How Blogging Can Boosts Leads

How Blogging Can Boosts Leads on vendorsmart.com

Given that people generally prefer to do business with experts they can trust, blogging can be a very effective long-term strategy for generating leads.

You want property managers and HOAs to know about your business, but you’re the new kid on the block. Or, you’re just not all that well known. It’s all about reputation when it comes to vendor relationships – so how do you start building them? That would be both your reputation, as well as those relationships.

One of the most effective approaches is blogging. Not so fast with the eye-rolling. Marketing software platform HubSpot reports that B2B companies (and that would be you) which blog even only once or twice a month generate 70 percent more leads than those who don’t. Here’s what you need to know about blogging to capture the attention of property managers and HOAs.

Planning to be discovered

Blog posts, or articles, are ways to fuel the engine of inbound marketing. About 78 percent of marketers say they can connect the dots and show that it was content marketing that increased attention, and more than half say they can demonstrate that blog articles increased sales.

Blog articles are getting your competitors noticed, and it’s not just a one-off approach. Nearly half of those surveyed said they looked at three to five pieces of content before deciding to engage with a sales rep.

It’s not about you

A common misconception about the purpose of blogging is that it’s all about using keywords to drive traffic to a site. But fixating on search engine optimization rather than the quality of a blog is like putting the cart before the horse. In fact, Google may even lower where your website shows up on its search engine results page if its algorithm detects keyword stuffing.

HOAs and property management companies are much like an average consumer. They don’t head to their favorite search engine and type in company names. The first thing they do is research their problem or pain point.

Search engines want to reward them with information that’s relevant. So, stop for a moment and think about the problems or pain points a property manager or HOA is experiencing that would cause them to go online and look for an answer.

Information that educates and offers insight into a problem demonstrates that you are an authority on the subject. Remember that previous statistic about looking at three to five pieces of content before deciding to engage? Once you’ve whetted their appetite, they’ll want you to give them even more insight.

So, that’s why…

Let’s say you are a landscaping company on the lookout for more HOA clients. What are the biggest frustrations that result either between you and them, or between you and their clients – the homeowners?

Maybe they (HOAs) are wondering why the grass in the neighborhood common areas isn’t looking so great since their current vendor took over. It’s quite the mystery. The new vendor came in with a lower bid, and they’re only cutting the grass every 10 days instead of weekly. You know as an expert that cutting the grass shorter may increase time between mowing, but it also stresses the grass and makes it susceptible to weeds and pests. Ultimately, the HOA is going to pay more in herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizer than if they had gone with a more reputable vendor who mowed weekly and kept a higher length.

Now, consider the education, perspective, and the relevance that a potential HOA or property management customer would place if they came across your blog article that looked at the cost savings of proper mowing.

Rather than being “look-at-me,” blogging should be about creating information you know your customers are looking for to help you get discovered online. Sure these folks are looking for free advice to save money, but if they find themselves coming back to your blog for information over and over again, a bond of trust will emerge. Eventually, that customer may be willing to give you their contact information in exchange for an email newsletter. Suddenly they’ve gone from anonymous browser to email subscriber and taken one more step toward becoming a customer.

The regular creation of helpful information can build trust with property management companies and HOAs, which can enable you to leapfrog the competition when they are ready to vet vendors. Another great way to gain visibility with HOAs and property management companies searching for your services is to register in the Vendorsmart directory of verified vendors.