5 Reasons Your Business Needs a Blog
5 Beneficial Reasons Your Business Needs a Blog Immediately
There are numerous benefits for businesses to indulge in blogging. To be honest, blogging is critical for businesses. However, bland, standard blog posts won’t do the trick. They are not only lazy, but they are ineffective.
So, with that being said, what exactly is effective? You need to publish articles that are both well-written and informative, while keeping customer engagement and strategy in mind.
Blogging has the ability to:
- Drive online traffic.
- Encourage and convert customers.
- Maintain customer engagement.
- Separate you from other businesses in similar industries.
- Increase demand and interest in your services and/or products.
What’s more, blogging is a simple practice and posts can go on to provide the aforementioned benefits for years after being published.
Here are five reasons why blogging can be beneficial to your business as well as some examples of companies that currently have blogs that are proving to be beneficial to their businesses.
1. It Can Drive Traffic to Your Website.
A blog provides web users with a reason to visit your website on a regular basis. This is particularly true if you post content frequently and constantly deliver high-quality content that is useful, entertaining or both.
Both B2B and B2C companies can see the benefit – an increase in traffic as well as leads – when they blog regularly, when compared to companies that do not blog on a regular basis or simply do not blog at all. It is obvious that the more people that visit your site will equate to the potential for more sign-ups, reservations, client inquiries, etc.
Regardless of the type of business that you are running and operating, the more website traffic that you have, the higher the chances are that a visitor will purchase your service or product. Therefore, it is imperative that you focus on creating content that is targets toward your target audience and their pain points and that your headlines are on point with the content in the blog.
2. It Can Bring in New Customers.
Some businesses believe that they don’t have enough time to mess with posting content to a blog.
Prior to purchasing a service or product, how do you perform your research? Most people will do a quick Google or search engine search before making a buying decision. During your search, engaging and information blog content will appear in the search results that can help you make your decision.
So, with that being said, it may time some time and effort on your part to create a blog strategy and to create those blog posts, but it will be worth it in the end. Informative blogs help customers research solutions and then contact your company when they have made their decision and are ready to make their purchase. Here are some examples:
- Clothing boutiques may post weekly style predictions as well as season-related outfit tips, while ensuring to throw in their own clothing.
- Home contractors could choose to post home improvement tips while featuring before and after photos of their completed work.
- Tax consultants could post tax tips and specifically benefit from the considerable and predictable increase in tax-related searches during the first quarter of the year.
Just make sure that when creating your blog posts that you keep SEO best practices in mind to ensure that leads are always brought in and that customers are always being nurtured. You will also want to ensure that each blog post encourages some type of action. For example, depending on the type of business that you operate, this may be to call you for a consultation, read another blog post, or simply fill out a form for a quote.
Example: Legal Industry Blogging
Statistics report that 96 percent of individuals who seek legal information will utilize search engines to locate it. Therefore, it is obvious that individuals are seeking online legal services and many of them are ready to proceed when they find the information that they are seeking. This is why a high-quality blog with well-optimized posts with legal tips and advice can be particularly beneficial in driving traffic to your site and increase the chances of new clients. Joye Law Firm has done an excellent job of creating a blog with useful, engaging content.
3. It Can Help Transform Your Blog into a Destination.
With business blogging, one strategy that you don’t want to overlook is creating a blog that users will want to come read anytime – even when they don’t need something. Now, some business blogs will be need-based, such as tax-related, financial and legal blogs, there are plenty of others that can be want-based so that users can read leisurely.
With need-based business blogs, the focus is to provide readers with answers and solutions. In many cases, these blogs will provide readers with something that they had no idea that they wanted until they read the blog, such as a beauty product, food or clothing.
Thy key with want-based blogs is to create content that is incredibly engaging and interesting, as you need people to want to read the posts for fun. Eventually, you will create a strong connection with your readers and they’ll come back for more because of loyalty.
Here are a few examples of want-based blogs:
The products/services that the aforementioned three companies sell aren’t really needs – cooking supplies, trendy clothes, and gym subscriptions. For that reason, they are want-based, or lifestyle-based, and are meant to nurture a community and show how their products/services can enhance your quality of life.
Example: Restaurant Industry Blogging
Restaurant owners who don’t have blogs are missing out on a great opportunity. There are numerous people who read real estate and legal blogs when they need information and advice, but there are plenty of people who enjoy reading about food simply for the fun of it. In fact, on Instagram, there are more than 200 million posts with the hashtag #food. And, on Pinterest, the top category is “Food and Drink”.
With that being said, restaurants are in the prime spot to have a food blog to be a true success online. Tupelo Honey Café has had quite the success with their blog. They share copycat recipes with high-quality images, features of new meals, and even roundups of customers’ Instagram photos.
4. It Allows You to Show and Tell About Your Business.
Your blog has the ability to serve as an incredibly attractive portfolio. If a proven track record means everything for future business, then it is vital to have easy access to a way to show prospective clients to the potential results that they can expect to see from you. Some specific examples of these businesses may include the following:
- Home contractors
- Graphic designers
- Personal trainers
- Beauticians
An online blog and some high-quality pictures of your previous work can help you design an attractive portfolio that you can direct prospective clients to in a snap.
It would take a decent amount of work to upgrade your entire website to make a portfolio work, but blogs on content management systems (CMS), like WordPress (WP), are simple to update, even with little to no technical knowledge. Essentially, if you are able to successfully create and publish a post on Facebook, then you can create and publish a blog on WP. However, if you run into trouble, there is plenty of free advice online.
Once you have a portfolio up and running, you will have a link that you can send to people.
Example: Home Improvement Industry Blogging
If you switch on the television, you will almost always find a home improvement or DIY show. If you are a home contractor, a blog is the perfect way to showcase your projects so that people can see what their homes have the potential to look like once a remodel is completed.
Haskell Interiors does a great job of this with their blog, as they not only post case studies as well as before and after photos of prior client work, but they also share home improvement tips for their readers.
5. It Keeps on Giving Results.
Long after you make a blog post live, that blog post will continue to provide results for your business. It will bring in new leads and customers while increasing sales. Hubspot reports that over 75 percent of their blog views are actually for some of their older posts. And, what’s more, those older posts are what help them collect 90 percent of their leads.
Now, this does not mean you should never post new content, as new posts are very important. It simply means that old posts will remain relevant to your readers for some time. In addition, older blog posts will gain ranking and authority over time, which brings in a significant amount of organic traffic that can help with serving your existing campaigns and goals. In some cases, all it will takes is a tweak here and a tweak there for your blog to retain its overall worth and attract competent leads.
Start Blogging Now for Your Business
As can be seen from the information above, blogging for business is extremely beneficial regardless of where your customers are in the buying stage. Try using one or more of the aforementioned examples and then track/measure your results. When you blog effectively, you can attract leads and then capture and engage new customers.
If you would like more information or would like help getting started, contact us at WebDetail.
