There are plenty of articles out there giving you advice about blogging for business but why exactly should your business be blogging? And does it really make a difference anyway?
The short answer is yes blogging does make a difference! There are also a number of reasons why you should be blogging for your business and the benefits it can bring which we’ll cover in this post.
Help your target audience
‘How-to’ type posts are very popular and help your customers get the best out of your products and service. It will also encourage your audience to use your blog as a helpful and trusted resource.
Helpful blog posts also show that you care about your customers and are going the extra mile to help them get the most out of your products and services.
Engage with customers
Like Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, your blog is another opportunity for you to talk to your existing and potential customers through comments left on your posts.
Before you set up your blog it’s worth talking about what you will do if you receive a negative comment. The general rule is that if it’s a customer complaining about your product or service you should reply to the comment informing them of the best way to get in touch to resolve the issue.
It can be tempting to delete a negative comment but doing so will only further annoy the person who left the comment.
Boost search rankings
If you are regularly producing high quality, interesting content containing some of the keywords you want to rank for, you will begin to see your search rankings improve. The changes won’t happen over night and it may take weeks before you see a difference but if you persevere with producing high quality content it will make a difference to your rankings.
Depending on the quality of the content on your website you may find that your blog posts rank above your website, so it’s important to make sure that everything you post is of the highest quality and will make a good impression on anyone seeing your website, brand, products and services for the first time.
It’s important to make sure that your blog is on the same domain as your website. For example your blog should be at www.yourbusiness.com/blog rather than www.yourbusinessblog.com.
Keeping your blog on the same domain as your website improves usability and means that your website and your blog will not be competing with each other in search engines.
Share your expertise and knowledge
Your blog is a good place to share your knowledge and expertise in your industry and prove to your readers and customers that you know what you are talking about, which can help you build up trust with potential and existing customers who will view you as knowledged and experienced.
News
Your blog can be used to put a more human face on your business by sharing news about your business.
For example, our customers love The Marketing Dogs and often ask us how they are. Last year George had to have an operation and the phone was ringing off the hook for days with customers asking for the latest update, so we began to update our blog with news about how George was getting on.
If you don’t send out a newsletter to your customers to let them know what’s going on, your blog is a great place to keep them up to date on the latest news, promotions, offers and new products.
Promotion
Talking of promotions, your blog can be used to promote your latest offer, product or service.
Yes! Blogging really does help.
A HubSpot study found that both B2B and B2C businesses who blogged at least 15 times a month received five times more traffic than businesses who didn’t blog at all.
It also found that B2C companies who blog one or two times a month will generate 70% more leads through their website than those who don’t blog at all.
It’s hard to find time to blog sometimes and when you’re busy it’s usually the first thing to be pushed aside. Try and make time each week to sit down and write at least one blog post, and if you find you have more time one week write another one so you’ve got a post ready and waiting if you find you’re too busy one week.
Alternatively we can manage your blog for you by writing blog posts and posting them to social media, or if you haven’t got a blog we can design and implement a blog into your website for a seamless experience for the user.
To find out more about our blog management services, call us on 01543 387 047 or fill in our online contact form.