When you think of marketing techniques for your business, blogging may not even be a method that enters your mind, but it should be. In today’s social media driven world engaging with your customers online is expected.
Blogs are the solution to this demand; they offer an easy to use platform to connect with customers and market your business.
Blogging is one of the most affordable, efficient, direct and personalised techniques available. It allows you to communicate with customers, increase online traffic to your website and grow your brand, to note just a few of the many benefits.
Maintaining a business blog doesn’t need to be a major undertaking. Set aside half an hour to an hour once or twice a week and let the creative juices flow. Aside from allocating time, it’s also important to plan your blog content; you want to offer interesting blogs relevant to your industry or field of expertise that keep your target audience coming back for more.
The many rewards make it well worth your time. Here are 10 benefits that blogging has on businesses that will inspire you to put fingertips to keyboard.
Tell your story
Share your businesses story with your readers in a blog. A blog is a great place to tell your brand’s story and offer insight into your company philosophy, employees, ideas and personality. Tell your customers why you’re in business and how you can help them.
Website alternative
Blogging is a low cost alternative to having a web presence. For small business owners without the time to learn web html or the money to hire a website developer, blogging offers an inexpensive method to get your company’s name out on the Internet.
Have a voice
Got a new product you want to market? Tell people about it in a blog. Blogs give companies a voice to talk about new products or services, share company initiatives and comment on news topics or trends. It’s also the place to let your brand’s personality shine and show people what you’re all about.
Customer interaction
Forget about expensive focus groups and surveys. Blogging is the modern, easy and low cost method to interact with customers and receive valuable feedback. Simply write a blog and ask for them to leave a comment with their thoughts and opinions.
Liven up your site
Let’s be honest, a number of SME business websites suffer from being outdated. If your website is stale you’re not giving customers a reason to come back and visit your site. Dust off the cobwebs and keep your website fresh with a regular blog. It will increase your online presence and your website hit rate.
“Some businesses pay exorbitant costs for search engine optimisation, but blogging is the most straightforward way to optimise your site for search engines and bring in more traffic.”
Become an expert
Blogs give you the opportunity to openly discuss your industry. They are the perfect platform to show you understand your field and provide solutions to problems others may have. By regularly posting a business blog you’ll soon establish yourself as a credible expert in your industry and become a go-to person for the media and customers alike to look to for insight and advice. The credibility you establish will convert into sales.
Low cost
The cost of running a blog is extremely cheap or in many cases free. Start by asking your website designer or host provider if they can install a blog on your existing site. If this isn’t an option, check out these popular host sites that make it easy to create and publish your own blog: Blogger.com, WordPress.com and Typepad.com. Keep in mind that if you set-up your blog under
a different domain, your main website won’t benefit from the added traffic.
Get Google friendly
Some businesses pay exorbitant costs for search engine optimisation, but blogging is the most straightforward way to optimise your site for search engines and bring in more traffic. Google favours blogs in its search because content is updated frequently, opposed to the millions of websites that are dormant for days, weeks or even months at a time. Google recognises new content by giving it higher placement on search engine result pages.
Free advertising
In addition to the ‘value driven’ content in your blog, it is also easy to add advertising to the page quite literally for free. Just remember – don’t bombard the page with advertising content. The reason people visit the site is for your informative, funny and useful blog.
Emotional attachment
A blog has the power to get your business up close and personal with your reader, connecting them on a much deeper level than standard marketing. By revealing your businesses personality in your blog you’re able to create a connection and a lasting relationship with your reader which translates into a loyal customer.
By Laura Baker
