Why Your Business Needs a Blog
Blogs used to be a tool for individuals—think of the mommy blogger, the food blogger and the self-appointed cultural commentator of the aughts. That’s not the way blogging works anymore. Today, there are plenty of reasons why your business needs a blog. A business blog is a powerful tool for engaging your audience, proving your expertise, and rounding out your online platform. Let’s take a closer look.
A business blog develops a know-like-trust relationship with your audience
In order to develop trust with current or potential customers or clients, they have to get to know you. And the only way they can get to know you online is for you to say things.
One of the most important ways to put your business voice out into the world is through a business blog housed on your website. As people start to read your content, they get to know your business. They’ll learn what your business — and the people behind it — are like. They’ll be able to categorize you. (That’s the design firm up on 8th Ave.)
Once they know you, they’ll start to form an opinion about you. Is your business friendly? Detail-oriented? Funny? Just as you assign qualities to an individual after you get to know them, so your potential customers or clients will assign qualities to your business. Soon, they’ll not only know who you are, they’ll like you. (That’s the design firm up on 8th Ave. with the hilarious owner!)
And once they know and like you, they’ll feel a deeper connection. They’ll start thinking of the ways you can help them because your content is responsive, honest, or truly helpful. This is the point where they’ll start to trust and rely on you. (That’s the design firm up on 8th Ave. with the hilarious owner who always has spot-on advice.)
A business blog proves you have knowledge within your niche
It’s hard to effectively demonstrate your business’s collective knowledge to your audience when you’re only doing so one customer at a time. To establish yourself as an authority in your industry, create a consistent business blog that addresses timely issues and solutions, how-to guides, insider tips, and highlights of the work you do.
Once you’ve been blogging for awhile, you’ll have an archive of high-quality content that will show, at a glance, that you know what you’re talking about and are equipped to not only answer questions but offer solid, effective solutions.
A business blog improves overall searchability and SEO
Websites that are updated consistently show up more readily in Google searches. And one of the simplest ways to update your website is to publish new, unique blog posts on a regular schedule. This signals to Google that your site is active and that it’s run by real people (not robots).
Consistent blogging also helps you keep up with new search (SEO) terms. Since searches shift and change, your content should, too. It’s not practical to rework the copy on the main pages of your website every month, but blogging once or twice every month is a doable way to stay up-to-date and searchable.
A robust business blog makes content creation easier
Content creation is a lot of work. Fortunately, cross-posting content helps minimize the number of hours you put into it. The great thing about a well-constructed blog post is that you can promote it on all your social media platforms, plug it in your emails, and re-post to it for weeks, months and even years to come.
Once you have a sizeable archive, content creation becomes a matter of managing the blog posts you already have instead of constantly creating new posts. By refreshing and updating old blog posts, you can recycle them for consumers who are new to your brand.
A business blog, in other words, is an investment worth making.
