Adding a blog to your website is a simple and affordable way to enhance your online marketing efforts. By following a few guidelines, you can create a blog that helps strengthen your connection with both current and potential clients, while improving your search engine rankings.

Add personality to your brand. A regularly updated blog introduces your website visitors to the real people behind your business. Since blogs are often written in a casual, conversational style, you can let your personality shine through. Don’t be afraid to express your professional opinion on new developments in your industry, offer useful tips, or share something entertaining in your blog posts.

Demonstrate your knowledge. Blogging can also help you establish yourself as a source for information on current developments in your industry. If your blog content is relevant and well researched, your visitors will view you as an authority and keep coming back for more. They might even share links to your blog with their social networks, increasing your visibility among potential clients.

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You want to grow your business, and raising its profile in the community seems like the perfect strategy to get more visitors to your website. But, be warned, if you launch a public relations campaign prematurely you could be doing more harm to your business than good.

Before you start pitching to media outlets and bloggers, there are a few things you need to consider:

First Impressions Matter

Studies show you have just a few seconds to make a positive first impression on the Web. Your website must have engaging web copy a friendly, pleasing design. Anything less and you’ll lose potential visitors. Installing a user tracking system like Google Analytics will help you determine your visitors’ behavior. Heed the results. Pay attention to how long people are staying on your website. If your current visitors aren’t engaging with your website, why would media outlets and bloggers bother to stick around?

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When you get professional web copy on a website, you can also leverage it in other places in a bid to:

• Reinforce your brand identity
• Establish consistent messaging
• Increase customer recognition

To get the best possible ROI from your online marketing investment, here are 10 ways to repurpose your web copy so it works overtime for your company, online and offline.

Read: 10 Ways to Repurpose Your Website Copy

When it comes to the Web, web content writers do audiences a favour by getting right to the point. Spend too much time trying to set up an atmosphere and you’ll lose them.

Why? When people arrive to a business website, they’re looking for information to solve a problem. As a result, they promptly:

1. Scan web copy to locate areas of interest

2. Scan subheads or kickers to identify topics

3. Skim the main web copy body for keywords and phrases

4. Input and process details of interest

5. Click to see more web copy, leave the site, or take the desired action

So get to the point. Don’t get wrapped up in being cute or clever. Let your readers get what they need quickly and easily complete the desired task—whatever it may be.

The best web content copywriters understand keywords, which are the foundation to a successful website.

Keywords drive desired traffic to websites, and can help engage and convert visitors into customers. Unfortunately, when businesses hire uninformed web content copywriters, many opportunities are missed.

There are basically three types of keywords a business can target:

1. Keywords for browsing
These are generic terms that people often use when they start the search process. While it’s difficult to attain top 10 positions on search engines for terms such as web design, it can gain a business broad exposure on an international scope. But don’t expect high conversion rates, as most of these people have just started their search, and might just be looking for free tips and ideas.

2. Keywords for comparing
Now the person searching has some insight and is starting to look at particular products or services. For instance, a person might type in website designer and start browsing portfolios, rates, specialties, processes, and so on. They’re likely at least semi-serious prospects.

3.  Keywords for buying
At this stage, the person has a good idea of what he wants to purchase, so he might type in web designer New York, or ecommerce web designer, or even ecommerce web designer in New York. He’s specific, and more than likely ready to invest.

But, remember, while keywords can bring prospects to your website, you have to deliver your message with impact. Otherwise visitors will be quick to leave your site, and find your competition.

Service seekers are excellent customers to target, reports Forrester’s Bruce Temkin.

In previous research, Forrester created four segments of consumers based on their interest in low prices and good customer service: service seekers, price seekers, price & service seekers, and others. The research firm examined the loyalty of these segments across 12 industries.

“Across all industries, service seekers were more likely than price seekers to buy more products, stay with their current provider, and recommend their provider to friends and colleagues,” noted Temkin.

It validates our belief that merely positioning your product on the lowest price is a slippery route. There’s always a business that will come in and undercut you, and swiftly steal your marketshare.

Alternatively, the more reasons you give people to choose your brand, price becomes a less important purchase decision factor. As a result, you’ll attract people that value quality, are willing to pay for it, and will stick around for the long haul.

Most of us are aware of the golden rule for plain writing on the Web: Keep It Short and Simple.

But there’s no getting around it — at some point you are likely to have a long piece of complex material that you have to put up on your website.

It might be a ‘terms and conditions’ page for a contractual agreement. A set of instructions for a new product. A detailed explanation of a business policy. Whatever it is, you want your customers to read it because it will improve your business.

You can’t force them to read it, but you can encourage them to read it. You can make it inviting. Enticing. Kissable. Here’s how.

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Many web content writers create urgency in a bid to get visitors to buy products or services now. It’s often in the form of a limited time offer. The logic: visitors might not come back, so get them while you can.

However, if a web content writer is overly aggressive, it can hurt credibility, diminish trust, and backfire. So it’s best to maintain a professional, tasteful tone. That way, people don’t get their backs up against the wall, and end up with a bad taste in their mouths.

I recall a website that indicated: “This One-Time, INCREDIBLE DEAL is ONLY Available for 4 Hours and 24 Minutes!!! Act Now, Before it’s Too Late!!!”

The time ticked away. Out of curiosity, I checked back the next morning, and the clock was reset—16 hours and counting! The ‘incredible’ offer stood. Scammers! That was my perception, anyway, and they weren’t getting my money.

You can stop visitors from procrastinating without appearing like a fly-by-night con artist. For example:

Order before Dec. 15, 2009, and you’ll get a free bonus!

You can also include a “while supplies last” element. Just go easy on the exclamation marks, as using too many can get you labeled a spammer.

On the other hand, if you want to contribute to the spam-filled Web, be sure to start a long-winded letter with “Dear Friend,” and include four or five P.S.’s at the bottom of your pitch.

Before you start your website’s development, it’s a good idea to determine who will be in charge of website updates and how much time will be required to stay on top of them, suggests Brad Haima of Circle, an Abbotsford-based Vancouver web design firm.

“Many companies have great expectations but are often too busy to do simple website updates,” said Haima. “Having a good game plan ahead of time will allow you to prepare for how much time and staff you are willing to commit to website updates.”

He points out there are a number of pros and cons for each site editing option:

Outsourcing to a Web Design Firm

Pros:
1. Work will be done professionally and reflect the image your company deserves.
2. Because each page is edited manually your site can have a unique look throughout rather than a website that uses the same template over and over on every page.
3. Many web firms can also provide automated software solutions.

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Here are some valuable tips to help increase your sales, compliments of business consultant Mark Wardell.

1. Up-sell to your customers
For starters, they already know and trust you, plus they have demonstrated a willingness to buy.  So if they are given the option of a volume discount, for example, they just might jump at the opportunity to buy more.

2. Cross-sell to your customers
People appreciate convenience and choice.  Be sure to provide both by making additional products or services available that complement and enhance your customers’ buying experience.  For example, if a customer buys a product from you that requires batteries, be sure to offer him batteries at the time of purchase.  Otherwise he’s likely to be frustrated when he gets home and discovers that he needs to head back out to get some batteries… possibly from someone else’s business.

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