6 Ways to Thank Your Customers this Holiday Season

Giving ThanksThe leaves are falling, the clocks have changed, and the holidays are almost here.

The end of the year is the perfect time for businesses to reach out to customers and thank them for their loyalty. There are plenty of ways to accomplish this, depending on what kind of business you are. Whatever method you choose, your efforts are sure to win you reciprocal appreciation from your clients and build further loyalty as time goes on.

Let’s discuss five ways you can thank your customers this holiday season.

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Building a Business Blog for Your Company

Blogging 101: How to Get Started with WordPress

As a business owner, you may not be convinced that starting a blog is the best use of your resources. You don’t know if you have the time, you are concerned about the return, and you might not even know where to start. Yet you’re considering a blog because, despite your reservations, you hear more and more from your peers that a blog has benefits. You hear that a blog can bring you new business. Read more

Tips for Developing Your Blogging Voice

Defining your professional blogging voice takes time and practice—a lot of both, actually. If you are getting your business blogging feet wet, consider these tips to help develop  a blogging voice for your business that your readers and, hopefully, your customers appreciate.

Research the blogosphere in your industry.

Using keyword phrases specific to your industry, do a Google Blog search to see how your competitors blog. Notice which blogs provide valuable information for the reader and which blogs only write fluffy content to promote themselves. The larger companies most likely use professional writers to blog, so take note of their content as well (outsourcing blog writing is an option for you too, of course.). By assessing your vertical online, you can make a conscious decision on the style of writing you would like publish online.

Decide on a handful of blog topic themes.

Yes, planning can be a drag, but planning will help you refine your blogging voice.

How? Read more

Free Images for Blogging

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

You have heard it a million times: A picture is worth a thousand words. In blogging, this old adage remains true.

Your blogging goal should be to inform your readers without being overly promotional, so that they come to trust you and return to your blog again and again. A photograph or graphic will help you to both inform and engage. Other benefits include:

  • Highlight your products/services and your people. Show your readers who you are and what you do.
  • Support headlines that evoke an image – try using metaphors. For example, a headline that references the beginning of something within your business might be complemented well with a sunrise image.
  • Entice visitors to spend time with the post. Few blog visitors will read your blog post word for word. By adding images to your post you make it easier for the reader to scan and hopefully tune into more of the details.

Of course, it’d be great if you had a staff photographer or graphic designer who had time to produce all your blog post images, but that’s not exactly realistic. So, online image resources are the second best thing.

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