If you’re a business owner, then you probably have some expertise in something. Whether it be contracting or construction, real estate, writing, or dog walking. You know your stuff, right? My advice to all business owners who have websites – start sharing your knowledge on your website!
Reasons why you should be sharing your expertise on a blog:
- It validates your expertise and boosts your credibility. By sharing information, you’re showing how much knowledge, education, and experience you have. You’re showing your clients that you’re competent. That you can do the job and do it well.
- The search engines love it. Content is king. The more you share quality, relevant content on your website, the more traffic you’ll start to see. Your site will start to rise in the ranks because you’ll gain authority on the topic as an expert. Each blog post also creates a new, indexable URL on your domain.
- It’ll build your confidence. How many of us suffer from imposter syndrome? We think we’re not as good at what we do as we actually are, or we doubt our skills, our expertise or knowledge? You know who you are. Writing about everything you know will routinely remind you that you know a lot!
- Gives people a reason to come back. If your site content never changes, why would anyone come back? They won’t. But if you are sharing new content on a regular basis, then that’s a big incentive to check back in.
- You can engage with your customers. Having a blog that allows comments creates a spot for your customers to contribute to the conversion on your subject area and a place for you to respond to them.
- It’s free! If you already have a WordPress site, you can start blogging and it won’t cost you anything more than your time.
It is a win-win for your business to blog, but many business owners are reluctant to take the plunge. One of the biggest myths of blogging is that if you share all your knowledge, your customers will do-it-themselves instead of hiring you.
Most homeowners know how to mow the lawn, and yet lawn mowing services are not out of business. People know how to clean their house, and yet house cleaners still exist. There are many many things that you can learn to do yourself, but professionals who do the same thing are not out of business. Why is that?
Just because someone can do something on their own doesn’t mean they will. In fact, when you share your knowledge on your website, your customers are more likely to hire you!
Does that mean you have to give out your secret sauce recipe or other trade secrets? No. But there are a lot of things you can share. Your customers will be more likely to find you, more likely to hire you, and more comfortable with your services if you’re sharing your expertise on your website.
Amy’s Blogging Rules for Businesses
- Commit to it. Don’t start a blog and ignore it. There’s nothing that says “We’re no longer in business” like a blog that hasn’t been updated in over a year.
- Be realistic. Yes, I do blog a lot. You don’t have to. But set a schedule that you can realistically stick to and then do that, stick with it. Choose what you think will work. Can you do once a month? Once a week? Every other week?
- Don’t plan to do it when you have free time. Guess what, you’ll never have that free time. This is work, so do it when you work. Make it part of your daily tasks. You wouldn’t skip balancing your books, returning customer calls, or meetings with staff right? Why skip blogging? It’s easy to think you can squeeze it in during down time, but that will mostly mean your blog will be inconsistent.
- Avoid perfection. Perfect is the enemy of done. I work with a realtor who I’ve been coaching on blogging and she was having a difficult time with her blog posts because she’d find an error and keep proofreading over and over and over and thus could not keep up her blog regularly. Guess what? People are imperfect and people make mistakes. You can always go back and edit your blog post to fix a typo, but you gain nothing by not publishing at all.
Side note: Writing your blog posts is going to take longer than you think it will. Be prepared for that, but keep in mind that it will get easier the more you do it.
Blogging for your business has wonderful effects for your business and can increase your customers, your site’s positioning, and revenue. Don’t be afraid to share your knowledge. Your customers will be happy you did.
Amy Masson
Amy is the co-owner, developer, and website strategist for Sumy Designs. She's been making websites with WordPress since 2006 and is passionate about making sure websites are as functional as they are beautiful.