Here at PG, our clients often ask us how they can help make their online advertising campaigns more successful, without spending any more money.
It may sound like an impossible request, but there’s actually a quick and easy solution to boost your online advertising for free: blog!
At PG, we offer all of our clients access to a free blogging feature built right into their LeadTrax™ site. This feature can be an extremely effective marketing tool, but only if you use it. It’s a simple way to promote your company to potential customers and to give your ranking on Google a leg up.
5 Great Reasons to Blog Today
- You can show off your work! A blog is an ideal place to put your work on display. Show before and after pictures, brag on your team with action shots, or just introduce yourself through a head shot or vehicle picture. Potential customers love to see photos of your work as well as who you are. In fact, great photos could even be the push needed to encourage them to choose you over a competitor. Just snap a few photos and then upload them to your blog. Adding a descriptive caption such as “Check out this beautiful hardwood floor we installed for the Doe family in Albany” can be particularly effective because it includes keywords that Google will pick up on.
- You can promote discounts, coupons, and sales. Our clients are often asking us to post event flyers or coupons on their LeadTrax site. But by utilizing your blog, you can quickly post this type of information yourself. This helps ensure you get the maximum exposure—and thus maximum benefit—from the specials you run, and helps ensure that none of your customers miss out!
- You can flaunt your industry expertise. A blog is a perfect place to share tips and info that community members and prospective customers would find helpful. For example, if you’re a flooring installer, you could write a post on the benefits and drawbacks of various flooring materials. Or, if you’re a basement waterproofing contractor, you could explain how a French drain works to safeguard a basement from water damage. Sharing your knowledge on your blog helps develop your reputation and sets you up as the expert to call when folks need the services you offer.
- You can be successful at blogging even if you’re not tech savvy. Lots of folks think they need to know all sorts of technical stuff like HTML or SEO to be able to blog effectively, but that just isn’t true. If you can use word processing software like Microsoft Word, you are fully qualified to write a blog entry. Just about all blogging programs are simple and easy to use, and if you need help with the blog on your LeadTrax site, you can always ask your campaign coordinator or account manager for guidance!
- You can keep your website active. Having a blog, and posting regularly, means there’s always fresh content on your site. And Google loves quality, fresh content. If you’re routinely posting useful industry info and adding images to your blog, Google will rank your site better. Back when your site was initially launched, Google indexed your pages. However, over time, those pages will age and become less relevant to Google. However, every blog post you add is a new page Google will have to index, helping keep your website ranking well.
How to Get Started
For PG clients that launched campaigns with us at any point in 2012, your blog is already on your LeadTrax site. Just sign into your portal, locate the blog link, and start posting! It’s that easy. If you’ve been with PG since before the launch of the blog feature, just let us know you’d like to add the blog feature to your site. Your campaign coordinator can take care of getting your blog active so you can start blogging ASAP!
If you aren’t a Prospect Genius client, never fear. There are tons of blogging sites available online. Check out WordPress, Blogger, or Tumblr for more information. With all of these free options available to you, there’s no reason why you can’t start blogging today!