There isn't any question that blogging is still an effective marketing tool for businesses in many industries. Yes, even the building materials industry.
As a building supply manufacturer, it’s likely that you’ve held off on blogging for this long because you think it’s trivial with so many other digital marketing options available to you. But trust us on this one: you should never discount the importance of blogging. Having and displaying compelling content will not only bring more traffic to your site, but it can also help establish you as a thought leader in your space.
Of course, it's not always a straightforward process. Due to the level of competition there is on the Web, you need to know how to get to the top of search engines and stand out from the crowd. But with enough foresight and organization, you can begin to see amazing results over time.
Blogging helps make better connections with your customers while expanding your knowledge base in the topics you cover. Don't forget you also can expand your customer reach to those you didn't expect would buy your building materials. Since the industry encompasses numerous types of customers, from architects to contractors to homeowners, you have to cater to each individual persona’s need.
Let's take a look at what you can do to make a successful blog for your building supply products.
Customer Relationships In The Comment Section
You may not think it's possible to start a customer relationship from a blog, but you can by allowing a public comment section. Despite comment sections sometimes attracting the worst of humanity (have you been on Facebook lately?), it's important to open one and gauge reader opinion.
If you fear you'll receive too much spam or negativity, you always have the power to keep only the useful comments by moderating activity. Of course, considering that you're catering to those who have a need to buy building materials, you may not have as many problems as opposed to other blogs.
What's important is to reply to those who ask questions or make valuable comments about the topic you covered. This can create an immediate community to nurture customer relationships and further solidify your place as a thought leader.
Communication shouldn’t end there, though. You can get started building leads in the comment section, but it’s important you move the conversation to other channels like social media or email campaigns.
Expanding Your Topic Horizons
Posting blog articles on a consistent basis will help you expand your knowledge base in the building supply industry. It forces you to continually research new topics in this field and write about more challenging subjects your customers want to read about. Remember: The industry may move fairly slowly, but the rest of the world and the needs of consumers do not.
The key to success here is to do research and find out what the top trends are in building supplies. Even social media can help reveal what people are talking about by doing hashtag searches.
Google News shows you what other professionals in building supply manufacturing are writing about as well. It allows you to take these subjects and expand on them to show your own authority and expertise. Be sure to back up your research with resources in your blog to show credibility.
Using A Calendar For Future Topics
Another great process to use so you can keep interesting topics going is creating a future calendar for subjects you'll write about during the year. Even if you curate some content every once in a while, look ahead and plan topics weeks or months ahead to keep your blog fresh.
Doing this keeps your blog relevant, boosting your chances of being shared on social media. You'll maintain your blog's activity, plus stay at the top of search engine results.
Most importantly, this will keep you on track. When you’re busy running the rest of the business or your department, it’s easy to fall behind—and when tasks start piling up, blogging is often shoved to the bottom of the totem pole. Having this editorial calendar set up in advanced can take the brainstorming process out of the equation, freeing up what little time you do have for writing stellar posts.
Saving Yourself Money On Marketing
In the event you're still asking yourself why you should blog more for your building supply company, consider how much marketing costs in general. Advertising in print publications costs hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. Billboards don’t come cheap either. And most digital marketing efforts aren't all free either, especially when you get into the realm of paid social ads and Adwords.
By contract, blogs are simple to set up and don't cost anything to create other than what you’ve already paid for your website and hosting. And with complete creative control over your blog, you can leverage it as your marketing backbone to ultimately prove yourself an industry leader.
