11 advantages of having a business blog: inbound marketing

 

Allow me to provide a list right here at the top (for the skimmers). Having a business blog means:

• • Improved search engine ranking

• • Added value for your customers (you are educating and informing them, what’s not to love?)

• • Keeping your customers updated

• • Being a thought leader (an expert)

• • Building more awareness of your brand

• • Getting more leads and conversions

• • Getting ahead of your competitors

• • Increasing website traffic

• • More engagement from and with customers (not to mention those social media shares)

• • Lowered cost compared with advertising (and a one-off cost too)

• • Content that can be repurposed for social media (saving time and energy)

And now, for the deep dive into these benefits of blogging (for the non skimmers).

1) Improve your search engine ranking

How sweet it is to be loved by…search engines like Google and Yahoo! 

A blog is the perfect way to make your business more visible to your ideal customers by appearing at the top of the search engine results page.

Businesses with blogs get 55% more website visitors compared with those who don’t.

Think about the top 10 questions your customers ask about what you do or what you sell. When you are writing your blog, use these to identify the keywords within these questions.

Providing high-quality content using these keywords ensures that Google and other search engines recognise your business, website, and blog as super knowledgeable in this area.

Let’s talk volume

How do we cover more keywords? The simple answer is…more blogs!

Why cover 1 keyword when you can cover 30? Having a blog will cover a lot more ground than you can cover with only your home page, about me section, and contact me page.

Brucie bonus for your SEO (another one)

Having a blog means other businesses are 97% more likely to link to your website, and why is this so bloody important? (I can hear you at the back, don’t worry)

Businesses linking to your blogs improve your credibility with search engines which means your website will have more authority and rank higher in the search results! SCORE! (Note how I just linked to another website, practice what you preach)

Summary of this point…blogs are great for your SEO (the golden acronym for ‘helping the likes of Google understand what you do and helping your customers find you’)

2) Adding value to your customers

Blogs should provide the answers to the burning questions your customers have!

If you want to connect with potential customers in a meaningful way, be as interesting and entertaining as you can be and type like you speak. Forget everything you learnt about writing at school.

Use a 5 word paragraph!

Fortune favours the bold!

By providing advice and solving your customer’s problems you will build trust with the readers and they will be more likely to buy from your business.

The world has moved on from the hard sell and customers’ expectations for value have moved along with it.

3) Keeping your customers updated

Is there a new piece of legislation, a juicy piece of industry-specific news, some safety guidance, or product advice? Maybe you want to share company news?

In strolls you, the expert, to share the latest information and position yourself as the authority in your niche.

4) Be the expert

If you want to occupy your very own little industry specialist pedestal then BE THAT HUMAN writing about the problems facing it and giving solid advice on how to solve these issues.

You may have heard of the popular term ‘thought leader’, this refers to people who are the go-to experts in their field. These are the people who bring forth new and innovative thoughts and ideas. Be one of those people who have influence, and credibility, and who inspire others within the pet industry.

If you consistently provide quality solutions to common problems then you are likely to build a cohort of loyal customers.

5) Increase brand awareness

Your blog is an opportunity to showcase the voice and tone of your business. You should be pushing your brand out into the world so people can find you!

Sharing helpful and engaging content can strengthen your brand and build a very positive association between your brand and your customers.

I bet you feel more connected to me now than you did before. I have used my blog to show you who I am and to provide you with valuable insights about starting your own blog.

You can have the same impact on your potential customers.

6) Getting more leads and conversions

If your customers enjoy your content then they are likely to want to see more from you; remember, they found you because you provided a solution to their pain point.

New readers could mean new business.

After providing helpful information and value to your potential customers, this is the time to swoop in and ask them to subscribe to your email list or join your social media.

60% of marketers say that inbound marketing (SEO, blog content etc) is their highest quality source of leads.

7) Get ahead of your competitors

When it comes to rival businesses you must be more competitive than an 8-year-old in an easter egg hunt, and just as strategic!

If they have a blog, build a better one! If they don’t have a blog then build a blog. Take home…build a goddamn blog!

8) More traffic to your website

Even if they were not looking for you, customers are more likely to stumble across your business when you have a blog.

This is where it is critically important to use the right keywords, format, structure, pictures, headings, meta titles etc (don’t worry if you don’t know about all of these things, it’s SEO blog speak for ‘Google/Bing/Yahoo need to love it’).

If your blog is awesome and full of content your customer is more likely to spend more time on your website and to explore more of the site.

9) More engagement from and with customers

Your blog gives your audience the opportunity to share and comment on your content. It can rapidly fly around social media reaching even more of your target audience.

Your blog also creates an opportunity to find out what your customers think and need.

You may be surprised how many other ideas come from these types of interactions for future blog posts.

10) Lowered cost compared with advertising (and a one-off cost too)

Let’s not hide our heads in the sand like a sinking Ostridge, traditional advertising is expensive!

It is also a marketing strategy that requires a spend every time it meets with your prospective customers.

Blogging is a far more cost-effective strategy and it brings about long-term results with either a commitment of time or a one-off financial commitment.

Blogs live on your website forever! Creating valuable content brings a flow of organic traffic and you can always update the blog post to keep the content up to date.

11) Content that can be repurposed for social media (saving time and energy)

Blog articles make delicious repurposed content for your social media accounts so add them into your content calendar.

You can repost them directly or simply take extracts (so for example, this blog is going to be split into 11 strategies and turned into several social media posts because it’s liquid gold).

To sum up

If you made it to the end (skimmers you can be counted in here too) then undoubtedly you understand that your business will benefit from having a blog.

You need two things. Time and knowledge (or someone who has these two things) and if you need help deciding between writing your content and hiring a content writer here is a link to another article covering exactly that.

If you have time and are happy to learn search engine optimization techniques then write your heart out, stop putting it off and start blogging because you know it makes sense!

If you are the other 90% of business owners or marketing departments being pulled into 100 different directions then please get in touch via my contact page. We can have a chat about how we can work together.