Is Blogging on your Roadmap?

Blogging

Now that most everyone has a built a platform to blog on and published several variations of “Why we are the best painters”, “Which Paint should you use” and a few “Before and After” posts it’s time to rethink content and why we are blogging.

In 2016, contractors are ramping up their blogging efforts, putting out info in new and innovative ways to engage customers. Contractors are realizing that sharing written information for customers is more than “just blogging” and are finding new ways to be different and unforgettable, as Ron Ramsden mentions here:

What is going to help the customer remember you?

In our Road Map above, you won’t see blogging listed. Click on Content Creation to see more ideas.

We prefer the term “Content Creation”, and our next few road map articles will delve deeper into the many ways that we can improve our online real estate and answer these questions:

Why are you Blogging?

              Source

Most likely your were told you needed a blog for your website and you or your webmaster added a link in the navigation called “Blog” and then posted a few sporadic articles and then gave up because it was hard to create original content. Writing for purpose is different, and we’ll look at several ways that you can incorporate content into your website.

 

Where is your Content?
Are you using WordPress, Wix, Weebly, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or? We’ll look at these, and some you may not have heard of! Have you thought of guest blogging?

When are you sharing Content?
Do you write one piece, then blast it on every Social Media site? Do you link your site in your email? Do you share content with your customers during the estimating process? We’ll look at ways to manage sharing.

How do I know if it is working?
What can you do to measure results? We’ll look at different metrics. It’s not just about ranking in Google, but converting readers into customers because they found value in what they saw on your site. It’s about 

 

What are you creating?

Let’s not write any more “Why you should hire us because we are the best in Anytown Any State” pieces that are chock full of all the right words, but say nothing about our company culture, processes and skills. Let’s write something we would actually like to read! We’ll share some of our favorite content creators like Tess Wittler, she has a great guide that you can download for free to get some ideas.

We’ll share some of your very own staff thoughts on the topic:

“One thing you should know about social media in general and blogging in particular is a little bit about creating interesting and at least reasonably well-written content. Most would agree that to use any social platform at any kind of a high level would imply that you have to at some point hit a minimum standard and quantity of organic content. Even if by accident, it should happen somewhere along the way.” (Read More) 

For that matter, you can read about how the paint industry’s most prolific and widely read writer overcame his fear of blogging in 2011. Here is what he said at the time, and he is now the Blogging Painters Content Director and Senior Editor at APC Magazine.

We’ll also share some great examples from our own readers, leave a comment below with a link to one of your favorite pieces of content (yours or someone else’s).