Do you want a steady stream of new, targeted visitors to your website? Wouldn’t it be nice if more people came to your website and purchased your products? Do you want to build trust with a wider range of people, so that customers choose you over your competitors?
If you are a business owner, then the obvious answer to these questions is an emphatic yes. And if that’s the case, then your business needs to be running a business blog.
There are many benefits of blogging on behalf of your company. And yes, blogging is still relevant and effective, and it’s never too late to join the party.
But it takes time in order to execute an effective blogging strategy. Creating content isn’t easy, nor should you try and do the bare minimum.
Keep reading to learn why you should start a blog, how to create a blog, and what a blog even is.
Table of Contents
What Is Business Blogging?
Real quick, you need to know what blogging is, and what it isn’t. Blogging is not writing about your personal life, or even about your company. Blogging is all about creating helpful content, such as blog articles, that answer questions and solve problems.
It’s all about helping other people, whether they are your customers or not. It’s not about you or your business, though you can weave those aspects in.
So if you run a pest control company, your blog should be all about pest control and keeping residential and commercial properties free from common pests, not about how great your company is.
The Benefits of Blogging
So why is it important to create content for businesses? Here are just a few blogging benefits.
Gain Traffic through SEO
One of the biggest benefits of blogging is that it’s the foundation for search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is all about gaining free traffic from search engines like Google.
Blog articles will be based on common keywords or phrases. You write an article that defines a search term, answers a question, and solves a problem.
If your article is optimized and provides value to people, it has the potential to rank higher in search results than other existing web pages. Creating the content itself is only the first part of the equation, but it’s the most important.
Gaining traffic this way is much more sustainable and effective than paying for ads.
Provide Free Education
When you are blogging, you are essentially educating people. Nowadays, when people have a question, they can Google it on their phone instantly.
Whether they are looking for the best restaurant in a new city or wondering how to kill ants in their home, they turn to Google to provide them with educational, helpful content.
By blogging about your industry, you get to be the one providing valuable education to hundreds, if not thousands of users. By providing this “free” education, you are increasing the number of chances a user turns into a customer later down the line.
Establish Authority in Your Industry
Blogging also helps to build your authority. Authority in the businesses world is defined by how trustworthy you are as a company.
If someone is looking to hire a web developer, for example, they want to hire the smartest, most qualified web developer that they can afford.
By blogging, you get to showcase your knowledge and expertise. You get to show potential customers that you do, in fact, know what you are talking about.
So even if your content never gets found in search results, your blog posts may be read by a handful of people who are considering hiring you. Showcasing your expertise could mean the difference between winning a new client every day, week, or month, or not winning any.
Nurture Leads
And of course, blogging and creating helpful content is a way of nurturing leads. Every business is engaged in a sales funnel of some sort, whether on purpose or by accident.
The sales funnel is all about introducing new users to your company, and getting them closer and closer to making a purchase until they finally pull out their credit card.
A well-written blog post might be the final domino that helps leads finally make that purchase.
Tips for Effective Blogging
So what does it take to execute an effective blogging strategy? There’s a lot that goes into here. Here are some things to keep in mind.
Define Your Main Goal
First off, define what type of content you want to create. This will relate back to your main goal.
Your goal might be to increase web traffic, so new users can discover your website and company.
Or your goal might be to educate those who are currently on your list of leads, eventually leading them to make a purchase. Or your goal might be to create ongoing, helpful content for existing customers.
These articles may be the key to retaining them as customers.
Your goal will determine the type of content that you create. SEO-focused content will revolve around keywords and phrases, and will usually provide introductory information to a topic.
But if your goal is educating existing customers, you might not need to worry about keywords, and your content might be more technical in nature.
Outsource Where Possible
You don’t have to run your content marketing strategy on your own. You can outsource various aspects of the process.
If you are confident in your writing abilities but need help with the SEO side, you can hire someone to do the SEO and keyword research on your behalf, creating the topics while you write the content.
Or you can hire a content creator if you aren’t a good writer, or don’t have time to sit down and write out entire articles.
Or, you can hire someone to edit the article, optimize it after it’s written, and publish it to your website. And you can even find a person or team that can handle the entire process for you.
Remember, as a business owner or manager, delegating time-consuming tasks is ultimately your key to success.
Don’t Wait: Start Blogging Today
The benefits of blogging are numerous, and this article barely scratches the surface. Every company that wants to grow its user base and its authority should be blogging. It’s foundational to the success and growth of any business website.
Looking for more tips like this? Head over to our blog to keep reading.
