I talk about the need for businesses to market themselves more (and better) than they already do in order to stay afloat and become more successful than they ever dreamed of.

Too many businesses blame things that aren’t in their control for their failures.  Parking, recession, online retailing, supermarkets are all blamed for lack of success.  However whilst those things are all part of the pie, the buck should always stop with the business owner themselves.  Whilst they may know the inner workings of their business inside out, they often don’t know the marketing that’s required to run a business properly.

Here’s where this new blog series will help, after close to 4 years of local business marketing, I’ve realised that I’ve accumulated some good knowledge about local marketing, and I want to share it here, so please enjoy!

Hertford Marketing and Advertising Tip 1:

Blogging – A regular blog can become a traffic driving superhero for your website.  Don’t believe me?  Well, you’re reading this blog aren’t you? ;).  Now, there are more ways to use your blog to get traffic to your site than just pumping your links out on Twitter and Facebook. 

Firstly, Google alone is now turning its attention towards websites that have regular content added to them.  Not just regular content though, but content that’s easy to read and relevant to your business.  It doesn’t need to be keyword heavy, but simply just a good piece of writing that reads well and makes sense to be part of your site.  Good blogs can include pictures, videos and even audio clips that will make them even more appealing to Google’s eyes.  If you want your website ranking higher in Google search results, then write a regular blog on your website!

Secondly, you can tailor your blogging activities to exactly what people are searching for using Google’s Adword Planner Tool.  This is formally known as the Keyword Tool, and it now requires the user to have an Adwords account with Google (this is free).  Using this tool you can find out how many people are searching for specific terms and phrases.  With the knowledge of how many people are searching for a certain phrase etc, it’s a lot easier to tailor your blog subjects and titles to help drive more traffic to your blog.  As an example; an estate agent may be thinking of blogging this: “How To Make Your Home More Attractive To Potential Buyers”.  However, after a play around for 10 minutes on the Adword Planner, they may find that calling the blog: “Interior Design Tips To Make Your Home More Sellable” has more searches each month than the original title and subject.  The general blog can be the same, but it can lean towards what people are actually looking for rather than what the business thinks they are looking for.

In summary, blogging is a potent tool.  It’s like no other page on your site, using your blog you can really let your personality shine through, you can build moral with your staff and you can show off your clients.  It's simple, if you want more web traffic, write a regular blog.

Thanks for reading!