A blog is a web log that usually displays posts in reverse chronological order. Originally, web logs were used to document changes made to websites. Over time the use of blogs has evolved. Search engines have grown to love blogs because they are constantly updated. Websites that contain a blog are usually “living” rather than stale information.
If you are considering adding a blog to your website, be sure to think through the purpose of your blog. Blogs aren’t like your product or service pages. They usually aren’t the last stop before a website visitor chooses to do business with you. They are a way for you to extend your sales funnel and capture a potential customer’s attention before they begin searching for a paid solution.
In recent years there has been a huge shift toward a DIY (do it yourself) mentality. People search online for ways to solve their own problems before they run our and purchase a solution. Perhaps it’s due to the 2008 economic downturn. Perhaps people are just looking for greener ways to get things done. Whatever the case, people are searching for solutions to their problems that they can do themselves.
This can be particularly challenging for businesses. But where there’s a challenge, there are huge revenue opportunities. Such is the case with blogs. As you reach out to potential customers earlier in the sales process, you can attract a great deal of brand loyalty and win over customers for the long haul. To do this, you’ll have to change the way you think about business.
For too long, business owners have been claiming that they have the secret sauce solution for their customers. They hide the details of their solution behind the mantra of competitive intelligence. It’s a bunch of bunk! I have no doubts that I could learn how to be the world’s greatest auto mechanic. But that will take time and a lot of elbow grease. Heck! Tell me how to do it myself. I’ll try it, and it will suck. Who do you think I’ll hire to do it for me once I realize it will have to become my life’s work to do it as well as you could? Yep. You. The people who told me how to do it myself. And I’ll keep coming back to you forever. This is one of the key concepts of a great blog – secret recipes are worth sharing because no one will be able to make your “secret sauce” as well as you can.
