Every company should have a blog for their website. A blog is an informational page that provides a home for content directly related to your business, or engages topics of interest to your market and target demographics. Having a blog as a business allows you to increase traffic to your website while building the all-important relationships with customers who grow to rely on your site and your business. In this article, we’ll discuss “the power of the blog” and make a case as to why all businesses, no matter the size or reason, should implement a blog on their websites.
It drives traffic to your site
Running a blog allows you to tell both search engines and customers what it is that your business does and how it adds value to people who visit it. Content that is related to your services, designed to add value, and generated on a regular basis does a lot to drive your rankings in organic search. With the application of a few SEO techniques, you can make sure through your blog activities that the search engines know where your business belongs in the SERPs. Educating the search engines, and thereby placing higher in search results, will give your business more visibility to your potential clients and customers, and allow your website to be a much more powerful tool for your marketing communications.
It provides an additional platform to communicate with customers
Being able to engage with your customers directly is always beneficial, and a blog allows for comments and communication in a more detailed and focused setting. With a blog, you have the opportunity to convey deeper and more meaningful information, and customers will likely have questions or responses to offer. If your blog is responsive to their needs and replies quickly to any concerns they may have, it shows that you are invested in the conversation your business wants to start within your marketplace. This not only develops and strengthens the relationship between your business and the people it serves, but it also provides an avenue of feedback and concern resolution.
It allows a business to establish its thought leadership
Blogging for your business also allows for more freedom of expression. The business is able to communicate its ideas and thoughts more effectively, not only showcasing to visitors exactly how and where your business can add value to their lives, but also in establishing your business and talent as thought leaders in your industry. Being able to sell your product is one thing but being able to discuss the subject in-depth with your customers is how expertise and trust are established. People will appreciate this added value, and your business will be looked towards as an authority on the topic, reflecting well on your sales.
Your blog can be leveraged towards other marketing channels
If you do any kind of content or influencer marketing, you may have noticed that bloggers and influencers aren’t keen on linking to your homepage. If you’ve found yourself scratching your head as to why, remember that bloggers and influencers are their own brands, with their own audiences. What does linking to your homepage do for them? Most of the time, it just lets their audience know that you’re trying to get them to market for them. While that’s certainly a reality, partnerships between businesses and bloggers or influencers have to be mutually beneficial, or they will be handcuffed to failure. These people have built their audiences based on the value they add — just as your business does. Generating fresh and valuable content in a company blog is one of the best ways of showing that it has something to offer, both in terms of attracting influencers and in terms of ensuring that your marketing campaigns with them are effective. As bloggers and influencers have already overtaken traditional celebrities in terms of popularity, you can think of this as using one powerful tool in your marketing strategy to support another powerful tool — allowing your business to get the most bang for its marketing buck.
