Why is Blogging Important?
Many businesses now use blogs to find potential customers. They understand that blogging is a marketing tool. It’s worth noting that there’s a huge difference between a personal blog and a business blog.
The difference is the intent. Business blogging isn’t about vanity, it’s about long-term growth.
Blogging for business can offer many marketing benefits. But before you go ahead and add a blog to your website, there are a few considerations.
- Carefully consider if blogging is actually a good fit for your business model. Take the time to think about exactly how blogging could benefit your unique situation.
- Do not endeavor a blog if you’re not committed to adding fresh content to it on a regular basis. It doesn’t look good if the most recent post on your site is from 2014.
- Competition is fierce. For business blogging to work, the blogs must be thoughtful, comprehensive, and well researched. It takes work to grow your business through blogging – but having a blog post rank for a competitive Google search query can be a valuable asset for many years.
What is Business Blogging?
Business blogging is a marketing tactic that aims at driving organic traffic to your website. The goal is to improve online visibility by anticipating potential customer queries.
A well-written blog not only helps your site rank for targeted keywords, but it also establishes you as an authority in your industry.
Business blogging is a recommended marketing channel for growing your business online and is a healthy part of a well-rounded digital marketing strategy.
Business Blogging Example
Let’s say you’re in the dog grooming business (why wouldn’t you be?). After doing some smart keyword research, you decide to write a comprehensive blog around the keyword: how often should you bathe your dog. This would be a wise decision
According to Ahrefs, this keyword has a monthly search volume of 1,600 and has a low keyword difficulty. This means that this particular keyword has solid potential to drive a large number of the “right kind of traffic” to your website. Namely, those who have dogs that need grooming.
By creating a piece of content surrounding this keyword, you are declaring before Google and dog lovers everywhere that you are interested in answering the question: how often should you bathe your dog?
How Does Business Blogging Help?
Business blogging accomplishes two things. First, it’s good for SEO. It clues search engines to the intent of your website. Using the dog grooming example above, the message to Google is loud and clear: your site is for people concerned with dog grooming. Second, it puts you on the radar of people who own dogs and recognize the need to groom them.
You may be wondering where the money happens. On the surface, this may seem paradoxical, because you may never receive payment from most of the people that benefit from your informative blog post. This is okay – because the value added goes a long way towards creating brand awareness.
Google searches are highly localized. Results are based on the searcher’s location. If your Nashville-based dog grooming blog is being read by someone in Tulsa, you can be sure it’s visible to those inquiring in and around Nashville.
What many business owners fail to understand about business blogging is this: not all marketing efforts are about short-term gains. Old school marketing thinks this is a waste of time and resources. However, consumer behavior has changed in the Information Age. Savvy businesses are expected to pay it forward by adding value first.
Regardless of your industry, potential customers have a lot of options when it comes to spending their money. Oftentimes, they want to establish trust and build a relationship before making a purchase decision. Digital marketing is like courtship (or making pasta), the water needs to heat to a boil before the deal is sealed.
4 Benefits of Blogging for Your Business
We’ve discussed the reasons for business blogging. So without further adieu, here is the bite-sized version of the benefits of writing about topics related to your business.
1. Blogging drives relevant organic traffic to your site
If it seems like I’ve been not so subtly hinting at this benefit since the start of this post, it’s because it’s true. Businesses want to rank higher for keywords, but they don’t seem to think about how this happens. Generally speaking, you won’t rank for terms that don’t appear on your site.
Blogging allows you to target long-tail keywords, which tend to be the lower hanging fruit. They can an excellent driver of organic rankings. Furthermore, each time you create a new post, it is a fresh page for search engines to index. Social and paid ads are great ways to generate traffic, but blogging adds another channel in your overall digital marketing strategy.
Ideally, your marketing channels should be set up to feed one another. Say you write a blog post. This gives you something to share on social media. Conversely, a top performing post can be sponsored in an effort to drive even more engagement. The possibilities are endless. Be creative.
2. Converts traffic into leads
Finally, the money! Ideally, each blog should cover a different topic and keyword set that pertains to your business. Each one of these posts is a chance to develop a call-to-action that is unique to that particular post. Furthermore, you can set up goals and conversion tracking in Google Analytics.
This provides an opportunity for high-level retargeting strategies that involving funnels and other advanced tactics. A way of doing this would be to offer a free white paper or ebook as a way of collecting email addresses. This stuff is not for the faint of heart and would require a series of posts to cover. Needless to say, the process begins by creating blogs that effectively drive targeted traffic to the site.
3. Establishes authority in your niche
This benefit is sometimes difficult for clients to grasp because it doesn’t affect the perceived bottom line. While developing authority may be difficult to measure, it is a very real benefit. Think of it as public relations. Every person that reads your post has just become more aware of your business. By expanding your reach, you are ensuring the future bottom line of your business.
You can use blogs to address common questions that customers have. If someone engages with your blog post and finds it helpful, they are far more likely to hire you if they have a need. You established trust. Another useful business blogging strategy is in educating people on specific elements of your industry. Essentially, each post is an opportunity to establish your business as an authority in its relative niche.
4. Long-term results
I know, playing the long game is far less gratifying than immediacy. We live in a microwave culture – we want it all and we want it now, damnit! Ideally, your marketing strategy should consist of channels that address both long-term and short-term gains.
Online advertising is a great way to drive immediate traffic to your site. It isn’t cheap, but more and more businesses are doing it, so it’s almost necessary to compete. Blogs, on the other hand, are more of a slow burn. A well-written blog will continue to improve in rankings over time.
Think about that…it’s mind bloggling (don’t bother, I’ll show myself out).
The Takeaway
For business blogging to have the maximum impact, you need to create content that adds more value than existing content on the same subject. If this sounds difficult, it’s because it is. But as Jimmy Dugan says in A League of Their Own, “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.”
Pop culture references aside, it’s an awfully good feeling when a blog you meticulously researched and carefully wrote drives qualified organic traffic to a website. Personal vanity aside, it’s also quite helpful to the growth of the business – which is what business blogging is all about.
Ultimately, business blogging is similar to any other worthwhile pursuit – it takes time and practice to dial it in. If you want to experience the benefits of a business blog, but writing isn’t your bag, it can be outsourced to a qualified professional. Get in touch with a person or agency that has experience in content marketing (*cough* Astute). They will be able to find the best way to grow your business through blogging.