In this 6-minute read:
- Does your small business still need a blog in today’s market?
- What value does a business blog bring to your company?
- How to get value from your business blog
- Ways to get more traffic to your business blog
With social media continuing to grow and becoming the more common platforms for consumers to spend their time, it’s no wonder we are asking ourselves this question: is blogging still important?
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Yes, consumers are spending the majority of their online time on social media platforms. But that doesn’t mean that they aren’t seeing or engaging with businesses and their blogs. In fact, social media is the perfect platform to gain more traction for your business blog.
Does your business still need a blog today?
As you may have guessed already, yes, your business should have a blog, if possible. Business blogs provide several points of value to your customers and your business.
Around half of shoppers consume 3 to 5 pieces of content before considering engaging with a sales representative. Generally speaking, consumers want to learn as much about a product or service as they can on their own before reaching out to the company.
This is only one reason blogging can have a great impact on your business. Let’s check out some more ways that blogging adds value to your company.
What value does a business blog bring to your company?
Beyond providing additional content for customers as they research your offerings (and your competitors’ offerings), a blog can help your business in a variety of other capacities.
Increase web traffic through SEO
Fresh, new content on your website on a regular basis sends a great signal to Google and can help boost your search engine optimization.
Helpful and engaging content also provides a good user experience for your website as it helps consumers find answers to their questions. Google and other search engines recognize this.
The more people engage with your content and find value in it, the more potential your website and blog posts have to start ranking organically in the search engines. This, in turn, brings more traffic to your website.
In addition, having your content seen on more platforms than simply one or two social media channels also tells Google and other search engines that people are looking for and consuming your content, and you will start to rank higher in local searches.
Sets you as the expert
Writing a blog that provides insights into your offerings and even additional value like helpful tips and hints for your customers sets you up as the expert in your field.
Helpful articles like deep dives into common questions that customers have will help them start to trust you before they even decide to purchase from you. If someone is finding value in the content you provide and starts to trust you as the expert, who do you think they’ll go to first when they are ready to buy?
This method is also useful as you branch out your marketing efforts into including public relations efforts with local media. Your blog can be a quick and easy source to include for reporters who want to know if you have useful content they can rely on to build or support their stories.
Blogs help you get to know your audience better
As you start producing engaging pieces of content you will start to learn more about your audience. For one, you’ll learn what types of content they are likely to engage with and what information they find helpful.
Through examining comments on your blog posts, engagement on your social media channels featuring your blog content, and looking at how much time people spend on individual blog pages, you can learn what your audience likes and keep the momentum going and growing with similar content.
More content for your marketing efforts
Marketing requires content. Whether you are creating a commercial, printing brochures, doing a radio ad, starting a Google Ads campaign, or trying to improve your SEO, you’re going to need some good content.
When you have a blog with tons of high-traffic pieces, you already have a library of content to pull from for your next marketing campaign.
How to get value from your business blog
Knowing that blogs can provide value is all well and good, but how can you make sure you are getting that value from your business blog?
Maybe you’ve tried “blogging” before but didn’t see any results from it. Oftentimes when a blog doesn’t work, it’s because the business owner wasn’t aware of the many different factors that come into play with making a blog successful.
There are some specific things you must do in order to gain the maximum value from your blogging efforts. We’ll walk you through some of these key points and best practices for your business blog.
Best practices to keep in mind when creating blog content:
- Have a clear focus for each blog post
- Use headings, subheadings, and images to break up the text
- Have a regular posting schedule
- Look for keyword opportunities
- Share your blog articles
- Optimize your website’s performance and content for SEO
Go deeper: The do’s and don’ts of writing an effective small business blog
Ways to get more traffic to your business blog
Your blog is only going to help your business if people are actually reading and engaging with it. So let’s talk about how you can get your blog in front of more people.
SEO
We’ve touched briefly on the importance of search engine optimization. Your blog can help increase your chances to rank better in the search engines. But you also need to have some search engine authority (also called Domain Authority) built up on your website before your blog articles can start ranking.
Getting other websites to link to your website and blog articles will help drive more traffic to your blog and increase your website’s Domain Authority so that it has a better opportunity to rank for the new content you are creating in your blog.
Learn more: Local SEO: 15 free tips for better search rankings
Sharing on social media
You should share every blog article your company produces on your social media channels. This not only helps guide your followers back to your website to read your new content, but it also gives them the opportunity to easily share it with their friends.
One thing to keep in mind is that not all of your followers are likely to see the blog articles you share, particularly if they haven’t engaged with your posts before. Facebook’s algorithms work to create the most personalized experience for each of its users, and your content is not always going to fit that mold.
Another way to share your blog posts on social media is to boost it in an ad. Give it a few dollars to put it in your audience’s news feeds. Test out some different audiences and blog posts to see what really drives engagement and traffic.
Check this out: The complete guide to Facebook marketing for small businesses
Enhance your content marketing strategy with reputation management software
As consumers are researching different services or products and happen on your blog, they may start to trust you as an authority on your offerings and even lean towards purchasing from you. This will bring them further down the sales funnel and they’ll start to consider your company’s offerings.
In order to help turn that lead into a conversion, you’ll want to make sure your online reputation speaks volumes. Regular online reviews from current customers will help draw that lead further in.
Not sure how to maximize your online reviews? Womply’s reputation management software can help.
With a simple dashboard, you can connect several different online review platforms, read and reply to all your reviews, and even send email reminders and marketing campaigns to your customers. Learn more, plus get free reputation monitoring and customer insights when you sign up for Womply Free!