How are you getting the word out about your green industry business? If you’re only using traditional methods like direct mail, print ads, yellow-pages listings, you could be missing an amazing opportunity to attract new customers through your website.
If you haven’t thought about blogging, what are you waiting for? Here are just a few of the many benefits of blogging for your green industry business. Your content could…
• Drive traffic to your website
• Position you as an industry expert
• Help your sales staff nurture new and existing leads
Blogging can really impact your bottom line, but there are a few things to consider as you create your blog for it to be truly effective.
Make a Plan
Before you shift into high gear and begin writing, you need a road map. (You know the saying: “A failure to plan is a plan to fail.”) Here are a few factors to consider when creating your blogging plan.
Goal: What is your business’s objective? To generate leads for your sales team? Position you as a landscaping thought leader in your industry? Become a viral sensation? Every decision you make regarding your blog should come back to your “why.”
Audience: Who are you writing for? Is your audience homeowners, or commercial property managers?
Voice: With your audience in mind, decide what tone and voice you’d like to use in your blog. Will it be casual and humorous? Formal and practical? Whatever you choose, ensure that everyone who contributes to your blog sticks to the style you’ve chosen.
Frequency: Whether you decide to blog every day or just a couple of times a month, consistency is key. Come up with a schedule for publishing your content that’s realistic for your business (hint: start small!), and then stick to it.
Topics: There’s a plethora of topics you might choose to cover as an expert in the green industry. One of our favorite approaches: Use your blog to answer the most commonly asked questions you receive from prospective and current customers. Create a content calendar that covers in depth what your business knows best.
Tap Into Your Subject Matter Experts
Keeping up a regular blog is a completely realistic proposition — yes, even if you’re working with a small staff and a shoestring marketing budget!
Once you have your blogging plan in place and have decided on what topics you’ll cover, add your employees into the equation. Ask them for content ideas during staff meetings, or go one step further and ask them to contribute. After all, no one is better qualified to share their expertise with the digital world than the people who do the work every day.
Not all employees will be willing to write a 500-word blog post on trends in pavers or selecting the perfect shade plant, but you may find they’re eager to answer a few questions over email or in a quick morning conversation.
Depending on the format you’ve chosen to create your content, interviewing your employees on video — maybe even in front of one of their projects, in full bloom — could earn you the eyes and ears of prospective customers who come for the information and stay for the inspiration! Don’t be afraid to ask your employees to pitch in — leverage the subject-matter experts within your operation for even stronger content.
Share Your Content
If you’ve chosen your topics wisely, the content you’ve created will likely bring people who don’t know your business to your website from Google and other search engines. However, there are plenty of ways to use your blog content in other marketing and sales efforts.
Here are a few ways to share the content you’ve created.
Email marketing: If your green industry business sends out a regular email newsletter, link to the content you’ve created for an easy way to share that information.
Social media: Blog content is perfect to share on your Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Sales: If your blog posts address commonly asked questions about your services, your sales team can use that content during the sales process to educate their prospects.
Spring-Green can help you grow and diversify your green industry business with our 40 years’ experience and proven expertise in marketing and technology — including blogging! Learn more about how Spring-Green can expand your lawn care services. Call 1-800-777-8608 or visit us at www.growmygreenindustrybusiness.com.
