9 OF THE TOP REASONS WHY BLOGGING FOR BUSINESS IS CRUCIAL
I don’t have many hard and fast rules, but there is one thing I say to all my clients: blogging for business is essential.
As online and product based business owners, we are faced with many common struggles:
Growing our audience
Developing loyal customers
Creating a sustainable income
But there are two questions that I get from all my potential and current clients:
How I can get my brand out there more?
How can I generate more sales?
These are great questions because they both link together. Getting your brand out there will undoubtedly generate more sales, enabling you to generate a sustainable income from your business.
So what’s the answer? Blogging.
Rolling your eyes? Feeling a bit disappointed? You’re not the only one.
Most people want to hear something sexier like, it’s time to up your Instagram game or get on live video more (both of which are effective strategies).
Blogging for business sounds so intimidating and time consuming - until you understand its benefits.
I’m constantly sharing these benefits on coaching calls with clients who don’t have a blog (or have one but don’t update it regularly). So I thought it would be helpful to share them with you too.
Here are the 9 biggest benefits of blogging for business.
#1 | Blogging Provides Constant Traffic To Your Website
Exactly like a shop front, your website is the one-stop-shop for all things related to your business. It houses information for upcoming launches, product details, your brand values, or even a behind-the-scenes peek into your process.
Now, it might be easy for a brick and mortar shop to get regular walk-ins off the street. But it’s not as easy for an online business to get regular visitors from an organic web search.
While posting to social media can be helpful and fun, there’s no guarantee that everyone will see your posts. Plus you don’t own those platforms. Algorithms are constantly changing which makes it even more difficult for businesses to get noticed (unless you pay for advertising which, let’s be honest, is a last resort).
If you are giving followers a reason to return to your website on a regular basis through your blog, they won’t miss a thing. This is one of the main reasons why blogging is so important.
But you can’t just blog for the sake of blogging.
Think about the blogs you read the most. What keeps you coming back for more? High quality content is key. A high quality post is one that is:
Relevant
Educational
Entertaining
Written specifically for your target customer
When blogging for your business, you want to keep the content rich with information, full of inspiring images, and throw in your personality. No fluff allowed!
Further Reading: Writing A Blog Post: How To Do It In The Best Way Possible
#2 | Blogging Expands Your Reach
HubSpot did a study and found that companies who blog receive 97% more inbound links (backlinks) to their website than companies who don’t.
This makes sense because blogging gives your readers content to share across multiple platforms.
Each time one of your posts is shared, your blog reaches a larger audience. It could be from a repin on Pinterest, a share on Facebook or a link on another person’s blog. Every share and link points back to your website.
Remember what I said about high quality posts? Solid blog content will lead to more shares. Someone probably wouldn’t share your website’s About page with their friends on Facebook. But they will share a blog post on How To Get Through A Creative Slump.
If you share high quality, helpful content on your blog, your audience will see value in your posts. This means that not only will they continue to come back for more, but they’ll also share your posts with their friends and followers.
So if you’re wondering, “why should I blog?”, this is a great reason to start. It allows you to expand your reach and get your website in front of a larger audience who will purchase something from you in the future.
This is even more important for businesses who are just starting out and don’t yet have an offer or product to sell. While you are in the offer formulation and product development phase, you should be blogging for business more than ever to build an audience to sell to for your launch. When it comes to best practices for business blogging, this is my #1 tip.
#3 | Blogging Builds A Community Of Loyal Customers
Product-based business owners, listen up.
Many brands, big and small alike, are starting to put a big focus on their brand packaging with each order they ship. The whole “unboxing experience” has become a bit of a social media phenomenon these days. The main reason why brands do this is because it builds loyalty, i.e. repeat business.
That phrase is key: repeat business. A loyal customer is a repeat customer. You want customers coming back for more, long after the unboxing experience is over.
So how do you keep them coming back? By offering advice on how to use and maximise the products people can purchase from you.
A great example of a brand that does a brilliant job with this is Simplified. Not only do they have a blog full of posts about productivity (plus printables and books written by the creator!), they’ve also created a series of videos and workshops that walk you through the set-up of your planner, plus other tips.
This builds TRUST.
Simplified has proven that they are productivity experts and customers will keep coming back for more because they are confident that Simplified’s products will help them achieve their goals.
By blogging for your business, you too can showcase your expertise by writing posts about your particular philosophy and methods. The more you share your knowledge, the more you’ll be seen as an expert.
Again, this builds trust, and clients are much more willing to do business with you when they trust you.
Blogging For Business Tips: Take this one step further and enable commenting on your blog.
You’ll be able to build a direct relationship with your audience through each comment and response. It creates yet another touch-point for interaction and humanises your brand, which leads to brand loyalty.
