5 REASONS WHY YOU NEED A BUSINESS BLOG
Blogs have been around for a long time, and there’s no sign of them disappearing anytime soon. When used in the right way, they are an excellent marketing tool that can keep generating a consistent flow of traffic (and leads) for your business. Blogs aren’t just confined to boring niches either, they work well for any business whether you sell products, services, or software.
If you want some proof on the power of blogging for business, here are just a few statistics:
According to DemandMetric, businesses with a blog generate 67% more leads.
HubSpot state that businesses who blog average 55% more website traffic than those that don't.
With these statistics in mind, let’s take a look at some of the reasons why you need a business blog.
1. Attract An Audience With Your Blog
The best way to attract your target market is through quality content. The internet has opened up a whole new world of buying. Consumers use many online sources to research before they make a buying decision, and they are more informed than ever before. With so much noise in the online world and your competitors just a click away, a blog is a way that you can promote your USP, stand out from the crowd and show what it’s like to work with you. Blogs allow you to be authentic, establish a real connection and build relationships with your readers. When you start to build meaningful connections with your readers, this creates a sense of loyalty to your brand. As you begin to develop a deeper understanding of what your readers want, you can then start to map out some topic ideas for your posts that will add even more value to their lives or businesses. Popular content types for blogs include authoritative guides, list posts, how-to tutorials, or Q&As.
2. Retain Loyal Readers
As your follower base grows, you will get to know more and more about your audience, understanding their fears, frustrations, needs, wants and aspirations. When used in combination with social media, you can strengthen that loyalty even further. When you are consistently delivering exceptional content that your readers enjoy consuming, they are more likely to become a long term follower and eventually, a customer. Your focus should always be on attracting and retaining customers for the long term, maximising the customer lifetime value.
3. Build Authority and Credibility From Your Blog
Content is one of the best ways that you can build authority. When you have authority, you establish credibility. With credibility, you build trust. Higher levels of trust will often translate into more sales. Show your audience that you genuinely care about issues that affect them by covering topics that they are interested in. Serving user intent is one of the most effective ways of building authority. Always write about what your readers want, not what you think they want.
4. Enhance SEO Opportunities
Writing for SEO must first and foremost serve user intent. Each blog post that you create should be built around a specific outcome and tuned into WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?) Make sure that your focus keyword is well researched and a good fit for the content that you are creating. If your blog posts have a high bounce rate, this could be an indication that your content isn’t relevant to the keyword it is optimised for. Make your content relevant, actionable, and valuable to your readers. Always base your posts on outcomes. What will the reader gain from your post?
Once you have written your blog post, don’t forget to use on-page optimisation techniques such as optimising alt text for your images, including internal links to your product or service pages and linking out to authoritative external sources.
5. Increase Sales
Every consumer will research before they buy something, and with the internet, it’s easier than ever before. If your website ranks for the keywords that your prospects are searching for and they land on your blog to read an informative piece of content, they may be more interested in buying from you. Always make sure that you include a call to action in all of your blog posts to encourage them to take some form of action and engage more with your brand. Point them to another blog post, a product or service page or encourage them to ask a question. Every opportunity that you create for the reader to engage with your business is another step closer to them becoming a customer.
