In the technological age that we are living it, we are lucky that we have so many things that can help us, and our businesses, to do better and be better. One of the changes that has come into its own over the past few years is blogging. Writing a blog can be one of the most beneficial ways for your business to grow and to reach new customers. It helps you to engage with customers, help them to come back again and again, and to help your customer’s or client’s lives be easier, at the end of the day. When you offer a solution to the problem it is a winning formula.
If you’re not sure what a blog is, then first of all, an answer to that would help, right? A blog is a simple platform where you share timely and relevant content, as well as connect with your customers or readers. It is a direct communication channel, that businesses long before were missing out on. So making the most of it can be really beneficial. A direct communication with the people that you want to buy your products? Sign me up!
If your business isn’t blogging at the moment, then it is time to get started or your business is going to get left behind; behind with the times and behind with your competitors. So here are just some of the reasons why your business needs to be blogging. If you’re already doing it, then you can always improve and grow what you are doing with these tips.
SEO.
Search engine optimization, or SEO for short, basically means how well your website ranks on a search engine, when looking for particular content. The higher you rank when someone searches for a particular thing, then the more likely they are to become a customer or regular website visitor. That is why making sure that you have relevant content on your blog is key. It will keep you ranking, and keep you relevant. It also helps if you have the right keywords for people to search for.
If your business is a plumbing business, then you want to come up when people are looking for plumbers in your area or for when they search for household tips. At the end of the day, search engines like to see lots of valuable content, and they will reward you for it by pushing you up the rankings.
Improves Skills.
A lot of people think that you need a super fancy website to blog on and you need to have a masters degree in writing to be able to be the one creating the content for the blog. But that really isn’t the case! There are many user-friendly platforms that you can use to blog on, such as WordPress, that are easy to navigate and to learn. What you want is a website that loads quickly, isn’t full of pop-ups, and is easy to use. If you over complicate it, you could lose users as they don’t want to deal with pop-ups or a slow loading page.
As for the writing, your blog is your blog and the tone of voice or manner in which the posts are written is completely up to you. If there is physically no time for you or anyone in your team to do so, then you outreach to a person or company to do the content curation for you. So it just depends on the size of your business and what time you can dedicate to it. It certainly should have some time set aside for it, though.
Get New Customers.
From a brand new business to an already established and existing business, there is always room for more customers. So if there is a way to potentially get plenty more customers, why are more businesses not doing it? In a recent survey by HubSpot, it showed that businesses that have a blog acquire more customers than the businesses and websites that don’t have a blog. And by more, 60% more! So it is quite a significant difference. They can find you online or find you when looking for relevant content. So it really is worth looking into.
Social Media Marketing.
As well as a blog, your business needs social media channels. It is probably likely to have already had those for a while now. But the great thing about a blog is that it goes hand in hand with your social media. It is the fodder for your channels. Have a great post that was written about a particular political situation or something that has come up in the news? Then timing it right and sharing it on your social channels helps to get the post seen, as well as helps your business be relevant. It gets people looking at who you are and what you have to offer.
Of course, it all depends on what your business is as to what will be relevant for your readers and customers. But your blog is the heart of all of the content that you will need for social media, as well as any emails or newsletters that you send out to customers past.
Gives Your Business a Voice.
There has been some talk among professional bloggers about how hard it is to blog when you’re in quite a saturated market. But at the end of the day, if your business has something to say, then why can’t it say it? Blogging gives your business a voice, and helps to show customers your personality and ethos behind the brand. It gives you a creative outlet to share, and allows you to talk about new products and services. It could do reviews and comparisons of previous products, for example, as well as sharing relevant market news or trend alerts. When you’re doing all of this, it also shows to readers that you are an expert in your field.
Someone with a beauty business isn’t going to go into it without having much of a knowledge about beauty, for example. So when you blog there will be some authority behind it. If they can come to you to get some beauty on a budget tips, for instance, as well as some of the favorite products, then the two go together hand in hand.
Creates Conversation.
Creating a two way conversation with your customers is important more than ever these days. Even with peers, competitors, and potential customers, it allows you to talk, interact, share, and communicate with them. So have a comments section on your blog posts. Reply to the comments that you get. Answer people’s questions that they might have. Interact with them and share posts from other businesses on your social profiles. It is all a good way to get interaction and at the end of the day, get some new customers.
Gives Customer Insight.
The great thing about a blog is that it is all online. And the great thing about it all being online is that you can track the people that are viewing your content. You can see what countries they are from, the times of day that they read your posts, even from what kind of device they view your blog from! So it can be a great help going forward when you’re looking at how best to interact with your audience.
If most people view on tablets or smartphones, then it could be worth launching a new phone cover, if you have gift business, for example. It also lets you know what people are searching for to find you, as well as how long they stay on your page and if they click-through anything once they are on your page. If your bounce rate is quite high, for instance, you could think about refocusing the keywords that you are using, as people are obviously finding you but it isn’t answering the questions that they have.
It Can Be Fun.
When you are doing work that you love, then they say it is like you are never having to work a day in your life. And blogging, for the most part, can be a really enjoyable outlet. Depending on your business and what you want it to be, it could be a creative outlet for you, where you are almost allowed to do anything. It can be a good way to share your passions or thoughts on things, as well as promote your business and the things that you love about it. Engaging with customers can be fun (for the most part anyway), and answering people’s questions can another enjoyable aspect of it. So don’t see it as a chore, but a new way to do business, give yourself some low-cost PR, and have a little fun while you are at it.
Blogging can be a really inspiring and motivating thing to do. You can read and share relevant content around you, as well as offering advice or tips on certain things. It will depend what your business is as to what you write. But it all has the same intent to help your business to grow and grow.
