For many small business owners, blogging is often the last thing they would do to market their business. Even those business owners that invest money and effort into their business’ online presence, even those that have enough tech savvy to be capable of running a blog, somehow choose not to do it. There are many reasons for it – some think their websites don’t have the necessary infrastructure to host a blog. Other shy away from blogging because they think they’re not very good writers. There are always those that think that spending the time or money needed to regularly update a blog will not be justified by the end result. And there are of course many other reasons why people choose not to run a blog of their business. Most of them are not that good.
Blogging can be a very potent marketing tool if done right. It can do wonderful things for your business’ online branch, and it can be very worth the effort that goes into doing it. When you take all of the great things blogging can do for your business into account, you’ll stop wondering why your business should have a blog, and start wondering how soon you can start one.
1. Blogging does wonders for SEO
A well optimized and regularly maintained blog which hosts useful and quality content can help your business’ website have a better Paige rank. Why is this important? Because, when people search for terms that are related to your business or the industry it’s in, they will take a look at the first page of results, and maybe a page or two more. Your website needs to be up there – the closer to the top of the first page, the better. Regularly posting quality content on your website’s blog sends a signal to search engines that your website is alive and doing well, which increases its position in the search results.
If your blog posts attract activity, such as sharing over social media or commenting, it will give another boost to your search engine ranking. If you include inbound links in your articles, i.e. links to other pages on your website, you’ll get another boost. The point here is that a blog gives you a lot of opportunities to improve your business website’s standing with the search engine, and thus reach more potential clients.
2. Blogging gives you content to share over social media
Each blog post you write, you can share over your business’ social media profiles. No matter what your current social media content strategy looks like, it will benefit greatly from the addition of your blog posts. Plus, linking your blogging efforts to your social media efforts will give your blog content a chance to catch the eyes the people that still haven’t found your website through search engines. And those people can share your content on their social media profiles, which will give you even more exposure.
While newsletters are not the same thing as social media, you website’s blog posts or articles can become an important part of your business’ weekly newsletter. That’s another way you can use high-quality blog content to attract more visitor, just by featuring it in the newsletter.
3. Blogging helps you build a community and foster good customer relationships
Your business’ blog will attract an audience, and if you’re consistent with your blogging, that audience may turn into a community. It’s as simple as providing relevant and relatable content on your business’ blog. And while you’re at it, you will also get a chance to develop a good relationship with the people reading it. If they find your content useful, and if it provides real value to them, they will appreciate it and, in turn, be more inclined towards doing business with your business.
4. Blogging helps you with getting leads and networking
Blogging will facilitate an increase in your online exposure, that’s for sure. But what else can you do with that exposure? For one, you can use your content to get specific things. You can use the content to get people to subscribe to your newsletters. You can use the content to promote deals you’re offering. Just add a call to action at the end of the post, and enjoy the results.
And of course, the exposure itself is a nice thing. You never know who can stumble upon your blog and what kind of opportunists they might provide you. Things happen when you put yourself out there, and as far as putting yourself out there goes, blogging is a great tool for it.
5. It can help you develop a personal reputation and credibility
People blog so about a niche so they can be considered an expert in the field. An industry leader. A person to turn to for information and knowledge. And it works – the Internet is full of experts who use their blogs to spread their wisdom. So why not join them? Only good things can come out of being considered an expert in your industry.
