Blogging can successful assist your small business marketing.

Dorset small business marketing through writers, writing, blogs, blogging and bloggers is the subject of today’s discussion.

This topic was prompted by a chat I had yesterday with a very unhappy estate agent who was desperate to find a way of increasing his small business sales.

No, I’m not trying to sell my house, thank goodness – and, certainly, I feel very sad for those who are forced to sell their houses in these turbulent times.

Instead, I’m talking generally about small business marketing. This is a subject fraught with difficult at the best of times and the Internet, which has been much heralded as an easier and lower cost way of setting up business and making sales, often merely turns out to be just another way of spending promotional money with little return.

So I thought today I would talk about free blogs and blogging as a way of promoting your small (or large) business, whether in the beautiful English county of Dorset or elsewhere in the UK.

Quite simply, if your customers are likely to be looking for your service or product on the Internet, adding a blog to your web site – or even as your web site – is a very sound and low cost, possibly no cost, strategy. Each day that you write more about your business or matters of interest connected with your business, you are sending a little sales emissary off into cyberspace that could bring customers back to your site … and then more … and then more.

Blogs are really cheap to set up and require little expertise to update. They were designed to be used by just about anybody to put content online specifically avoiding the need to pay geeks loads of  money. If you can use a word processor (write a letter on your computer), you are probably able to handle a blog.

Need proof? Go to Blogger.com or WordPress.com and sign up for a free one. Both systems provide free web space with their free blog which makes using them even easier. Once convinced, you can always move to a paid blogging host which has some advantages.

That’s all there is to it! Try putting up a post each weekday talking about some aspect of your business that potential customers might find interesting.

Just chat. Imagine you are in your  shop, hotel, sales  room or even the pub and you are talking about your business. It doesn’t have to be intense and perhaps you shouldn’t overtly sell – although that’s not a cast-iron rule.

Your main aim is to build a relationship with your potential customer so in the future they would probably prefer to come to you when they want to buy rather  than go to somebody else who is an unknown quantity – or perhaps they might mention you to their friend who could also come to you and buy.

OK, now I’m going to talk about a few problems – well one big one, really

The problem is that not everybody finds writing easy. It’s not so much a matter of putting words together like in a business letter, the difficulty more often lies in creatively thinking up a new subject each day and then being motivated enough to put it down in writing.

However, there are ways around this problem. Perhaps your wife, your husband, your friend or someone you know really well would be willing to help. They might already consider themselves an amateur writer or might be willing to give it a go and subsequently find they have a hitherto undiscovered talent.

Of course, you might be able to find a local writer who is willing to keep the blog for your business for a modest sum. Writers, whether they consider themselves professional or not, are usually fairly poverty stricken so their assistance may come reasonably cheaply.

How soon should you see results? This depends on lots of things.

If there is no market for your service or product, it doesn’t matter how many people you tell, you still won’t make sales. The aforementioned estate agent is currently proof of that.

If the words you put in the title and body of your daily posts are not words that people are using in their searches, keeping a blog won’t help sell your products or service either.

If you are in competition with many other people who are expertly using online marketing to sell their products, you could find yourself  at the end of a  long search engine list with perhaps nobody reading your daily writings. As with any business tool, the expertise of the user can make a difference.

However, if you are a wonderful small cafe, hotel, pub or restaurant that people just don’t know is there, your blog may be the best way to tell them. Make sure your geographical location is included in each post and the words ‘what’s on’ or ‘things to do’ or ‘places to go’ and customers could come streaming to your door.

That’s it! I hope it helps. When you have got your Dorset blog going, come along here and tell me about it and I will add a few words on this blog telling people about yours. Maybe you might do the same for me. It costs nothing and helps the world go around

Bye for now

Rob

Rob Hopcott – online writer and blogger

Weymouth during the Wessex Folk Festival from the bridge

Of all the places I’ve been in Dorset, Weymouth during the Wessex Folk Festival was one of the most memorable.

Hope Square with the sunshine beaming down and the happy crowds all around enjoying the free music had an ambiance that was very nearly perfect.

I fact, I think my favourite part of seaside Weymouth is the harbour area with its swing bridge and pubs. For a small sum, there is a chap with a rowing boat that takes people across the harbour who don’t want to walk back up to the bridge.

There are also plenty of places  just to sit and chat and enjoy watching the incredible boats going by.

People just relaxing by the harbour at the Weymouth Wessex Folk Festival

People are friendly too and I remember a conversation with an old chap who had  come to Weymouth as a young man to crew on an aircraft carrier. He had now retired after a lifetime of working on naval and other boats and was just giving away some sailing tackle because he would rather it went to a worthy cause than make a bit of money.

I’m sure there are lots of places in Weymouth that would be interesting to write about.

Weymouth and, in particular, its harbour area is a great place to spend time and I’m really looking forward to visiting the small pubs, restaurants and hotels again.

Bye for now

Rob

Rob Hopcott – online author and blogger

Awesome cliffs at West Bay, Bridport, Dorset

For my first post to this web site blog, I have a totally awesome photo I took yesterday at West Bay, Bridport, Dorset. I’ve seen many cliffs but this one with its incredible striations really has a wow factor.

If you are in the Bridport area of Dorset and you fancy a stroll around a busy little port with incredible views of cliffs, West Bay is worth a visit.

While I was wandering around, I noticed people walking the path to the top of the cliffs. I wonder if there are any fences up there? I doubt whether I have the courage to go and find out

People following path to top of West Bay cliff

This is just a quick post to get this web site started – much more about West Bay and Bridport in Dorset later.

Bye for now

Rob

Rob Hopcott – online author and blogger

Rob Hopcott - online author and blogger

Welcome to Blogging Dorset Blogs which is a web site blog about places I’ve visited in Dorset and blogs relating to Dorset that I have visited in cyberspace.

I look forward to seeing you back here often and welcome your comments.

Bye for now

Rob Hopcott – online author