What is a blog and the benefits?
WHAT IS A BLOG?
Blogs are informal articles written for the purpose of showing your audience your knowledge, expertise and awareness of what your target market are talking about and looking for solutions to. They can be as long or short as you wish. They are a great way to generate fresh content on a website and provide a catalyst for email marketing, social media promotion and to drive search traffic to your website.
Blogging is probably one of the best activities you can do, to market your business. It fundamentally supports business growth, which is one of the key objectives all business owners seek.
You can think of each blog as the equivalent of a new page on your website for search engines to read. Therefore every time you post a blog you are fundamentally creating a new web page, which is all housed under the blog so your website doesn’t get cluttered with numerous random pages. Each blog creates the same effect regarding increased search-ability and therefore greater opportunities for website traffic.
BUSINESS BLOGGING IS A FORM OF MARKETING
Business blogging is a marketing tactic that uses written content on a topic that is relevant to your business or customer to generate greater online visibility.
Blogging is considered by many as one of the most effective ways to build brand awareness while providing relevant and useful content alongside answering questions or discussions that your target audience is talking about. However you need to provide consistent blogs. The more frequently you post new content the greater the chances of increasing your business brand awareness and traffic to your website, which in turn translate into potential sales.
When you create a blog post this creates one more indexed page on your website, meaning it’s one more opportunity for you to show up in search engines and drive traffic to your website. Creating content regularly informs search engines, such as Google, that your website is actively updated and therefore should be checked frequently to see what new content has surfaced.
Once a blog is indexed in search engines it stays there, meaning your blog can still gain traffic and generate leads weeks, months and even years after. Businesses using blogs as part of their content marketing mix get 67% more leads than those who don’t (Hubspot).
By writing a blog weekly or even monthly, it gives your business a voice and an opportunity to inform people about your latest news and business happenings.
Well written articles or blogs demonstrates your company as an industry leader. By posting topics which resonate with your market and customers shows your knowledge, shows how relevant your products or services are. This type of content will only support your business in establishing itself as a go-to location for the information your customers want and need.
THE BENEFITS?
A business blog enables you to engage with your customers, market and industry.
It allows you to explore your audience’s issues and concerns and provide them with a solution or answer to their questions, in turn building a reputation as an authority in your field.
It’s where your business personality can be shown and in turn, help to increase positive customer interaction and develop a likeable brand people would choose over others.
It’s what differentiates you from your competitors, if you take the time to engage with the market and customers and listen and provide the solutions and answers, you will stand out.
It helps you build a brand voice, and to develop a relationship with your audience.
It builds a connection with people and “people buy from people.”
This is why it is no surprise to learn that according to searchenginepeople.com “blogs are the 5th most trusted source for accurate online information.”
Blogging is an inexpensive way for small businesses to drive traffic to their site, enhance inbound marketing efforts and attract more prospective customers and in turn sales.
But fundamentally blogging provides you with a way of keeping in contact with existing clients and gives you an opportunity to create and connect with new ones.
It’s a great way to demonstrate your knowledge about the business sector that you operate in, as well as displaying your interest in your customers.
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