Tips To Get Started Blogging for A Construction Equipment Dealership

Procrastination is not an effective marketing tool.

In other words, it’s time to get started blogging. Your sales team and your bottom line will thank you for it, and it can even be fun. Here are some tips to get started blogging.

Identify interesting topics.

It’s easy – you’re literally surrounded with great, totally on-target ideas. What do people ask your staff? What’s hot right now with your dealership, your products, your people, the industry in general? Give prospects and customers tips to resolve the job-related issues that bug them the most. Above all, your blog should provide useful, timely, relevant information.

Plan ahead.

Decide who’s in charge of writing and publishing your blog. You can share the writing among staff, guest authors, etc. to spread the effort and help vary your content.

Pick a schedule.

How frequently you publish blog articles isn’t nearly as important as doing it consistently. You’re teaching people to expect and look forward to your next installment, reinforcing your reliability as well as your authority. Create an “editorial calendar,” so you know in advance what topics you’ll write about, and when. Be sure to align blog content with seasonal or special dealership activities.

Content tips:

Start with an attention-grabbing title that instantly tells people what the content is about. Pose a question, or use numbers, which have amazing SEO and reader-interest value.  

Creating your title first will help you keep the article’s content exactly on point, too.

Be conversational. Write as if you’re talking to people. But don’t be so informal that you come across as disrespectful. Aim for a voice that’s friendly but professional. And include links – to a website page, your YouTube videos or Pinterest photos. To your OEM’s website or other resources.

Vary your content. You don’t have to be strictly informative all the time, and your various target audiences have different needs and interests.

• • Tell a story about yourself that’s relevant to your dealership or your customers, to humanize your business and help people relate to you personally. Share off-the-job experiences, too, such as the community project your staff worked on together.
  • Profile key employees.
  • Share customer stories about their on-the-job experiences.
  • Include a photo – one that illustrates your content, not just a gratuitous visual.
  • Or present a photo-story – a montage of photos, with a minimum of text.
  • Use a video as the centerpiece of your article, with just a short introduction.
  • Create an infographic and introduce it via your blog.

Technical tips:

• • Choose a keyword for each article. Use it in the title and the first paragraph – in all about 3 to 9 times in a 600-word article. Keywords are critical to boost your website’s SEO and help your blog show up in search results.  
  • Use sub-heads to separate content into segments and bulleted lists that present lots of information quickly. Your blog will look more inviting and be easier and faster to read.  
  • Proofread. Typos, grammar and punctuation errors negate your efforts to establish your dealership as a quality-driven authority.  
  • Add a “comments” box following your blog, and always respond to reader comments, right away.

Promote your blog.

Announce your new blog via your website, social media and email – with a link to your first post and a link to subscribe. Add that subscription button to your website and your email signature, and link to future blog articles with social media posts.

Once you get started blogging, stick to your plan. It’s a building process – helping build online engagement and relationships that lead to sales.