Five Tips for Running a Successful Blog
Blogging is a great way to provide valuable information for customers who visit your website. Fresh new content that is updated regularly makes your website more appealing to search engines. Plus, keywords within your blog content attract search engines as well – increasing the chance that your site will rank higher when an online prospect makes a search for a dealership like yours. Blogging is beneficial all around – so how can your business get started? Here are 5 of our best tips.
1. The first thing to keep in mind when it comes to blog content is that you need to understand your audience. There is no need to overthink it – if you regularly talk to the prospects and customers who visit, call, and email your dealership, you shouldn’t have much trouble coming up with ideas. For example, if you have a powersports dealership that sells dirt bikes, you probably get a lot of questions about local riding trails. Or, at a boat dealership, people might often ask about how to properly store a boat in the winter. If you are an industry enthusiast yourself, coming up with blog topic ideas can be a pretty easy task. But even if you are not, simply talking to your customers and getting a feel for what they’d like to learn more about can point you in the right direction.
2. Once you’ve decided on a topic to write about, it’s time to actually start writing. Create an outline to simplify the process. You don’t want readers to be overwhelmed by the length of your content or lack of organization. Creating sub-sections, lists, or bullet points to guide your writing can inspire the words to flow. For example, let’s say your blog post is about local trails to ride on a dirt bike. Narrow down the five best trails in your area, then choose an image for each one. List the name of each trail along with 3-5 brief bullet points about why it’s a good choice for riding. Now all you need to do is turn those bullet points into paragraphs with a little more added detail and narrative. The content comes together much more smoothly when it’s outlined first.
3. Don’t underestimate the value of imagery. Especially in the dealership industry, people want to see pictures that correspond with what they are reading about. While the written content is important, pictures keep readers interested and engaged. The number of pictures to include will vary depending on your topic – for example, a blog post about how to store your boat in the winter may only need 1 or 2 images, but a blog post about deep-cleaning your boat might require several images to accompany each step.
4. Assign at least one other team member to serve as your second set of eyes for the blog. It can be hard to catch your own mistakes, and your writing may be too familiar to you to judge it fairly. It would be wise to ask at least one other person at the dealership to read your posts for spelling, grammar, format, and overall flow. Two heads are better than one, and this can help you make sure each blog post is well-written and worthy of your readers’ time.
5. Establish a schedule and stick to it. Not only do regular blog posts deem your site more helpful, reliable, and trustworthy to Google and other search engines, but your readers should know when to expect new content from you as well. Whether you choose to post 500-word blog posts twice per week or 1,500-word blog posts twice per month, create a realistic schedule and try to be as consistent as possible. The more content you write and the more regularly you post, the better!
One more important thing to note - increasing SEO for your website is a significant reason to start a blog for your dealership, but don’t let that be the only reason. If you are writing with your customers in mind, the content will naturally include plenty of search engine-friendly keywords. Content that is written in a conversational tone gives readers the best experience, and search engines favor this writing style as well – it’s how people speak in real life, so the content will match the searches they make. This makes your job as a writer much easier, as there is no need to be overly formal. Blogging is a win/win for both your business and your customers. Don’t wait to get started!