8 Benefits of Blogging for Small Business
Blogging is an important part of a small business marketing mix. With consistent blogs, that deliver value to your target market, you can really set your business apart from competitors and other much larger businesses. With this in mind, we look at 8 key benefits of blogging for small business.
Give your customers what they want
We are living in the midst of a marketing revolution. This revolution, as is often the case, is tied into many other revolutions the result of which is that the business landscape is changing radically. This leads to one consistent need that regular blogging can satisfy.
The need and want to hear from experts. No doubt, if you are a successful small business you are an expert in your sector. From knowing about the products you manufacture or sell to the service you provide or the challenges you face.
You have unique experience and people will value your advice and thoughts on these subjects.
Convince and plant ideas
Winning people’s attention online is fiercely competitive. If you can hold someone’s attention enough to read or scan a blog, you will gain the opportunity to influence.
A well-written blog post will give you the opportunity to present an idea and expand upon its benefits. This is one of the most effective ways to plant new ideas into your marketplace or key people within your sector.
Develop organic SEO
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is still heavily reliant on written text. The more text you have on your website and the more posts you have the better you will do on SEO. This is a generalisation, but the foundation of good SEO does come from good content.
Successful SEO can be a huge win for a small business, but it does take time to develop. Good blog posts are not easy to produce let alone creating them regularly. Once you have 50 – 100 individual blog posts on your website, that are relevant to your target market, it puts you in a good position to further optimise to relevant keywords.
This way, when potential customers search your product or sector via Google, your website appears in a prominent position. Then when they click through to the site, there is loads of content that is relevant to them.
A reason to visit your website
Despite the prevalence of Facebook pages and other social media destinations, websites are still the hub to a business online. However, how do you get customers and potential customers to want to visit your site?
As a business, it goes without saying that people know they are going to be sold to when they visit your site. After all, your website is there to promote your business, its products and services.
Blogs are a great way of delivering value to your target market. Advise, tips, tricks and information from experts in the form of regular blogs give those you target a reason to regularly visit your site.
Expand on a topic
Some products and services are inherently complex. As a result, you may face a major hurdle in communicating their features and benefits in detail. This is a big disadvantage if it takes considerable time to convince customers to buy from you.
In a blog, you have the opportunity to present complex subjects, products and services with a targeted outcome. This strategy works exceptionally well with technical services.
Establishes expertise
Establishing yourself and your business as an expert within your chosen field is extremely difficult. You need to prove your expertise and deliver new insights on a regular basis. Exploring subjects and explaining concepts is a great way of doing this.
Blogging is an excellent vehicle to deliver these goals. Talk about developments in your sector and offer your informed opinion. Publishing regular blogs following this framework allows for further promotion on social media as you have time worthy posts to point people to your website.
Develops your business and its ideas
What does your business believe in? What is its mission? How are you different from others in your sector? These can be explored and expanded upon over time via regular blogs. Saying it once is great but consistently pushing a powerful message, that resonates with your customers will position your business as a leader within the market.
Longterm reference
Content is king on social media and when developing SEO. Great blogs will stand the test of time and if published regularly will develop a strong archive. The true power of this archive of blogs will be that they are of value to your target market, reside upon your website and can be referenced over and over again.
