Getting your name out there can be tough.
But, as a business, it’s vital to your long-term stability and profitability that you make your products or services known in the marketplace.
While that once required a sizeable advertising budget, the options for promoting and marketing a business have changed dramatically over the past few years with the advent of marketing.
It still takes time and effort, but many of the best methods for marketing have changed and become more accessible–especially to smaller businesses.
One of the most effective ways to market a business these days is through online content and blogging.
Whether you’ve never considered blogging for your business or have already made the leap, keep reading for an in-depth look at the benefits of blogging and some of the top reasons why your business needs one.
The Benefits of Blogging–And Why You Need One
If you still think of blogging as a personal endeavor where the writer pours out their heart and soul or rants about the latest political outrage, think again.
Blogging has matured into a serious tool that’s used by business all over the globe to sell more products and make more deals.
The thing is … with so much content out there, you have to stand out somehow. At last count, there were over a billion websites on the internet. That’s a lot of content!
If you want to stand out in the sea of information that is the world wide web, you need to make your way to the top somehow. And blogging is a great way to do just that.
Content Matters
Words are, quite literally, the foundation of the internet.
As important as images and video are, words form the basis of nearly everything online.
If you want your business to be found, well-written, useful content should make up the base of your strategy. If you don’t start with great content, it will be really hard for new customers or clients to find you, no matter how great your products or services are.
The content filling the pages of your website gives the other elements of your site context and structure, letting visitors know what you’re all about and why they should hang around.
One of the best ways to fill your website with lots of useful, customer-attracting content is with a blog that relates closely to your customer’s needs and desires.
If you’re on the fence about starting a blog, remember how important content is to building an effective online presence.
#1. Establish Yourself as an Industry Leader
One of the most powerful benefits of blogging for your company is the ability to establish your brand as an industry leader.
You may not have been around as long as Coca-Cola or Proctor and Gamble. And your logo may not be universally recognized. But tapping into the power of blogging can help your company build the same sort of brand recognition and industry leading image enjoyed by long-established companies.
Consistently creating useful, actionable content that directly benefits readers and strategically promoting it will help you rise to the top of your industry. It may take time, but if you do it right, you’ll get there.
#2. Give Your SEO a Boost
Another big plus for blogging is the incredible power it lends to your website’s search engine optimization.
Websites with more content perform better in the search engines. It’s an unavoidable fact of life.
If your company’s website consists of a handful of pages and a neglected blog, you’re going to have a hard time ranking well in search.
While you can’t just fill your site with garbage content and expect it to perform any better in searches, you can take advantage of the power of blogging to create useful, keyword-rich content that will help you rank well.
Just make sure you’re producing quality content that visitors will find useful.
#3. Attract More Customers
Blogging is also a great way to attract more customers.
While you’re establishing authority in your industry and getting your brand’s name out there, people are bound to notice. This will help you raise awareness for your company and what you do.
In order to do this right, it’s important for you to focus on topics that will benefit your customers. For many businesses, it’s easy to cover topics that appeal more to people in your industry than potential customers. But, write for your customers and you’ll attract more clients.
#4. Build a Powerful Network
Networking is hard. It takes real effort and many people just don’t like doing it.
But, it’s hard to deny the power of a strong network.
Blogging can be a good way for businesses and professionals to build a stronger network. If you’re active in promoting the writing on your blog, you’re going to come in contact with others in your industry.
Expand your network by taking advantage of the connections you make in writing and promoting your blog.
#5. Gain Influence and Authority
A well-written and useful business blog can help you establish real influence and authority in your company’s industry.
You don’t have to look far in fields like marketing or business leadership to see who the true influencers are. In many industries, the most influential voices are active bloggers and social media users.
Businesses can be influential too by blogging regularly and keeping the content as useful as possible.
#6. Communicate and Connect with Customers
Being active on your business’s blog will also help you get out there and connect with your customers.
Creating content that your customers want to read and will benefit from will naturally attract potential customers to your brand and give them a chance to connect with your organization.
Keep your blog personal by allowing comments or fielding questions from customers.
#7. Develop Relationships
As you build connections with customers and others in your industry through your blog and the network it allows you to build in record time, you can work on establishing beneficial relationships too.
With the cost of obtaining a new customer often exceeding the cost keeping an existing one by 25 times, it makes a lot of sense to focus on improving relationships with current customers rather than finding new ones.
#8. Learn More About Your Customers and Clients
Blogging for your business is also a great way to learn more about your clients or customers, getting a feel for their needs and desires.
If you’re struggling to come up with ideas for blog posts, consider reaching out to customers and asking what they’d like to see on the blog. Looking at your blog’s statistics can also help you see what’s popular and what to write more about.
Researching and writing about your customer’s pain points and interests can help you get a better feel for what your customer’s want to see in your products or services and how you can improve customer service.
#9. Attract Links
Perhaps one of the most beneficial components of blogging for your business is the ability to build inbound links back to your company’s website.
Inbound links, or links from other websites to yours, are incredibly beneficial to SEO. Many SEO experts believe links are one of, if not the most important, factor in search optimization.
Building an effective, useful blog will encourage other websites and blogs to link back to your posts–if they’re useful.
Leveraging the authority of your blog is also a great way to ask other websites to link back your own.
#10. Take Control
Of all the benefits of blogging for your organization, the control it gives you over your brand is perhaps the most powerful.
Digital marketing puts an incredible amount of power into the hands of even the smallest businesses, with blogging and content marketing being one of the most potent components.
Gaining influence and authority used to take s business years and lots of cash to achieve, but blogging and other digital marketing techniques have really leveled the playing field.
Create a quality blog and take your brand to the next level quickly.
Putting It All Together
The benefits of blogging are clear.
From search optimization to forging lasting relationships with current and potential customers, blogging is a powerful tool that nearly any business with an online presence will benefit from.
If your organization doesn’t have a blog, it’s time to get started, the benefits are hard to miss.
Trying to start a blog for your business or just make it easier for customers to find you online? We can help–get in touch with us today for help getting started with content marketing and much more.