A tale of two blogs (the tumbleweed + the blossoming)
Why Yorkshire Dales businesses should blog more
Having trawled a good few websites belonging to Yorkshire Dales businesses recently, the majority that have a blog section are guilty of the:
Tumbleweed blog
That well-intentioned space where once upon a time fired-up bloggers churned out prolific quantities of company news and opinions, only for the enthusiasm to have dwindled to the point where the blog now resembles a tumbleweed in a desert.
If this seems familiar, then maybe it’s time to look again at why this wasted space is a missed marketing opportunity.
If you’re like me, then it’s other work demands that are most likely to put my own blog on the back burner.
Or it could be paralysis about what to write about in the belief that: “It’s all been said,” or: “Why bother when we don’t have any news to shout about.”
Well, there’s no getting away from it, maintaining the blogging momentum does take time. However, here’s a quick recap as to the reasons why it’s important:
- Blogging will help you rise up the search engine ranking.
- Blogging will build greater rapport and enable people to validate what you do.
- Blogging will position you as an expert – after all, you know your business and your marketplace inside out.
- Blogging will help drive footfall and create sales opportunities.
So to the second tale:
The blossoming blog
For any cynics out there who think blogging is a waste of time, I thought I’d share with you a piece on The Guardian recently about Jewellery Moments, aNorthallerton-based company selling handmade jewellery online.
Their marketing and PR strategy is fairly straightforward – blog-led content that is supported and distributed via other social media channels.
However because they know their audience, the personality they’re wanting to convey, and have been focussed in terms of planning content, the strategy has been effective.
In their words (courtesy of The Guardian’s small business network): “It has helped us gain local and national exposure and increased our online presence by 80%, this simple shift to pre-planned, visually appealing and on-trend content has improved our returning visitor and new visitor balance tenfold, along with our domain authority and bounce rate.
“In addition to this, implementing a blog-led PR strategy, like many other businesses, has not only helped our SEO but helped me to create an authoritative voice for Jewellery Moments on fashion, style and supporting small British businesses/brands.
Thanks to this business development, the business has been able to start a new chapter by moving into a new studio this month and our kitchen table dream has finally put down roots in the real world.
