need to decide on this one. Either way, make your contact information easy to find and use. And make sure you respond as quickly as possible when someone reaches out to you.
The easiest and most powerful way to beat your competition is to show your customers and clients respect. The faster you respond to emails and telephone calls, the more quickly they will respect and trust you. This show of respect is not a difficult concept to understand or implement.
Believe it or not, most companies do not make an effort. Shame on them. But their lack of respect for customers and laziness is an opportunity for you to beat out the competition.
Expectation # 4. Photographs
Photographs play an important role in helping your audience make an emotional connection with you. Photos of you at work, sitting at your desk, standing at a podium, displaying your product, with your family, with celebrities, etc. You get the idea.
The internet is a visual medium. Use it to your advantage. If you don’t look good in photographs, hire a professional photographer to make you look great. Looking professional is essential to gain the respect and trust of your audience. But don’t make the mistake of looking too slick or contrived. This posturing will have the opposite effect. Your audience wants to like you for who you are, not who you are pretending to be.
Expectation # 5. Social Network Links
Social media is the wave of the future. Eventually, every person and business will use social media to network with their colleagues and customers. And, with social media, you can operate your business from your spare bedroom and do business worldwide.
You can quickly start networking with customers and suppliers globally, right from your home in the middle of nowhere. Start with one or two of the mainstream social media sites and provide links to them on your blog.
Expectation # 6. Free Downloads
Be sure to provide documents your blog’s visitors can download. Include your product and service brochure, a white paper, a checklist, a chapter of your book, and an e-book. Provide some of these documents as a free download without asking for an email address and some that require an email address.
Everyone appreciates getting something for free, especially if it can help them with their questions and problems. Give them enough good information for free, and eventually, they will buy your books. This concept is simple and easy to understand and implement.
Conclusion
If you do a great job with these six items, they might stay on your blog for a few extra minutes. They might return for more if you can pique their interest just enough. And if you are fortunate, they might even make a purchase. By ensuring that your blog has these six items, you will go a long way to helping your readers make a positive emotional connection with you and your company.
Questions to Think About
1. What do you think your readers expect most from your blog?
2. Do you have anything to add to this list to benefit your blog?
