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Sammy Greener

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Sammy Greener is a PR Executive at Lava, an award-winning marketing communications agency based in Lincoln. Sammy plays an active role across both trade and consumer accounts, providing media relations, copywriting and administrational support. Sammy has a first class honours degree in Fashion Business from Glasgow Caledonian University, and has previously worked at Interflora and Bianca Jones Jewellery.


In an age where we turn to our local news website to read the headlines, Twitter to join the conversation and Google to find out, well, pretty much anything, it’s no surprise that blogs have also become a popular go-to medium for many internet users looking for tips, advice, reviews and the latest industry insights in our ever-growing digital world.

Although blogs are not a particularly new phenomenon – first appearing in the 1990s where individuals would jot down their musings in a personal ‘online diary’ – over the past few years they’ve exploded commercially to become a primary source of information for web users.

So why should your business have its own blog? For starters, research has found that a business with an active blog receives 55% more web visitors, B2C businesses generate 88% more leads and B2B businesses receive 67% more leads than those that don’t. It can also be a great, cost effective tool within your marketing strategy.

To explain further, I’ve put together five reasons why blogs can be beneficial for your business.

Boost your visibility
By keeping your website consistently updated it becomes much more ‘searchable’ for prospective customers – but how often do you update your homepage and ‘about us’ section? Blogs are a great way to keep your website active and help place it at the top of a Google search. Each time you add a new post, including a few relevant keywords, it’s one more opportunity for your website to show up in a search engine and drive traffic to your site.

Raise awareness
Additionally, each of your blog posts can be promoted via your social media channels, which not only boosts your social strategy by giving customers interesting content to follow, but it lets customers share your blog post, which increases potential to reach new audiences and, you never know, it could go viral.

Establish your brand as an expert
The best blogs provide their readers with valuable and interesting information and if you’re consistently keeping it updated with relevant industry news and interesting facts from your sector, customers will begin to value your company’s knowledge, continually return to your website and build trust within your brand, products and services.

Show off your team
By having staff members contribute to the business’s blog it will not only give a constant stream of new names and ideas, but gives your brand a personality and allows customers to see who the people behind the brand are – not to mention it lets each of your team members shine as an expert, too!

Strengthen Customer Relationships
In addition to showing your industry expertise, a blog can be an informal way to regularly communicate with your customers, letting them know about your company – what’s new, what you offer, your achievements and innovations – giving them another personal connection to your brand.

Does your business blog? If not, why not? I’d love to know your thoughts – tweet me @sjgreener1

Sammy Greener is a PR Executive at Lava, an award-winning marketing communications agency based in Lincoln. Sammy plays an active role across both trade and consumer accounts, providing media relations, copywriting and administrational support. Sammy has a first class honours degree in Fashion Business from Glasgow Caledonian University, and has previously worked at Interflora and Bianca Jones Jewellery.

If your business is currently using social media in its marketing strategy, more than likely you will be using Facebook and Twitter to reach out to your customers. While these remain predominantly the most popular social platforms, a report by Comscore has revealed that they have reached their peak and more visually-focused outlets are growing fast in popularity – one in particular is Instagram.

Since first launching in October 2010, the photo-sharing app has rapidly grown to 200 million active monthly users and continues to become one of the most engaging social platforms out there at the moment. In fact, a study found that Instagram had 58 times more engagement per follower than Facebook and 120 times more than Twitter!

The reason why this social platform can be such a hit with businesses is because it gives them a personal connection with its customers. Posting eye-catching pictures with relatable hashtags captures the attention and imagination of target audiences and gives intriguing insights into the industry without the wordy, sales-orientated posts that sometimes come with Facebook and Twitter – heightening their engagement.

If you’re considering expanding into the world of Instagram, I’ve put together a couple of key pointers that will help you maximise the benefits from each of your posts.

Be Creative
When formulating a strategy for Instagram – think outside of the box. Users don’t want to see sales-orientated posts. Instead, give them an insight into your company – think backstage passes, photos of your staff or new product exclusives as soon as they arrive in the office. This is also your chance to be creative with photography, so if you want to showcase your products and services, think about how you can portray them in a different and interesting light, setting or location.

Use Hashtags
Incorporating popular and relevant hashtags to your posts is your chance to have your business seen by new audiences because people are actively searching for similar content, which makes your post more visible. However, the general rule of thumb is not to use more than seven hashtags in one post and to include popular trends like #throwbackthursday, or key dates and events such as #earthday.

Involve your Audience
Use this opportunity to involve your customer with your brand. Ask them to take photos of themselves using your products with your own personal hashtag or create a competition asking customers to think of creative ideas for your business like a new product idea or ad campaign – it also shows your customers that you value their opinions.

Does your business use Instagram or do you prefer to stick to Facebook and Twitter? I’d love to know your thoughts, tweet me @sjgreener1

Sammy Greener is a PR Executive at Lava, an award-winning marketing communications agency based in Lincoln. Sammy plays an active role across both trade and consumer accounts, providing media relations, copywriting and administrational support. Sammy has a first class honours degree in Fashion Business from Glasgow Caledonian University, and has previously worked at Interflora and Bianca Jones Jewellery.

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