WordPress and Custom Blogging Solutions

Quite awhile back I cre­ated a sep­a­rate blog focused on the Wauke­sha and Mil­wau­kee Wis­con­sin area in order to pro­vide or “closer to home” infor­ma­tion source for web design related topics. I feel that is an impor­tant part of my job as a web designer/developer to go beyond pro­vid­ing a solu­tion for the client by edu­cat­ing them as well. It is at times, hard for me to decide where an arti­cle might best fit as they are often rel­e­vant to anyone inter­ested in var­i­ous web design/development topics. Having recently noticed an increased inter­est in the topics of Word­Press and blog­ging among local busi­ness owners, I want to share an arti­cle I wrote a while back. This arti­cle enti­tled “How can Blog­ging Ben­e­fit My Business” stemmed from a dis­cus­sion I had with a local busi­ness owner who was inter­ested in explor­ing the ben­e­fits of cre­at­ing a blog for his busi­ness. He seemed to have a pretty basic under­stand­ing of blog­ging but was still unsure that it would make sense for him. Here was my answer, the long version.

First let me say that you as the busi­ness owner know your indus­try and cus­tomer better than anyone, you will know if a com­pany blog will ben­e­fit them or create an unwanted hassle for you and your employ­ees. Bottom line is, an effec­tive blog requires some work beyond just good design and devel­op­ment. It requires work on your part as well. Arti­cles or “posts” need to be well writ­ten, opti­mized and pitched as a real ben­e­fit to your cus­tomer, not just another adver­tise­ment for your prod­uct. If you approach your blog as cre­at­ing a learn­ing resource for your cus­tomer, it will be well received and ulti­mately ben­e­fit your business.

The ben­e­fits of a com­pany blog are both up front and obvi­ous as well as behind the scenes. Here are some of the up front rea­sons. The abil­ity to share news and updates about your com­pany on a reg­u­lar basis going beyond the monthly or quar­terly newslet­ter you may already have in place. Let’s be real­is­tic, eco­nom­i­cally it does not make sense to send out a newslet­ter every time there is a new devel­op­ment and by the time your quar­terly or monthly newslet­ter makes it’s way into the hands of the cus­tomer, some of your news may be out­dated. With a blog your cus­tomer is able to check back at their own free will to keep updated on your company.

Reason #2: Rein­forc­ing your brand and posi­tion­ing your­self as an expert. Ok I could be a great sales person. I know just enough about my prod­uct, Widget A, in order to close the deal and make a com­fort­able living. How­ever if I was viewed as some­one that knows more than “just enough”, a real expert that could pro­vide answers to your ques­tions now and into the future, would I not be more likely to get your busi­ness? Con­stantly putting your brand in front of the cus­tomer, let­ting them know that not only do you create Widget A, but your know every­thing there is to know about Widget A, posi­tions your com­pany as an expert in the field. Trans­lated: It makes your cus­tomer feel com­fort­able when pur­chas­ing your product.

Reason #3: Answer­ing your cus­tomers ques­tion before they even walk through the door. Chances are your cus­tomer has some ques­tions and they are more than likely to do some research of their own. If you are the one pro­vid­ing those much needed answers, who are they likely to come to first when making the final deci­sion. Answer­ing ques­tions and pro­vid­ing value, rein­forces your over­all brand in the eyes of the customer.

Reason #4: Encour­ag­ing cus­tomer inter­ac­tion and feed­back. A blog is not just a place to share infor­ma­tion, it is also a place to encour­age inter­ac­tion and feed­back. Wouldn’t it be valu­able to hear what your cus­tomers are saying.

Reason #5: Pro­vid­ing a more per­sonal look at your com­pany and the people within. Lets create an exam­ple here. You have two local hard­ware stores. Store 1 has every­thing you need and some pretty decent prices, prob­lem is that when help is needed the employ­ees seem to dis­ap­pear, your ques­tions seem more of an annoy­ance and when it comes time to check out the clerk might as well be a robot scan­ning your items. No smile and no friendly hello. Now Store 2 takes a dif­fer­ent approach. They are always there to assist you with a smile on their face. They take the time to get to know you as a cus­tomer and in return you get to know them. They make you feel wel­come. Let your cus­tomer get to know you before they walk in the door.

Reason #6: Iden­tify with the com­mu­nity. You don’t need to set out to create a blog that is nation­ally known, instead focus on your com­mu­nity, your target market.

Reason #7: Work­ing behind the scenes. A well writ­ten and func­tional blog cre­ates fresh, useful con­tent. Fresh useful con­tent is con­sid­ered valu­able to search engines and can ulti­mately improve your ranking.

So that’s it, I have cov­ered some of the key points to take into con­sid­er­a­tion when asking your­self the ques­tion. Would a blog be useful to my com­pany? As I said the final deci­sion is in your hands, as you know and under­stand your prod­uct and market best.

If you feel that I have left some­thing out, I encour­age you to add it below.

As a busi­ness owner having read this arti­cle, you may start to see how blog­ging might be ben­e­fi­cial to your busi­ness, but why a custom blog­ging solu­tion if many of the blog­ging plat­forms are pro­vided free of charge along with a mul­ti­tude of free “themes”. Here is my simple answer to that, brand rein­force­ment and con­sis­tency. Your mar­ket­ing mate­ri­als convey your brand, colors, logo, mes­sage, etc are inter­wo­ven to convey your mar­ket­ing mes­sage and reach your desired audi­ence. Your blog should be no dif­fer­ent and that is where a cus­tomiza­tion comes into play. A well cus­tomized blog can be fully inte­grated with your exist­ing web­site in order to achieve a steady flow or con­sis­tency and pro­vide you with an extremely useful mar­ket­ing tool.

As a busi­ness owner who uti­lizes blog­ging on a daily basis to com­mu­ni­cate with exist­ing and poten­tial clients, I encour­age you to explore this topic fur­ther. Research and decide for your­self if cre­at­ing a com­pany blog could be ben­e­fi­cial to your mar­ket­ing strategy.