Top Reasons to Consider Blogging for Your Business
“The daily blog … it’s one of the top 5 career decisions I’ve ever made.” – Tim Ferris, blogger, author
When it comes to deciding how to allocate your marketing budget, you have a lot of options to consider. Blogging has been around for a long time but it’s still an effective and economical tool.
Blogs enable small businesses to connect with potential customers, nurture new relationships and increase brand awareness. While your blog may not convert every new visitor, the blog platform analytics will give you valuable insight into your audience and help you better understand what products and services appeal to your readers.
Top Reasons to Start Blogging About Your Business
- Publishing a blog on your website is inexpensive compared to paid marketing channels.
- Since your blog is on your website, you own the space and determine how you tell the story and the formatting — unlike social media platform
- You can describe the full range of your expertise and include images
- You can inform your audiences about recent success stories.
- Website content stays the same over time, but a blog provides fresh and up-to-date content on a regular basis – creating a sense of a high level of business activity
- You build trust and credibility
- You keep your business top of mind
How to Start Blogging
If you are unfamiliar with blogging, you may want to spend some time researching blogs. When you discover blogs you like, think about what are the qualities that appeal to you. Your research can also include reading blogs in your same line of business to provide comparisons for what you might want to do.
Next, give it a whirl! Write several blogposts to see whether blogging is something you might want to commit to doing on a regular basis. Keep in mind it gets easier with practice.
If you’re ready to move forward, the next step is to add a blog to your business website. You may have the skills to do this yourself, or you can have a professional web developer or digital marketer create a blog for you. Remember to stay consistent with your branding – your blog is an extension of your business.
Blog with a Purpose
While some bloggers have become very successful with random entries, your business blog should be focused on the products and services you offer. That doesn’t mean every post promotes your business, but your topics should be relevant to your customers.
Planning Ahead Makes Blogging Less Work
Setting up an editorial calendar allows you to schedule topics in advance by date and goes a long way towards reducing the time you spend thinking about what to write and help you stay on topics relevant to your business.
If you schedule topics for one quarter at a time, you can designate posts by holidays, sales, and other events that can attract attention. For example, if back to school or spring cleaning are relevant buying drivers for your business, schedule posts on those topics at the appropriate time of year.
Deciding how often to blog is entirely up to you. Some people blog once a week, others once a month. It will help if you have a consistent schedule, so your audience knows what to expect. Your blog frequency will depend on how much time you want to invest in this communication channel.
Support for Blogging
When I suggest you should consider blogging, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to write the blogposts. You may have an employee who wants to get more involved in marketing and would enjoy taking on this task. Or you can outsource to someone who specializes in digital marketing.
Contact me to learn more about how I can help you tailor a marketing plan that includes blogging and fits your business objectives, culture and budget.
If you would like to learn more about how this might apply to your business, let’s talk:
