Exploring the Potential of a Business Blog
There’s a reason why blogging has stood the test of time. Content marketing, which includes blogging, plays a pivotal role in modern marketing strategies. Surveys show that 76% of marketers rely on content, such as blogs, to generate leads, while a significant 77% of online users actively engage with blogs. If you’ve yet to be convinced by the benefits of blogging for business, read on as we consider 8 ways a business blog could boost sales.
The primary purpose of blogging for business is to attract and engage potential customers, build brand authority, drive website traffic, generate leads, and develop customer relationships. It uses a blend of sector specific knowledge and the emotional power of storytelling to establish a strong online presence and drive business growth.
What is Business Blogging?
Business blogging is a marketing practice that uses original copy to support business objectives. Blogs can be specialist articles, opinion pieces, industry updates or informative content that’s produced in response to the interests, concerns or needs of a target audience.
The primary purpose of business blogging is to attract and engage potential customers, build brand authority, drive website traffic, generate leads, and develop customer relationships. It uses a blend of sector specific knowledge and the emotional power of storytelling to establish a strong online presence and drive business growth.
8 Ways Blogging For Business Achieves Results
1. Create New Leads Out of Business Blogs
While a business website primarily focuses on driving sales, not all visitors may be ready to make a purchase immediately. Instead of allowing them to leave your site, a blog page provides a way for visitors to refine their product search or gather additional information about your business.
To transform these readers into leads, consider offering a lead-generating call to action on the blog page, such as a factsheet, eBook, or promotional offer. By asking them to fill out a form to access the download, you not only provide value but also capture valuable leads for your business.
2. Blog Content Can Be Repurposed for Social Media
Instead of constantly creating new social media content, use your blog content to fulfil that need. Each blog post allows followers to easily share it with their network on popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Furthermore, within each blog there’s the potential for 5-10 social media posts, making repurposing blog content an efficient strategy. This approach not only streamlines content creation but also ensures coherence across all your content marketing channels, creating a unified and impactful online presence.
3. Make Your Business Human
Using genuine human faces, rather than generic stock images, on a business website heightens its emotional impact and bolsters the site’s credibility. Blogging for business presents an excellent way to cultivate the human aspect of your company.
When you win an award, share the news through a blog post accompanied by photos. Announce new hires on the blog as well. Incorporating such stories into your blog humanises the business and strengthens its brand identity.
4. Blogs Attract Backlinks
Backlinks are valuable inbound links from reputable third-party websites. They serve as a powerful ranking signal for Google’s algorithm and are difficult to achieve. However, a blog channel that features interviews with industry leaders or invites opinions on trending topics has the potential to attract these coveted backlinks, resulting in improved rankings compared to websites lacking such content.
When authoritative websites link to your blog, it enhances your reputation within the industry and strengthens your image in the eyes of visitors, establishing trust and credibility.
5. Blogging For Business is Helpful to Customers
As a business, it is crucial to understand the questions your customers have and how your product or service can address their problems. A business blog provides a way to showcase this understanding and position your business as a solution provider. By offering informative content that addresses customer queries, you not only engage visitors but also increase the likelihood of repeat visits and conversions.
The blog serves as a valuable archive that can be used as collateral in the sales process, and returning visitors will be more more likely to choose your brand over competitors who do not offer the same level of valuable information.
6. Increase Website Traffic
Blogging is an effective strategy to drive more visitors to a business website. By consistently publishing valuable and relevant content, blogs can attract organic search traffic through improved search engine visibility. Engaging and shareable blog posts also have the potential to reach wider audiences through social media and referrals. Additionally, blogs can establish the business as a thought leader, driving curiosity and interest from visitors who are seeking further information and insights.
How Do Blogs Help Local Business?
Unlike pay-per-click strategies, blogging for business doesn’t yield immediate results. However, it offers long-term benefits for businesses. By consistently publishing valuable content, blogging improves search engine visibility, making your business more discoverable. It also helps establish a loyal network of visitors.
Local businesses can further benefit by cultivating a local community following through social media and their website, fostering stronger connections with their target audience in the area.
Here are 4 key elements to successful local blogging:
1. Use Geographical SEO
In order to promote your business blog, Google has to find it. It does this by picking up ‘keywords’ in your copy that match search queries. Bloggers wishing to be found by local customers should use keywords that include the area where your target audience shops and lives.
2. Blog Regularly
Blogging for business is a long-term strategy, so don’t be disheartened if your first few blogs don’t make much of an impact. Just remember that businesses providing regular, SEO enriched blogs receive up to 8 times more traffic than those that don’t. 4 blogs per month is the minimum for any impact, and the more blogs you write, the more quickly you’ll see results.
3. Post Your Blogs on Your Google Business Profile
A great way to advertise your business blogs is by providing a snippet and link on what Google call their ‘Knowledge Graph’. This is a panel of information about your business that appears when your company name is searched. You can add links and snippets to this panel via your Google Business Profile.
4. Social Media
Local businesses tend to build lively and engaged followings on social media. Facebook, or Twitter are great platforms for sharing your blogs, therefore, and suggesting that people share them if they find them useful. If you’re a B2B business your blogs can be shared in a variety of ways on LinkedIn. You can post in groups, or on your business page, or as an article.
About Outsource Your Marketing
The majority of businesses that decide to use blogging for business as an integral part of their content marketing strategy outsource the writing of them. This has nothing to do with laziness, or lack of knowledge; they simply don’t have the time to devote to this activity. Outsource Your Marketing has a team of blog writers with expertise across a broad range of sectors. We can write your copy, develop your strategy, and provide SEO enriched, good looking blogs for publication.
