If you have a business today, you should start a blog related to your product or service.
Every business today is online, even if it isn’t an e-commerce store. It’s because almost every business needs at least a website, social media pages, and online engagement with customers. If your business isn’t online in some form, it is almost as if it does not exist.
When your business is online, you must create content for the audience. You can make different forms of online content—video, graphics, audio (podcast), blog posts, etc.
Written content (blog posts) is compulsory for all businesses. Even if you produce audio and video content, you must include a blog section on your company’s official website.
Many businesses fail because of bad marketing. Blogging is a marketing strategy that can help your business grow organically. Unfortunately, many business owners are unaware of blogging strategies that can help market their products and services.
Instead, they only choose expensive marketing strategies like sponsored ads.
Why do businesses need a blog?
Having a blog for your business has several benefits. Below are some of the most significant ones.
1. Establish customer relationship
Customers need information about your business—what you do, your products/services, and the value you provide to people. The best way to provide detailed information is by writing blog posts.
It can also help you build better relationships with your customers. They will read your posts, learn about your products, and some will try to engage by commenting and sharing.
You can answer their queries, solve their problems, and share other essential information about your business.
Your customers will trust you more, and they might even spread the word about the business to others.
2. Build brand awareness
People consume a lot of online content every day. According to Smart Insights, there are 4.62 billion social media users worldwide in 2022.
These users consume videos, articles, pictures, infographics, and other content types.
Creating quality content online helps you build brand awareness. People will know about your products and services, who you are, how you work, and what you do. Your content should be on all platforms if you want to reach more people.
Blogging helps search engine ranking. It means that people will find your articles on Google easily. But the best part about written content is that you can repurpose it into other content forms like video, audio, and graphics.
So, you can reach out to more customers on all platforms by writing blog posts.
3. Search engine ranking
Blogging is the best way to increase your search engine ranking. You can do that by writing SEO-optimized blog posts related to your business.
SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is the practice of using several content strategies to get your content to rank at the top of search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
SEO allows you to receive organic traffic to your website, blog posts, or landing pages.
The best way to use SEO on your blog posts is by focusing on the right keywords, using images and links, and optimizing the writing structure.
Receiving organic traffic saves money and will also increase potential customers for your business.
4. Lead generation
When you have engaging articles that receive high traffic, it becomes easier for you to convert readers into sales leads for your business.
You can do this by collecting emails from your visitors. You can send them newsletters and offers about your business, products, and services.
5. Earn money
Blogging is a great way to earn passive income online. You can monetize your blog and earn some extra cash from it.
Display advertisements, sponsors, affiliate marketing, and digital product sales are great ways to earn money from a blog.
While your business generates money from its operations, you can also make a side income from your blog. So it’s a win-win strategy.
How to grow your business with a blog?
Now that you know why blogging is essential for your business, I’ll tell you how you can grow your blog. Use the following strategies to make the most out of your business blog.
# Create content regularly
Publish blog posts frequently, at least 2-3 articles a week. It’s best to hire a freelance writer to take care of writing, editing, and publishing.
It takes time for a blog to grow organically. So, you must write at least 20 articles before seeing actual growth.
Don’t forget to share your articles on social media platforms, where you can find many customers for your business.
Make sure that your content is valuable to the readers. Don’t just write about your business. Write how-to guides, tutorials, hacks, and tips that are helpful to people.
# Engage with the audience
Allow people to comment on your articles. That way, you increase audience engagement.
They might ask you about your business, products, and services. On the other hand, they might also provide feedback and criticize whatever is written on the post. Read comments and reply to them. Acknowledge them, learn, and improve.
Building good customer relationships is crucial for business success.
# Collect emails
You must collect emails from your visitors, whether they are your customers or not. Emails are powerful tools that can help you grow your business.
Set up a landing page or a simple pop-up box that asks for each visitor’s email.
It is always better to give them something in exchange. It could be a newsletter subscription, a simple PDF guide, ebooks, or access to special services.
Send emails regularly about your business, its products/services, news, updates, and future activities. Keep your customers engaged with valuable content.
# Focus on SEO
Make sure you write SEO-optimized articles. As I said, it helps rank on search engines and brings organic traffic to your articles.
Your goal is to get as many people to read your articles. Find high-volume keywords relevant to your business niche and write blog posts on them.
Learn more about writing SEO-friendly blog posts in this article.
# Repurpose your content
The best way to reach more audience is by creating multiple forms of content. You can repurpose your blog post into videos, audio, graphics, and more.
Every social media has its content preference. For example, Instagram uses pictures, Twitter uses short texts, YouTube allows long videos, TikTok allows reels and short videos, and Pinterest is best for infographics.
Repurpose your blog post into each form and post on all your business’s social platforms. You will be able to reach more people and generate blog traffic.
Read more about repurposing in this article.
In Summary
Blogging is an effective marketing strategy for your business. Every business must include a blog that discusses its products/services and provide value to readers.
The benefits of having a blog for your business are:
- Establish customer relationship
- Build brand awareness
- Search engine ranking
- Lead generation
- Earn money
For you to grow your blog, you must incorporate several blogging strategies.
- Create content regularly
- Engage with the audience
- Collect emails
- Focus on SEO
- Repurpose your content
If you have a business or a startup, start a blog today. See how it transforms your business in the long run.
However, don’t expect success right away. Blogging is not like sponsored ads. It takes time, but growth is inevitable.