At first glance, a business blog may appear as nothing more than a time consuming practice that your business can live without. My thoughts on the topic were similar in nature for the first few years of my business operation. As I began working to expand my reach within various target market segments within my industry, my viewpoint began to change. Maintaining a business blog became a central avenue for increasing my search visibility, sales revenue and customer conversion potential.
By providing quality content on a consistent basis, I am able to add value to the overall experience customers have with my business. Through the blog content that I share, I am able to illustrate the level of knowledge I have in regards to the services I provide to my target market audience. My target market audience is now viewing me as an authority figure within my industry. They see me as the only viable option for solving the problems they face as well. Here are eight additional benefits that I gain from blogging, making it easy to see why you need to start blogging almost as soon as you start your business.
1. Increases Your Search Engine Traffic
Maintaining a blog is similar to going fishing in that the more hooks you have in the water, the more likely you are to catch a target. Search engine traffic works in a similar manner. You need to give your target market audience as many options as possible to come in contact with your brand. Each time you add new content to your website blog, the search engines index that information as a website update.
That website update works to improve the search results page ranking that your website receives. Potential customers who search for information relevant to the content in your blog now have a higher potential of coming in contact with your website. Consumers typically only look at the first few pages of search result options before making a selection on which website matches their request. For that reason, you want your website to rank as high as possible to increase the amount of traffic you receive from each search engine.
2. Gives Your Business a Personal Feel
Creating new blog content gives you the opportunity to show a human side of your business. You can write about an emotional topic that your target market audience faces while still maintaining a professional image within your industry. Potential customers begin to feel as if they are dealing with real people and not an obscure person sitting behind a computer screen typing words in an online blog post.
You can share topics of interest to yourself and your staff or give an inside look into life behind-the-scenes of your company. By coming across as a real person, you are able to connect with your customers on a personal level. Sharing your viewpoint on a controversial issue within your industry will come across a little softer as customers already view you as an authoritative figure that they can trust. Showcasing a human side of your business makes you approachable and customers want to do business with companies with a high likeability factor.
3. Enhances Your Social Media Campaigns
Maintaining an active social media presence is equally as important as extending your promotional reach within your industry. One way to have an active presence is to share content that is of value to your social media followers. Although that gives you the opportunity to further the level of knowledge your customers have on a particular topic, it increases the website traffic for another company.
That is traffic that you could be working to convert into customers through your website. Maintaining a blog will accomplish this task. It allows you to have the crucial social media presence while bringing new subscribers to your website. Each new blog post gives you valuable content to share with your social media channel followers. You can provide an introduction to that blog content on your social media channels and lead readers to your website where they can finish reading the content.
4. Establish an Authoritative Presence
Having a blog allows you to create content showcasing your level of knowledge in regards to your company and the industry that you serve. Each time you publish new content, your audience gains insight into the information you have and they begin to learn how your knowledge can benefit them.
When problems arise down the road, your brand image remains in the back of their mind, prompting them to seek out your services to resolve those issues. As your level of trust continues to grow, other aspects of your business increases as well. You will see conversion increases as potential customers respond to the call to action request that you make in a blog post. An increase in customer conversions leads itself towards additional opportunities to capture sales revenue at some point down the road.
5. Increases Your Customer Conversion Rates
Potential customers gain an attraction to your business when they see you have an active online presence. It serves as a sign that not only are the doors of your business open but things are thriving inside. A level of frustration easily sets in when a potential customer comes across a website looking for information only to find a non-existent company. Maintaining an active blog on your website works to prevent that from happening.
Keeping your blog fresh with new content peaks the interest of potential customers as they begin to see how your products or services can benefit them as well. Your blog content brings them to your website. The benefits they find when they arrive on your site will convert them into paying customers.
6. Creates Opportunities for Inbound Links
An inbound link occurs when an authoritative website includes a link to your website within their content. That opportunity places your brand in front of a new market segment audience. Those potential customers will click on the inbound link and arrive at a particular page on your website. From that point, they have the chance to learn more about your company, the products or services that you offer and how those items benefit them.
Inbound links also work to enhance your presence as an authoritative figure within your industry. Organizations will link to your content as a source reference to backup their own content. Additional authors, blog writers and industry organizations will begin creating inbound links to your blog content as well. Each new inbound link increases your search engine optimization, which increases the potential of new customers finding your website. An absence of a blog would make all of these opportunities impossible to achieve.
7. Increases Long-Tail Search Query Potential
Whenever your target market audience knows exactly what they are looking for, they will enter three to four word phrases into search engine query boxes. It is often the first step towards making a purchase of a product or service that solves an immediate need they are facing. You want to optimize every possible opportunity your target market audience has to reach your website through long-tail search query situations.
An excellent way to accomplish this is by having blog content relevant to those three or four word phrases that describe the need your target market audience is looking to fulfill. When your target market audience enters a certain phrase into a search engine query box, the search engine scans the internet looking for as many possible website options that match those phrases. Having your website make the list works to increase the reach of your brand awareness, bringing new revenue generation opportunities your way as well.
8. Creates Opportunities for Valuable Conversation
At any given time your industry is buzzing with conversation that ranges from the latest industry trends to the new business to enter into the marketplace. Social media presents you with an opportunity to take part in these conversations, however, it does little to lead conversation participants to your website. Once a conversation ends, potential customers resume their activity, with little to no further interaction with your company taking place.
Having a blog gives you a platform for serving as conversation host. You can ask your target market audience questions that focus on what they would like to see you produce or offer next, issues they face within your industry or gain feedback on areas of improvement that would help your business run more effectively. Potential customers have the opportunity to ask you questions or leave constructive criticism upon reading your blog content. Knowing that you are open for conversations to take place makes customers view your business as an approachable one. That paves the way for sales revenue increases to take place at a later point in time.
A Final Thought
The competition within your industry is fierce as everyone is trying to get one step ahead of each other to attract the attention of new customers. Having a blog gives you a slight competitive advantage as you have a viable platform to share your personal opinion, insights and feedback on the products you offer and the direction your industry is taking.
Consistently updating that blog with relevant, fresh content works to increase your search engine traffic, sales lead generation opportunities and brings new customers to your virtual doorstep, and that’s where we step in. We have qualified writers who can take your content to the next level, so contact us today.
