Why You Should Blog
With an astronomical amount of blogs on the internet today, you will be forgiven for wondering whether it would be worth starting your own business blog, and if you did, would it get lost in the great ether. The answer is… a definite YES! A blog is a valuable tool to help showcase your business, reach your customers, and generally tell the World all about how great you are, and what you have to offer.
It allows you to boost the number of visitors to your site, and lets customers interact on a more personal level, letting you know exactly what it is that they want. Most people think that blogs are time consuming and don’t see the point in wasting valuable hours (which could be spent making money) writing about stuff that perhaps not a lot of people are initially going to read.
Wrong.
There’s a reason why so many businesses have a blog and if you don’t have one, you’re already falling behind the competition. There are many reasons why a business blog will help you shine online, so read on to discover why you should get started, give it a go, and help your business grow!
A blog keeps your website current
If your website content is generally static (most of the information stays the same) you may find that clients visit your site, see what you have to offer, and then never return… Why would they if there was nothing new? So to remedy this… A Blog! A blog will keep your content fresh and also give you something to entice your clients to keep coming back!
A blog gives your business a real voice
What I mean by this is that you can connect in a less formal (and more human) way than perhaps your other marketing efforts. With all the sharing of content that goes on in social media, blogging is a fantastic way to get noticed, and It also makes you stand out as an authority in your field. In turn, these facts will generate more site traffic. If well thought out in terms of content and keywords your blog will show up in searches driving traffic your way.
A blog will make you more involved
You will be more inclined to examine your site statistics when you blog – to see where your visitors are linking through from, which pages are most visited, and what appeals to them. This information will really enhance your marketing strategy, and define who you reach online, enabling you to focus your efforts on the right clients/customers. If you encourage interaction by asking your readers to comment, ask questions, and feedback you will find that this is invaluable information for your business. You will learn who your customers are, what they want and need, and how best to deliver your products or services to them.
How to blog
It’s all very well wanting a blog, needing a blog, and seeing the value of having a blog, but what do you have to do to get started? Where do you actually begin? It can be easy to feel overwhelmed by all the options that are out there. Should you link to a Facebook page, or promote yourself on Twitter? What do you actually write about? None of these things are really important if it’s stopping you from putting yourself out there.The main thing is to just do it.
You should write content that is relevant to you and your business, include current news from within your industry, or perhaps answer a question you get asked about a lot… you could also write about topics that interest you.
It is wise to keep it honest and real, and definitely don’t use it as an outright advert for your products or services as this isn’t something that your readers will appreciate and/or come back to again. Give your readers (or your potential readers) something that will be of interest or of use to them, you will gain their trust and respect, and they will be more likely to engage with you. Responding to your readers will give you better insight into their way of thinking, and further material for future blog posts.
Promoting your blog
You can optimise your blog by researching and utilising keywords, although don’t just use words for the sake of using keywords as this tends to be frowned upon and realistically it won’t be quality content!
‘Keyword research is one of the most important, valuable, and high return activities in the search marketing field. Ranking for the right keywords can make or break your website. By researching your market’s keyword demand, you can not only learn which terms and phrases to target with SEO, but also learn more about your customers as a whole’
You should promote your blog through social media, encourage your readers to do the same by displaying social sharing buttons, and always aim to include a Call-To-Action at the end of your post. By utilising a Call-To-Action you are giving your readers specific direction to engage further by asking them a question.
When to blog
Being a consistent blogger is best practice! You need not write daily, or even weekly, but you should stay consistent so you don’t lose readers. There are a number of tools available to help you organise and schedule social media posts (including uploading your blog posts to social media). You should prioritise your blog writing/posting as it is essentially a free source of brand advertising, with the massive bonus of seeing who is interested, where they come from, and what they want!
Do you follow any blogs which you love? Leave a comment so we can check them out! If you are still a little unsure about blogging and where to begin, get in touch with me and I will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.
