Most businesses regardless of their size, have a website, and with this report from Statista, you can see how common it is to have an online platform for your company. But with so much competition, how do you stand out? In this post, we’re going to discuss the benefits of business blogs, and why they’re essential for your company to stand out from the competition.
What Are Business Blogs?
A business blog is a section of a company’s website dedicated to providing written information about the industry. For example, a car sales company would have a blog that focused on the automotive industry and its sub-topics.
Most websites have a blog because they understand the benefits they offer. PPC campaigns can be useful, but they also cost a lot of money. Blogging is a form of content marketing, which focuses on building authority and trust with your target audience.
The Benefits of Business Blogs
Now it’s time to uncover eight benefits of business blogs. Hopefully, this list of benefits will inspire you to start a blog and grow your business.
Good for SEO
SEO is one of the most important parts of marketing your business, but it goes a lot deeper than placing some keywords on your homepage. Blogging is the best way to execute an SEO strategy because it enables you to build on your chosen keywords consistently.
Once you begin to post regularly, you’ve got more chance of showing in search engine results. SEO is a complex process, but once you start building on your content, you can attract organic search engine traffic, which saves a lot of money on other lead generation methods.
One thing about SEO is you should always go for long-tail keywords to increase your chances of ranking. It’s also essential to choose high volume keywords with low competition. You can see a list of the best SEO tools here.
Connect With Your Audience
Your website should be a platform for your business and take people through the buyer’s journey so they’ll become paying customers. Because your website is effectively a sales platform, people find blogs are ideal for connecting with their audience.
Blogs don’t need to be so sales orientated, which means you can use them to connect with your audience. People want to know about you and what makes your company unique, so don’t be afraid to use your voice, and inform your customers about your vision, ethics and put your own opinions on your blog posts.
It Improves Your Internal Linking
Internal linking is often the wallflower nobody notices, while backlinks are the cool kid everyone wants to be friends with. Yes, backlinks are beneficial for building referral traffic, but you should never forget the importance of internal links.
If you want your visitors to stay on your site for longer, you need to make sure your visitors can navigate around correctly. Internal links act as signposts, pointing people to different pages.
For example, if your visitors click onto your about us page, you can add a link to your pricing section, so you’re effectively directing them through the buying journey.
You can read more about internal linking here.
Supports Your Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of the best ways for you to generate leads. Once someone gives you their email address, you can send them regular updates, special offers and make sure your company remains in their mind.
The main issue with email marketing is getting people to sign up. You need to offer something special for a customer to let you into their inbox. If you have an interesting blog with engaging content, then there’s a bigger chance that people will sign up.
You Can Get Talking
Your website isn’t the best place to get to know your audience. Yes, some people might get in touch using your contact details or live chat feature, but only if they want to use your service. If a lead doesn’t choose to contact you, then it’s going to be difficult to involve them in your conversations.
A blog is the best way to get people talking because it’s an opportunity to ask for their opinion. Once you let people know that you want to hear from them, they’re more likely to contribute to your blog, which will help it to grow.
Getting an active community behind your blog takes time, so don’t be disheartened if people don’t comment immediately. The idea is to keep building content, so people have a reason to stay on your blog.
More Social Media Exposure
Social media is endlessly popular, and it’s almost impossible to remember a time we didn’t have it. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn are the most common platforms in the UK, and each has its benefits depending on the industry you operate within.
The most significant advantage of blogging for social media is that your audience can do your marketing for you. Once they decide to share your posts, your content and business reach their network too. Essentially, blogging can result in people marketing your content by shares and likes without you having to spend a penny!
You Can Offer In-Depth Explanations
Business blogs are ideal if you sell products or offer services. You can explain in a lot more detail about how your products/services can benefit people through case studies, reviews, buying guides and in-depth explanations.
Once people understand how your business benefits them, they’re more likely to make a purchase.
People Expect It
Have you ever gone onto a company website and wondered where their blog is? It’s a fact that today, people expect businesses to have a blog. It shows they care about their customers and have something to say about their business.
According to The Content Marketing Institute, 79% of B2B companies had a blog in 2018, so you can see how important it is. Blogs are a sign that you’re a reputable company, and you have expertise in your field.
The Bottom Line
Business blogs are an excellent way to communicate with your customers and let them know how your business can help them. It would help if you thought of your blog as a strong foundation for your marketing strategy, and the costs are lower than PPC marketing.
Before you begin your business blog, think about your industry and decide on a selection of topics that will offer value to your customers. You can also use the HubSpot content generator to come up with interesting blog topics.
If you’d like some help with your blog, there are lots of companies that offer content marketing services.
Do you have a blog? What do you find most challenging about content creation? Let us know in the comments section – we’d love to hear from you.