30 Aug Why a Blog Matters
Blogging should be a key component of your online marketing plan. Blogging allows you to interact with customers and clients in a more conversational, community-oriented way and offers them additional value over the basic information your Web site probably offers. Blogging doesn’t need to be done daily, but it does need to be done consistently to garner an audience.
Blogging helps with search engine results because, though your topics are in a specific area, they are generally broader than the content on your business site. Thus if someone looks up “graphic design” and “blogging” they are more likely to find Ratio7 because we’ve written this post. Additionally, the outbound links that you incorporate in posts to either your own site or others increase your site traffic which improves your search engine rankings.
Using a blog helps you tell a broader story about your business. You can engage, educate and/or entertain your readers which helps you develop a culture and builds loyalty. The use of graphics, video and audio all help enrich the experience for your readers and customers.
There are a variety of blog sites and software available to business. Most professional companies use WordPress and it’s what we recommend. Ratio7 can design or modify a WordPress theme (template) to match your overall branding efforts and, because WordPress is easy to manage, you can post, add graphics and links and manage comments with little training. Themes are extremely professional looking with an endless variety of plug-ins (mini-applications) and upgrades.
Ratio7 also has affordable business marketing starter kits which include logo design, letterhead, business cards, a domain name and WordPress set up, plus free hosting and free email. Let us walk you through the process of either adding or updating your blog or starting a branding effort from scratch!