How Building Materials Manufacturers Can Benefit from a Blog

Create Authority With a Building Materials Blog

A high-quality, well-written, and informative blog can help you create an authoritative voice in an over-saturated market. What the heck does that mean? It means that a blog will let customers and potential customers know that you are THE trusted authority on your category of building materials.

Take into consideration a blog entry on, say, the differences between various types of shingles. A great blog entry would explain the benefits and disadvantages of wooden, vinyl, asphalt, and slate shingles in a simple to understand and engaging manner.  Rather than just promoting your type of shingle you are helping customers make a more informed decision.  You will get more than your fair share of the business.

Content like that will not only make your business look intelligent, but will also create an engaging conversation between you and your customers. In fact, that leads us to our next point.

Builds Customer Relationships

Blogs often serve as an open line of communication between businesses and their customers, especially if you open it up to comments and conversation. For example, let’s say you write a blog about why your customers should convert to a new type of insulation, one that just made a big splash in the news.

If that topic is trending, people are searching for it online. And someone finds your blog, loves the information you present, and posts a question about its compatibility with a certain type of sheathing. Your potential customer has just opened up a direct line of communication with you.

Answering that question quickly and in an easy-to-understand manner will make your customer feel appreciated and closer to your business.

Helps You Stay on Top of Things

One of the least heralded benefits of a blog is the way it forces you to learn even more about your business. For example, let’s say you make deck products and just read a news article about problems with decks.

First of all, blogging about a trending topic is an incredibly smart idea. Writing a blog that helps customers avoid a problem will draw people to your website and make you look ahead of the game.

However, when you’re writing about a new topic, you’re going to have to take a few minutes to do some research. As a result, you’re going to learn everything you need to know about deck problems and how using your deck products reduces this risk.

Extends Your Customer Reach

A blog can help extend your business reach by breaking through demographic boundaries in unforeseen ways. For example, younger people tend to live online while many building material manufacturers, to often focus on the old white guys.

A blog can also be a more cost effective marketing tool than many other tactics such as pay per click or printing stuff like catalogs.

Blogs are here to stay and you can either get ahead of the game or find yourself playing catch up.

If you have any more questions about building material blogging, just contact us. We can help you design a blog program and teach you how to operate it yourself. I can also show you a low-cost way to outsource the writing.

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“As a customer of your customers, I couldn’t agree more. For us to differentiate ourselves via world-class customer service, we have to rely on our vendors to do the same. …it’s about the service!”
Charlie Coggins
Multifamily Account Manager
Professional Builders Supply, LLC