Why Every Local Business Needs A Blog

Local Businesses MUST Have A Blog To Compete in Today’s Market Place

I know…it’s the least thing on your daily priority list. If you’re like me – or any local business for that matter – your daily priorities are something like this:

  • Provide service for your existing clients
  • Call back existing clients with answers to questions
  • Call back or return emails to new prospects
  • Collect payments from existing clients
  • Make payments to your vendors and suppliers
  • Entering information into Quickbooks
  • Getting information to your accountant
  • Deciding what to spend marketing dollars on

That list only scratches the surface.

Add to that having a blog and most business owners get a glazed look in their eyes.

The problem is that what you get from the work involved is not always readily apparent.

But it is worth it! Here are the reasons why you need a blog:

1)  A blog will keep existing customers coming back to your site. If you have the same 10 pages on your website that you had in 2009, guess how often your customers will return?  Never, is the answer. By updating your website with new blog posts, you’ll keep customers coming back and sell to them more often.

2)  A blog will help you get more website visitors from Google. Google loves new content on websites. When Google sees a steady stream of new content being posted to your blog, it will assign more authority to your site and reward your site with higher search engine rankings. Moreover, a blog will allow you to rank for more keywords, since each new page will have different key phrases associated with it.

3)  A blog will allow you to use social media. As new content is posted to your blog, those articles can be automatically posted to Twitter and Facebook and other social media outlets. This activity allows you to interact with your customers more often.

4)  A blog will allow you to use rich media in your marketing. With a blog, it is easy to display videos and image galleries – without having to hire expensive designers and web developers.

5)  A blog will help you develop your brand. When you publish content to your blog, and then syndicate that content to social networks, you are gaining exposure that you can’t get anywhere else. Best of all – it’s FREE. When your company is seen all over the web, it develops your brand. Even if you serve a small local market, being front-of-mind is key to long term success.

So… Get a blog! I recommend that your entire website be based on WordPress, but it doesn’t have to be. Even if you have a static website, “bolting on” a WordPress blog is very easy to do.

You may have to get a web developer to get WordPress installed on your site, and yes, you’ll have to pay for it. But the benefits outweigh the cost by a LONG SHOT.

For perspective, my company charges about $1,000 to do a WordPress install on an existing site. Most web hosting providers have 3 click installs of WordPress, but you’ll need the blog to match the look and feel of your site, which is where the cost comes into play.

What are you waiting for? Time to start blogging!