P.S. Don’t forget to grab your free cheat of 47 Blog Post Ideas to help you put this into action! Click the image below to get started.
#4 | Blogging Generates More Sales
I know a lot of you struggle with selling and putting yourself out there. For most online and product based business owners, it’s the worst part of running a business.
But if you were asked about the most beneficial feature of your product or service, I bet you could talk about that all day long!
The advantages of blogging includes allowing you to educate your customers without coming across as salesy. In your posts, highlight the benefits of your product or service. Focus on how it will help your customer solve a problem or reach their goals.
The more you focus on teaching your audience how your product will benefit them, the greater chance you have at closing the sale.
#5 | Blogging Gives You Complete Control Over Your Content
Having a social media presence is fun and should play a role in your overall marketing plan. But you don’t own those accounts like you own your own blog.
What would you do if Instagram shut down tomorrow? Let’s say you’d been using Instagram as the sole place to market your business. Your entire audience and library of content would be lost. You’d have to start from scratch.
One of the biggest benefits of starting a blog? Your blog can’t be taken away from you.
So when the next new “it” platform comes around, your blog will still be there as a resource to pull content from. You’ll be able to repurpose and share posts again on a new platform without missing a beat.
Plus, when you create and share high quality content on a consistent basis, people will bookmark your site and return to it often. You won’t have to worry about Instagram shutting down - or the ever-changing algorithms.
#6 | Blogging Provides An Abundance Of Content
Blogging for business can take a lot of time and effort up front. But the content you create can be reused over and over again throughout the life of your business.
The lifespan of a Facebook or Instagram post is only 5 to 21 hours respectively, but a blog post will last about two years!
By blogging about the benefits of your products, you are creating evergreen content (content that is always relevant and never goes out of date). This means your content can be enjoyed by new and existing customers for years to come.
After two years, you can refresh and repurpose each blog post. If you created high quality content the first time around, you will only need to make a few minor updates before sharing it again.
Plus, if you hope to save time on newsletters and social media posts in the future, blogging lays a great foundation for content. You can repurpose and break each blog post into bite-sized pieces for your newsletters and other marketing outlets. Just one blog post can provide numerous bits of content to be shared over and over again.
Do the work once and enjoy the benefits for years to come.
#7 | Blogging Is Free
While blogging for business will be an investment of your time, adding a blog to your website won’t cost a thing. And when you’re just starting out, sometimes all you can afford is time.
If you blog on a consistent basis with high quality, useful content, your time will reap financial benefits in the long run. Your blog will bring in more traffic, which will turn into more sales - and as you grow, you will come to see the results of your effort and hard work.
By posting evergreen content in the beginning stages of your business, you will be able to slow your blogging schedule as your business grows. The evergreen content will continue to do its job (behind-the-scenes), by brining more traffic to your site.
It’s like getting years worth of free marketing!
#8 | Blogging Generates New Product Ideas
Wouldn’t it be great if customers told you what new products and services they wanted instead of you having to guess?
Blogging allows you to see firsthand which topics your audience enjoys most through blog analytics and engagement (like comments and shares). Before creating a wellness planner, for example, write a few blog posts on the topic. Then take a look at your blog analytics to see how many views and shares those posts received in comparison to other topics.
Also, if you blog consistently and regularly engage with your audience, they will start to tell you what they want more of in blog comments or newsletter responses.
Customers like to share their opinions and ideas. Give them a platform to do so.
#9 | Blogging Will Get You Found On Google
Google is the number one search engine used today. Their mission is to match your search with the most appropriate content out there.
They decide which links are going to appear on the first page of search based on a variety of factors, including (but not limited to):
Keywords
The number of pages on the website
How many times the website has been linked to
How often the website is updated
When you consistently share new, high quality content, you’re naturally going to include keywords, more pages on your website, and more links to your site (by your content being shared), and your website will be updated on a regular basis.
There’s a lot of talk out there about search engine optimisation (SEO). This is a term that refers to increasing your website’s ranking in Google. It can get really complicated and I have plenty of blog posts on the topic to get you started:
In simple terms: In order to be found in a search, your website needs to play nice with Google. And Google likes blogging.
Recap
Blogging for business should be the main component of your content marketing plan.
I know it’s not the popular answer, but it’s true. Blogging for your business on a regular basis is the answer to your struggles. It will allow you to appeal to your target audience, spread the word about your products, and build a loyal following of paying customers, i.e. generate more sales.
So what are you waiting for?
I challenge you to write one blog post this week. To help you get started, I’ve created a list with not one, not two, but 47 blog post ideas for online and product based businesses.
Click the image below to download a free copy.
Do you blog for your business? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic and any questions you have in the comments below.