By now, most of us are familiar with what is called “content marketing,” which essentially means posting blogs on a company website. Some cleaning contractors jumped into the blogging fray more than a decade ago when it was at its peak. However, many large contract cleaning companies are just now developing blogging programs.
Enough time has gone by that we can start to evaluate how successful these programs have been. What we realize is that some contract cleaners have found them to be very beneficial. They receive calls from facility managers, for example, who state they first heard about the company by reading some of the company’s blogs. Other cleaning contractors—along with many different types of companies for that matter—report that they have uncovered few, if any, benefits from these programs.
Let’s explore why this may be happening, but first, let’s make sure we are all on the same page regarding what content marketing/blogging is all about. These marketing programs involve the placement of mini-articles, about 500 words each, on a company website. They can also be graphics and even videos.
So, what makes a blogging program successful? Why do some programs fail? The following tips should help answer these questions:
• Make blogs educational. Cleaning contractors should create blogs that teach readers something that will help them in their business operations. A big mistake some contractors make is turning a blogging program into an advertising program. As soon as website visitors realize they are being sold something, they leave the site. But if they are learning something, they stay.
• Pay attention to word count. If a blog is more than 650 words, visitors may move on. Even though studies show it takes about only 3 minutes to read 650 words online, the number of words visitors see on the page may scare them. What seems to work best is twofold: keep blogs 500 words or less; or make them 1000 words or more. Studies show that blogs of more than 1000 words receive more search engine attention, which can result in more website visitors.
• Use search engine optimization (SEO).
Many web designers discount the value of optimizing blogs using keywords. The
belief is that search engines are going to find the site anyway, so optimizing
the website is not necessary.
However, cleaning contractors should want to make it easy for search engines to
find their blogs and websites. Free SEO tools are available online and should
be accessed. Determine the keywords in your blog. Often this is what the blog
is about. Then, put those keywords in the SEO tool, and it will provide terms
people use in search engines to find that information. For example, if the blog
is about green cleaning, SEO terms to use include green cleaning products,
green cleaning services, green cleaning company, and green cleaning solutions.
• Add SEO images. Once keywords have been determined, attach those terms to images as well. With most sites, what is called “ALT TEXT” can be placed behind the picture. The search engines will find these images and text, which will help get your website noticed.
• Take advantage of social media. While social media has not been that effective in the business-to-business (B2B) world, contractors should Tweet their blogs and, what is proving to be effective, post them on the company’s LinkedIn page. If the entire blog cannot be posted on LinkedIn, post a blurb from the blog and add links back to your website for the full blog.
These tips are designed to make your blogging program a more effective marketing tool. But now is a good time to ask, what is the ultimate goal of a blogging program? Is it to win new clients? Of course it is, but to get there, we need to understand that the essence of a blogging strategy is to deliver high-quality, valuable information to website visitors. Over time, this will reward you with customer loyalty along with new business opportunities.
For More Information on Ways to Build Your Business, Contact Ron at contact@seguraassociates.com
