How Blogging Can Help Your Business

If you haven’t hopped onto the blogging train yet, it may be because you don’t know how blogging can help your business. Once you know what it can do to bring your business into the limelight, you’ll quickly realize what you’ve been missing.

And surely you don’t want to miss out on anything that can grow your business.

The great thing about cha-ching is that it doesn’t always have to cost cha-ching to get it. Keep that in mind as we explore how blogging can help your business. It really does provide one of the best returns on your investment.

In the big picture, you want customers. This isn’t your charity (although charities can benefit from blogging, too), it’s your business, your livelihood. Your efforts, therefore, have that end in mind.

Nearly 80% of companies that use blogging reported acquiring customers because of it.

But there are a lot of steps between here and there. And customers have seemingly countless choices when it comes to meeting their needs. What you do to answer their questions and provide solutions to their problems will determine whether they choose you or someone else.

Gone are the days when an unmistakable logo or well-situated storefront was enough to secure familiarity. Brand awareness is now cultivated in a highly competitive, fast-paced, constantly changing market. And that means you have to stay “in touch” and relevant.

Blogging goes beyond the logo, the tag line, and the swanky photos to meaningful engagement with your target audience. Not exactly your grandparents’ memory of marketing!

Let’s dig a little deeper into how blogging can help your business.

• Blogging drives traffic to your website…without buying ads.

  It wasn’t that long ago when every household got an annual dumping of telephone books at its front door. White Pages for residential, Yellow Pages for business. If you didn’t buy your space in the Yellow Pages before it went to publication, you were basically on your own for another year.

  Those days seem like a lifetime ago — right up there with dime-a-call pay phones.

  Today’s business is web-driven. You can still buy space in magazines, but you aren’t likely to survive without a strong online presence.

  How does blogging get potential customers to your site? Each time you create and publish a blog post, you create another indexable page for search engines to notice. The more relevant content you publish, the greater your chances of ranking higher in online searches.

  If you are a small fish in a big pond, that’s great news because it gives you a means to hold your own against the big names.

  Regular blogging also increases your chances for inbound links from other sites. Now, all of a sudden, someone else is doing your marketing for you. A customer goes to their site and ends up on yours.

  Go here to read 52 reasons why blogging creates more traffic.

• Blogging boosts your search engine optimization (SEO).

  If blogging is going to drive traffic to your website, it has to include directions to point people in the right direction. Think of blogging as your business’s GPS, directing traffic from anywhere on the planet.

  How can something as simple as a blog post accomplish that? First, by providing relevant content that responds to what people are asking and needing. Second, by producing quality content that is well-written and researched. Third, by using appropriately researched keywords that act as connecting points on the web.

  Keywords draw entities together — kind of like “tagging” does on social media. By researching what people are searching for regarding specific topics, you can tailor your blog post accordingly. Google gives props for that. It rewards you for “listening” by giving you a better seat at the table in the form of a higher ranking.

• Blogging helps to establish your authority in your industry.

  By creating quality content on a consistent and frequent basis, you inevitably become a go-to for customers interested in your industry. You’re the business whose light is always on when everyone else has gone home. And you’re the name that always comes up because you’re always out there, answering questions, providing good information, inviting feedback.

• Blogging can help convert your audience to customers.

  Today’s consumer rarely impulse-buys. Well, OK, checkout-line candy bars excepted….There is just too much competition, too much variance in pricing and quality, and too much information vying for attention.

  So how do you pull people out of thin air and turn them into customers? How do you get them to your storefront when they don’t even know it exists? Yep. Blogging. It’s the most powerful tool you have for escorting customers through the marketing funnel.

  A skillful blogger will strategize content for different stages of the funnel, recognizing that consumers have different needs leading up to a purchase.

  Modern consumers are much more research savvy than consumers from the Yellow Page era. They value and read blogs. They enjoy them, rely on them, return to them.

  Once you understand how blogging can help your business, the conversions will come more easily.

• Blogging is a conduit for viable feedback.

  You’re in business to fill a void in the marketplace and/or to improve upon what’s already out there. It’s all about creating a product or service that people will want and will buy. But how do you know what people want if you aren’t in communication with them?

  One of the most powerful qualities of blogging is the dynamic between the business owner and his/her target audience. “Here’s-my-ad-buy-my-product” advertising simply doesn’t cut it anymore. People want choices…and they want to be heard.

  By having an active comment section to your blog, you open up the channels of communication with your audience. You have the most direct way of learning what people want (hint: your next blog post idea). You also have the most direct way of getting their feedback on what you are doing.

  You may even get some tips from people who know more about your industry or product than you do.

  If all you did was make it clear that you are listening and responding to your audience, your business would get a huge boost.

There is a lot more to blogging — both in terms of potential and strategy — than what meets the eye. Read why blogs will grow your business, start your list of topics, and get writing. Your customers and business will thank you.

Need help blogging for your business? We can help. Schedule a free consultation to discuss your needs with one of the KJ Content Marketing experts.