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On July 2, 2018
3 Tips to Ensure Your Business Gets the Most Out of Blogging
Blogging! A lot of industries are blogging but does the beverage industry really need content? YES, of course! Blogging, and website content are key to connecting to your potential customers in a meaningful way, and it’s an excellent way to build your search engine presence and drive traffic to your website. Whether your distillery is blogging in-house or has hired an outside creative company, here are some tips for getting the most out of the content you’re producing.
Decide the Purpose of Your Blog
You’ve read all about how a blog for your business can drive traffic but if you don’t have an overall purpose or goal for your blog your efforts might not be worth the time and money spent.
For example, if you decide you want to use your blog to get more hits to your website, the best way may be to establish your company as the expert by creating shareable, helpful and entertaining content about booze.
With ROI for blogging front of mind, companies will often decide the purpose of the blog should be sales. There’s a quote I love: “If you focus on how your content will help your business instead of your customers, you’ll likely wind up wondering where you went wrong.” While turning potential customers into actual customers can definitely be a goal for the blog, don’t forget what your audience wants: relevant, trustworthy content.
If you’re paying someone to generate content because you heard it was what other companies are doing—it might not be a good use of your money—especially if you haven’t pinned down a purpose. The purpose of your blog might be hits to your website, or just retention. Until you decide why you’re blogging, it will be hard to measure its worth.
Make Sure Your Website Has a Good Foundation
Blogging can be intimidating especially when “experts” tell you that you need all of these crazy keywords and SEO tricks. While you will want to do keyword research in order to rank, you’ll also need a website that is Google-friendly.
If you’re paying someone to blog for your company and the website is slow, isn’t mobile and you haven’t done basic SEO, the blog posts won’t perform as well they could and won’t help your reach in any measurable way. You can hire the best blogger on the internet but without a good foundation, it’ll be hard to see a real return on what you’ve invested in blogging.
Value the Imagery on Your Blog
Original photography isn’t always possible due to budgets and time constraints, so sometimes we have to resort to stock photography. Ask yourself these two questions when selecting photos for your blog posts:
1. Is it emotionally authentic? Is that excitement convincing or off-putting?
2. Is it happening in a real place? Is it a faraway tropical island, or Minnesota where you actually produce spirits?
Valuing the photos on your blog doesn’t mean you need to spend money! It just means you need to invest a few more minutes of your day using the right resources.
Unsplash is a great source or check out some of my favorite sources here.
Want help ensuring your company gets the most our of blogging? Contact us today!