Tips for Using a Blog for Online Lead Generation
Kennebunk, Maine (PRWEB) July 20, 2013 -- Local companies have come to understand the benefit of local search marketing. It helps to get people in the door and get the phone to ring. When most people are searching for services and stores online, often using their mobile phones on the go, having a strong online presence with effective search engine optimization has become important for small, local businesses just as much as it is for large, national firms. My Local Leads works with local businesses throughout the nation, helping improve their reach and their revenue using a variety of internet marketing strategies. These tips are helpful for those local businesses looking to use a blog in an effort to market their goods and services.
Consumer engagement is a big part of effective online advertising for local businesses today. With a blog, it provides business an opportunity to pass information along to current and potential customers. This is all well and good. However, from a marketing standpoint, the benefit of the blog is marginalized without being able to draw new people in. By getting people involved, encouraging them to comment and share the post, it helps build authority and spreads the blog across various marketing channels. That is, if the engagement is done properly.
There are a few ways to do this. First, business owners and bloggers need to be sure to come right out and ask for people to take part. This can be done by asking for feedback and comments near the end of the blog post. How do people feel about the post? Do people agree or disagree with the post? Did it help them? These are all simple examples.
Another way to encourage engagement and sharing is to post a poll. Encourage people to vote. By the same token, and Facebook has several examples of this, offer a contest for those who comment or share the post.
At the same time, provide visitors more information. This does not mean that bloggers should say too much in their posts. Being too wordy can actually be problematic. Instead, it is a good idea to link to older posts, and give readers a reason to click on, review, and then comment and share those older posts.
Other things to do include testing when the best time to post and share posts are. There are key times that will work best for posting. There are also certain types of post that will work best for certain demographic groups. Take the time and see what kind of posts get the best results.
Chris Moreno, My Local Leads, http://mylocalleads.com, (207) 332-3306, [email protected]
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