Who has time to blog? I mean, we’re all so busy trying to meet the requirements thrust on us by business, family, and having a social life that blogging seems…extra. Also, blogging is really just a hobby for angsty teenagers, right? Think again! Let’s talk about why blogging is crucial for business.
You’re here, now, reading this blog post. If your business isn’t blogging—and I mean writing blog posts seriously, according to a long-term plan, you’re overlooking a mother lode of benefits that affect aspects of your organization, from brand awareness and reputation to your financial bottom line.
Why Should You Care About Blogging?
What if you could produce a virtual sales call for multiple prospective customers, every day, with a greater reach and effect than sending a person into the field, door-to-door? What if you had a way for your customers to get acquainted with your brand on a personal level while they relaxed at home with a cup of coffee?
Blogging is a delicious and indispensable part of your customers’ marketing diet. In the current environment, it’s a major element of a solid overall marketing strategy because fresh, new content is what search engines are looking for. That, among other reasons, is why your competition is doing it. And they’re good at it. Business is a multi-lateral war of measures and counter-measures in which no business that expects to thrive can afford to fall too far behind.
Business Blogging As Marketing
Think of business blogging as another marketing channel, equally as important as Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Social media is where potential customers go for updates on news, culture, and to see what their friends and family are up to. A good business blog directly supports your brand’s social media efforts by providing a larger reservoir of information about your company and products or services. When content is tailored to your target demographic, the support is mutual, since a well-crafted blog will also direct readers to your social media posts.
A company blog is also where you show your brand’s capacity for quality, good taste, and attention to detail. It provides a permanent, eternally searchable presence on the web—one your business can rely on to communicate its values to potential clients. What makes your business different, and more desirable, than others? There is no better forum to explain why your brand is the best choice than a business blog.
Blogging Freshness
It’s not enough to simply have a page come up on the web. A good blog is not a museum window—it must be dynamic. It’s not a static place to leave stale and moldy content for weeks, months, or years without adding something shiny and new. Ideally, this should be on a predictable schedule that allows interested readers to tune in to hear what your brand is up to right now. This “freshness” increases Google search engine traffic. The more often and regularly your blog delivers fresh content, the more traffic your website will receive. This increases the overall awareness of your brand and may be the most cost-effective form of promotion available to a business.
Blogging Attracts Attention
A business blog is a source of instant customer feedback. When you write engaging content and provide a space for readers to leave comments, they will. You’ve created a free, crowd-sourced research and development generator. You will have your finger on the pulse of not only your customers, but your potential customers. Wouldn’t you like to know why they aren’t yet taking part in your business? Simply ask them, and you may learn how to turn skeptics into converts.
This is tricky business. Given the anonymous nature of the Internet, comments aren’t always going to be what you want to hear. You’ll need to moderate comments on your business blog and decide which to answer or ignore, which to post or hide, and sometimes, who to engage in a conversation versus who to block. The comment moderation process requires a calm and mature personality who isn’t prone to lash out at a web troll. Your blog isn’t a place to air dirty laundry. It much more closely resembles an auditorium than an office with the door closed.
Blogging Shows You Care
The wonderful part of a business blog comments section is that it provides a business with a sort of virtual town hall where readers are comfortable speaking their minds. More importantly, it becomes a platform on which you can showcase and reinforce your brand’s reputation and values through thoughtful engagement with the public. When you humanize the process of online communication by allowing prospective clients to engage in a real-time conversation with an actual human being, you’ve created a public relations victory for your brand.
When analyzing what’s involved in producing and maintaining a business blog, it wouldn’t be fair to leave out the time required to accomplish it. Somebody is going to build the website, make it visually pleasing and intuitive to navigate, and someone has to write the copy. Once you’ve carefully considered your business’ capability, capacity, and the cost effectiveness of diverting employees toward producing a business blog, you may decide that running one isn’t an effective use of available time and effort. That’s where the Content Writer Workshop can help your marketing firm with content solutions to seamlessly provide the premium content your brand or those of your clients deserve.
We’ll provide actionable steps to propel your digital traffic forward. Regardless of whether you decide to use the Workshop to enact the strategy, you’ll receive deliverables that cultivate the growth you’re looking for. If you choose to let us set your business’ blog up for success, we’ll create attention-grabbing copy that inspires trust and professional design to make your brand unforgettable.
We’re ready to talk content and growth with you. Get in touch.
What are your experiences with business blogging? We’d enjoy hearing from you in the comments below.
