Accountant Services Waipukurau, Waipawa, Dannevirke and Central & Southern Hawke's Bay

Blogging is one of the most effective yet free - yes FREE - ways of marketing yet few venture into this area. It can position you an expert in your field, build your profile and brand, and draw prospects to your website. Here are a few tips to get started:

• If you don’t know what to write, don’t worry unduly, just pick on an area you know well, the sort of thing you’re probably discussing regularly with customers or staff. This could be the key frustrations customers suffer when dealing with suppliers in your industry, tips on how to get the best out of your product or service or how the customers can reduce costs or save time etc. Google is a great source of ideas and inspiration.
• Blog regularly by getting into the habit. I’ve conditioned myself to blog in the same as I’ve conditioned myself to keep fit - if I don’t do it I start to worry and actually feel guilty! The more you do, the easier it becomes.
• Keep them as short as possible. This isn’t easy and takes practice, but the less you write the easier it will be to read and keeping them short doesn’t mean you are short-changing your readers as writing concisely and to the point will be far more effective and informative.
• Make your blogs as easy to read as possible without excessive technicalities or jargon as these will just confuse your readers. Youngsters are useful here as they will be able to pick out words they don’t understand. 
• Write your blog as though you were speaking to a down-to-earth client or customer, not as you would have done whilst you were at school trying to please your English teacher. Not as far as text language maybe, but short easy-to-read sentences, bullets and “chunking”, breaking it down into small easily digestible parts.
• Try and focus on areas of interest to your readers which may not be the same as yours. Initially, you may have to suck it and see, or look at other blog sites but when you’ve done a few blogs you’ll find that some topics or areas are much more popular than others, so write more on these.

Starting to blog is like going to the gym or for a run on a winter’s night - it’s a scary thought but once you get out there you enjoy it, so don’t delay or prevaricate, just do it! If you need help with your blogging contact Nick on 021 225 6425 or email nick@abnr.co.nz.