Blogging requires time and resources (or a portion of your marketing budget), but are the payoffs worth it? The quick answer? Yes. Your blog can drive sales, visibility and public interest. It gives you the opportunity to communicate your expertise to potential customers in your unique company voice.
Done right, business blogging allows you to:
- become a trusted authority on your topic of expertise
- build your list of potential targets
- develop relationships with large numbers of customers (or potential customers)
- continually provide your website fresh content and improve your SEO
- increase your website traffic and sales
While many companies have blogs, researching and writing blog posts isn’t for everyone and many small business owners find themselves with little or no time to invest in their online presence. But you need to remember that your blog is another marketing channel – one that complements and works with your other marketing efforts.
So how does a blog benefit your business? Here are five ways:
Share, Educate and Influence: Become The Trusted Authority
Do you want to stay in front of customer and potential customers so they think of you when they need your widget or service? Do you want to be considered someone who’s a thought leader in your industry? Whether you sell tires or manage a retirement home, a thoughtful, well-written blog strengthens your credibility as the someone others turn to for knowledge and experience. Think of a blog as a tool that allows you to share your expertise with readers, teach them important information …and potentially land real-life customers.
Build Your Marketing List
A man walks in to a chocolate shop (probably my other half), hands the proprietor $5.00 for some peanut butter walnut fudge and departs. Imagine if that same person instead searched for ‘peanut butter walnut fudge’ online, arrived at your website and signed up for your blog. You’d have captured two valuable things from this highly qualified lead: 1) their interest, and 2) their contact information. That is the power of a blog – it’s another marketing channel you can use to identify and attract qualified prospects.
Develop Relationships With Customers & Potential Customers
An engaging blog personality can develop relationships by encouraging feedback and interaction. While many business owners think about using their blog as a quick way for them to share a press release, a product recall, a new product offering, the real value is in giving your customer information that they want and need. Above all, business owners must remain responsive to comments on their blog. Talk to your readers and create those great relationships. After all, everyone wants to do business with someone they like.
Increase Visibility through SEO
Bet you didn’t know that your blog could help your website’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO)! Search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo! rank websites according to a number of criteria, including the quality and quantity of inbound & outbound links and how often fresh, relevant keyword-rich content is posted. This is exactly what makes blogs great for SEO – you’re continually posting fresh content on your site and they give you more opportunities to build those inbound and outbound links. Blogs also create a reason for your potential customers to return. Don’t underestimate the power of having new material frequently appear on your site; search firms like Google take note of stale content and lower your search rankings.
Increase Website Traffic & Sales
This one’s a no-brainer: the more people you have walking through the door, the more likely you are to make a sale. Blogs bring guests interested in your content to your website. Blogs also provide a great way to use your other social media avenues. Tweet about your blog post. Facebook some excerpts from this week’s blog. Creating conversations gives you more opportunities to keep potential customers visiting your website, so you can make the sale!
More and more businesses are turning to outside firms for social media management, but business owners need to stay involved. Remember that your business blog is a component of your overall marketing strategy and not just ‘that web thing you need to do.’
Has your company started a business blog? Have you noticed any changes in your sales, your search engine rankings or the way your customers interact with you?