5 Ways a Blog Can Increase Sales In Your Business

Blogging for your business can be one of the smartest decisions you make as a business owner. A blog allows your readers and potential clients to get to know you and your business. There is no such thing as starting a business, putting up a website and seeing the sales just start pouring in. It takes time. Building a business is all about building a lot of solid relationships. People buy from you when they know you and know they can trust you. A blog is a great platform for building those relationships. 

I always recommend that my clients start their own blog, no matter what business they’re in. I often get the reply, "I don't know what to write about!" People think just because they make soap, do hair or organize homes that they don't have anything to write about. That could not be further from the truth. Take event planning for example. If you owned an event planning business you could blog to help your clients get clear on how events can benifit them. Here are some titles to show you that you always have something to blog about: 

• The 10 Biggest Mistakes People Make While Planning for Their Next Event 
  
• The 3 Best Spots To Have a Networking Event
• Why Incorporating Events Into Your Business Is Important
• 5 Ways To Be Stress Free While Planning Your Next Big Event

Do you see where I'm going with this? If your potential client is surfing the web for an event planner and they come across your blog giving them all that valuable information, guess what? The chances of them contacting you just skyrocketed.

---

Here are 5 ways your blog can help your business and increase sales. 

1. Get Started. Think of all the questions you have ever been asked about your business and turn those into a blog post. If one person asked you a question, there are probably 20 other people wanting to know the exact same thing. So get started, even if you think you're not ready. Trust me, you are. You have more valuable information to share than you give yourself credit for! It takes time to build relationships and trust to grow your business, so the sooner you get started the sooner you will reap the harvest of your labor.

---

2. Be consistent. You can make anything happen if you are consistent. If you want to break away from the feast or famine cycle in business, if you want clients lined up to work with you, you have to be consistent. Set up a blogging calendar and stick to it! 

---

3. Be Yourself. There is only one you. No one can do what you do the way you do it. I want to say that again, no one can do what you do the way you do it! Stop surfing around the internet trying to measure up to other people that you see doing what you want to do. It's OK to look and be inspired by others, but don't measure yourself to them. I remember three years ago working with my coach at the time, Kelly R. Sedwick (T.D. Jake's niece), whom I met in 2010 when I got my certification as a life coach. She has such a huge spirit to help entrepreneurs. During one of our coaching sessions I was explaining to her how I would go on so many other people’s websites and think theirs looked "better" than mine and that they had more to offer than I did. She stopped me and said, "your assignment this week is to not look at anyone else’s website for a week and just focus on what God is giving you. Focus on that." It was such a huge turning point for me because I had been comparing myself to other people so much that oftentimes I wouldn't do anything in my own business. I felt there was no room for me out there! But, I, me, Angel, wasn't out there yet! And like I said before, no one can do you the way that you do you! The world needs YOU! 

---

4. Use photos! Hence the photos you are looking at now on my blog. We are visual creatures and our minds think in pictures, so when you have pictures on your blog it can make it more inviting. Take photos of yourself or add pictures pertaining to your business. 

---

5. Build it and they will come. Not so! I don't know who started that saying, but what I know for sure is that if I start a business, put up a website and start writing my blog consistently but I don't promote it, no one will come. Why? Because no one will know it exists. You have to market your business and drive traffic to your blog. There are many ways to do this, but you can simply start by sharing it with the people in your email database and on your social media pages. Get out there and market your business like a rock star!

As always, I want to hear from you! What can you take away from this blog post and begin using in your own blogging routine? Or what can you share with us that you do?!