Last week, we talked about about the importance of blogs and about how a blog can attract more traffic to your site, and ultimately, your company. Now let’s take a look at the second big reason you should be blogging.
Credibility
Blogs provide a platform to demonstrate your expertise and experience.  This is a critical step in building trust with a prospect – particularly for those of us who provide services and who are marketing their small business. Prospects are unlikely to spend a cent on you if they don’t believe you can deliver.
Many consultants I work with are initially reluctant to “give away the farm” by making information available for free. Their concern is that if they give the information away, no one will pay them for their services. This is a short-sighted view that ignores the fact that no one will pay them if they aren’t convinced they will get good information.
In my experience, there is a lot of room to provide quality, useful content for free without undercutting your business. In fact, the usual result is that the more you give away, the more your business grows.
Why?
The free quality content that you put out develops your reputation in the market. If the content really is good, you will become a trusted, sought-after source. This opens up business opportunities that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.
One caution. This process works just as well – if not better –in reverse. If you put out a bunch of garbage just for the sake of producing content, you’ll also develop quite a reputation for yourself – just not the one you want.
So, what can you do to create credibility-boosting content?
Stay on top of new happenings in your industry. Talk about how these trends could impact your prospects or customers. This works for you on two levels. First, it provides news that the reader may or may not have heard. Second, it provides analysis that explains what the possible consequences are for the reader.
Become an information resource. Use your blog to help people find information about your area – even if that means referring them elsewhere. It is perfectly fine to link to other blogs and sites, and in fact helps boost your credibility as an information resource. Do make sure that any other sites you link to are providing quality content.
Next week, we’ll take a look at the third big reason to blog – feedback.
See you in the blogosphere
