Using a Blog to Highlight Brand Features
When clients come to see us about marketing solutions, writing a regular blog is usually part of the discussions. A blog can help to build your brand identity, and highlight your brand features. But is it okay to use a blog to sell your goods or services directly? It’s an interesting question, and here’s our take on it.
Why customers read blogs
When a potential customer subscribes to a blog, it’s usually because they find the content useful, interesting and/or amusing. Customers don’t usually look for blogs to provide a direct sales pitch, but a more subtle approach can be effective. There’s no harm in the occasional plug as long as you keep the focus on providing useful and relevant content.
Building influence
Consistently high quality blog content isn’t as common as you might think, so by maintaining the quality of your posts, already your blog is working for you as an indirect way to generate sales, and influence your potential customers.
Having people subscribe to your blog means they are starting to trust that you know what you’re talking about, and they may even start telling their friends and colleagues about you.
Another way you can spread your blog’s reputation is by guest posting on relevant sites, and using social media yourself to comment on and link to other blogs and interesting content. People are curious, and they’ll check you out if they are interested in what you have said.
A positive environment
In this way, without actually directly mentioning your products or services, you’re subtly encouraging people to buy. Followers generally allow you that kind of leeway. A useful rule of thumb is the 80/20 one – 80% highly share-worthy content, 20% (max) about your goods and services.
