People often ask me whether having a business blog is worth it. In my experience, it is—if you’re consistent with it. To get the most from business blogging, you have to be committed to posting regularly and promoting your blog posts so that people actually read them. Plus, keep in mind that business blogging is only one slice of the broader digital marketing pie; you’ll need the other slices too (SEO, social media, PPC, email marketing) for an effective digital marketing plan.
When done right, a business blog helps visitors establish a human-to human-connection with your business, offering readers a glimpse of the unique story and voice behind the products or services you sell.
Here are five reasons why your business should have an active blog.
1. Drive Visitors to Your Site
Thanks to on-site SEO (search engine optimization), if your blog offers unique and meaningful content, search engines will automatically send visitors your way for free. Okay, it’s much more complex than that, but it comes down to providing valuable original content that interests your readers.
Business blog articles should address issues that are directly related to your customer. Say you’re a life coach, then your blog should tackle issues that your clients regularly face, like alleviating stress or work-family balance. With a little patience and effective keyword usage, you’ll drive relevant traffic to your site.
2. Become a Thought Leader
Thought leadership is a big buzzword these days. What it boils down to is credibility and industry authority. You can’t just tell customers that you’re a thought leader—you need to prove it. A well-developed business blog can help you do that.
By publishing objective content that provides answers to questions that your competitors aren’t providing, you can elevate your organization in the public eye.
By publishing objective content that provides answers to questions that your competitors aren’t providing, you can elevate your organization in the public eye. -Katrina Oko-Odoi, @editingworm Click To TweetEventually, other websites will start linking to your incredibly informative articles, and you might even get requests to contribute guest articles to other sites or media outlets. All of this will position your business as an authority in your industry.
3. Boost Brand Awareness
Brand awareness goes hand in hand with being a thought leader: as you build your brand’s reputation, you will simultaneously build brand awareness.
In all likelihood, most people will not find your business’s website by simply typing your organization’s name into a search engine. Instead, visitors will find you through keyword searches and social media. As customers with interests related to your company are directed to your blog more frequently, they’ll become increasingly aware of your business and its expertise. And when they need the product or service that you’re offering, your brand will likely be top of mind.
4. Gain More Exposure Through Social Media
Social media users share meaningful content in a variety of ways, and this content commonly includes blog posts. If a visitor to your site finds one of your blog posts interesting, they can easily share it with hundreds if not thousands of their peers with similar interests.
Say you’re a business strategist and you published an article on servant leadership as a CEO; an executive looking to improve their leadership might stumble upon it and share it with their CEO colleagues in a private Facebook group that’s 5,000 strong.
Your business has just been exposed to a whole new audience in a matter of seconds! Plus, since the readers are already your target audience, they’re much warmer leads than a lot of the traffic directed from other channels.
5. Personalize Your Brand
Blogs give a voice to your organization and the person—or people—behind it. If you can develop a relatable tone that reads as authentic to your audience, you might just gain some loyal fans. Blogs that achieve this loyalty maintain a consistent voice that doesn’t actively try to sell products, speak in overly difficult language, or talk down to visitors.
Responding to blog comments can also help make your business more human and thus more likeable. This allows you to connect with your potential customers in an informal manner, increasing their familiarity with your company and hopefully converting many of them into new customers.
A Blog Is Nothing Without Promotion
You won’t see these results if you’re not promoting your blog so that it reaches a wider audience. This doesn’t have to be expensive: start by sharing your articles on social media, blasting them out to your email list, and posting them in online groups or forums you’re a part of. And don’t get discouraged: blogging is a long game that takes patience and consistency to see results.
Katrina Oko-Odoi, Ph.D. is the Founder & Chief Editor of ContentWorm contentworm.com, a company dedicated to writing and editing for businesses and entrepreneurs. She is a published author, editor, and entrepreneur with a Ph.D. in Literature and 10+ years in the writing and editing industry. Katrina partners with clients to develop customized content that makes an impact, including web content, blog articles, case studies, ebooks, and more.
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