This is the second in a series of 5 blog post we will be doing. We are looking at answering 5 questions you should be asking yourself when you are looking at your business or professional service firm’s blog. Who are you blogging too? Why are you blogging? What are you blogging about. When should I be blogging? And finally, what tools can I use to accomplish what I want to accomplish? Or in other words, how to I do it?

Previously in Part 1, we asked and discussed the question, “who are you blogging to?”. In part 2 we are asking the question, why are you blogging? If you haven’t ask and answered that question, stop what you are doing and ask it and follow along as we explore this question and answer together.

Why are you blogging?

Be honest, have you considered just exactly why you want to blog or are blogging. There are many reason someone starts a blog. Early in the history of blogging, a blog was a personal journal where someone would jot down their daily events, feelings or thoughts. Today, blogs have evolved into so much more. Some blogs are started in hopes they will become a source for income. A monetized blog where you are attempting to make money from the ads you place on the blog. Some of these blogs are very successful and some never make a single cent. Other blogs are started as a way to communicate with family and friends. Almost an expansion of the early “journal” blogs. Where you can share family events, including photos and a family calendar. Other blogs are used to blog about a special interest or even an organization.

And for some, a blog is a tool to market ones business or service firm. Using a blog as a marketing tool to market your business or firm is the primary focus we take here on Blog for Profit. We aren’t focused on how to make money by monetizing your blog. We are focused on how to use a blog to reach an audience, target or niche as a marketing tool.

So, ask yourself, why am I blogging. All of the other reasons to blog are fine. However, deciding why you are blogging will help you to focus on how you will setup and design your blog. It will also help you to answer the previous question as to who are you blogging too. If in fact you are wanting to start or continue with a blog to market to your target, niche or specific audience in the area of your business or service firm, you are closer to answering why are you blogging.

If you are blogging or wanting to blog as a marketing tool for your business, than that is the why in this equation. Well at least part of the why.

The rest of the equation, taking the marketing tool further, will force you to look at how your message will be focused with your blog. And how you will write and who you will be writing too. Remember in the post, who are you blogging too, we discussed three different groups of visitors.

Those being the:

If your why is to just get traffic, I have to admit, it is not that hard. Throw up some content, do some quick SEO and you will get traffic. But it will stop there. Most of the traffic will stop by for a few seconds and if you are lucky, maybe a minute or two. They will look around, but more likely than not, they won’t read much of what you put up. And you won’t care as you have not put much work into it. Your efforts have been to just throw some stuff up on the wall and hoping something might stick. I like to call the traffic visitors, lookie-lews. Those of you who might be real estate agents will appreciate that term I am sure.

The next visitor in our why are you blogging equation are the colleagues. Other business owners or service providers in our target or niche. If reaching that visitor is our answer to our why are we blogging, we will design and populate our blog differently than for the first visitor. We will put more thought into our blog post and won’t just be putting up content for the sake of putting up content. Our whole purpose may be to create an avenue or source of referrals from our colleagues. More than likely, we are not publishing content to this type of visitor to gain direct sales of our product or to visitors looking to utilize our services. We may also draft our blog post in a more technical fashion, using the language or style most associated with that used by our colleagues.

Finally, and the visitors I try to focus on in my own why am I blogging question are the “readers.” You should already know who they are. These are the visitors who are on your blog looking for information or help. They may be there looking for the product you sell or the service you provide. They stay longer than the traffic visitors, spending more time looking around and reading your content. There have been times when I would check the traffic on my professional service firm’s blog when the readers would spend anywhere from 5 to 17 minutes on the site. Reading as many as 20 pages of information. This visitor was one of the big reasons why I was blogging.

Reaching and getting the reader to your blog may be your “why” you are blogging too. And it should be. The reader is the visitor you will hopefully have the conversations with. The reader is the visitor who you will build a relationship with. The reader will be more than a lookie-lew as they will stay longer and more likely than not, will be a repeat visitor. They hopefully will be the visitor who will subscribe to your blog either by RSS or email. The reader is the visitor who will appreciate the fact you are openly and freely providing information in a form and fashion they can understand and use. Information they can use to answer their questions or help them solve their problems.

The reader is the visitor who will most likely become a customer and/or client of yours. And, believe it or not, they will become a referral source, whether they are customers or clients themselves.

In the end…

The answer to your question, why am I blogging should be to reach the visitor known as the reader. This is especially true if you are using your blog as a marketing tool to directly reach those in your market, niche or target who may need your product or service.