Today I am going to write about blogging as a marketing tool for businesses. A huge area on the internet, a big tool for business, but here in the North East of England, the part of the world where I am based, still yet a very untapped market.
Whether you are an individual running an independent small business or a big organisation , the need to effectively communicate has never been greater than today.
Blogging is a tremendous way to bridge that gap and fill up the void that exists between the business and the customer. It’s a communication tool, a marketing tool, even a sales tool.
Setting up a blog is virtually effortless and rather easy to manage. As a result, blogs are now part of our everyday lives. My entire business is built around blogs and has provided me with a platform that gets me noticed, and enables me to pout across the messages I need.
A business that is supported by a blog, already knows how important it is. For a business that’s just getting into developing a blog, you may ask, “what’s in it for me?”
According to Hubspot, companies that blog see:
• 55% more web visitors
• 97% more inbound links
• 434% more indexed pages by search engines
This means business blogging works to help you achieve more visibility increasing the opportunities available to you for lead generation and sales.
Let me give you a few business benefits from a blog.
1. Provide Your Business with a far Bigger Audience
The size of the Internet is massive and growing on a daily basis. The number of users escalates by the hour. By blogging high quality content regularly and targeting the right keywords, your blog can climb above any competition, increasing online visibility, and thus enabling you to promote your business to a far bigger audience! You are not limited to Geographic’s, boundaries simply don’t exist. As a life coach who had a practice with clients in County Durham, now I work with people in the States, Canada , South Africa and Europe.
2. Platform to Showcase Your Knowledge and Your Products
Blogs can be easily updated on a regular basis. It is such a powerful tool for any company to build their online reputation and credibility on the Internet. You can build yourself up as an expert in your field By providing consistent and in-depth content through your blog, you can build yourself up as the place for those seeking information within your niche. By writing powerful, informative blog posts you can truly show the wealth of knowledge that your company has, and your willingness to share information totally for free.
I don’t believe there is a better way to showcase your portfolio. If you create a new product, or do a brilliant job, a blog post is a fantastic way to show it off. Through a combination of written text and photographs you can take your readers through the entire process from beginning to end of any job you have done. I really can’t think of a better way of demonstrating the worth and capabilities of your business.
3. Build Interaction with the Outside World
The key for your blog and your business to succeed is to know what your customer wants, and to know what they think. A blog gives you a way to allow your customers to respond to you, in a way that is comfortable to them, that will give you this information clearly. You have nothing to fear, because you are in total control, and don’t have to publish their comment if you feel it is to negative for public consumption.
Blogs are a great way to build conversation. And when you have an interactive site others are tempted to get involved too. It’s a great way for you to be able to deal with people’s queries and show what an approachable, friendly company you are.
One of the things that you will find is you will receive many favourable comments from existing customers and these will act as testimonials, a great benefit to your marketing.
4. You’re Building Your Brand
Having a blog is a great way to build your business brand. From your corporate identity, and mission statement to your style of customer service can all be reflected by the blog you publish. People will get an impression about the type of company from what they find on your blog, so it gives you an unbelievable platform to make a positive impact.
Know how powerful a brand can be, and set out to build a strong brand image for your blog.
5. Stand Out From Your Rivals
If you’re not blogging, there’s a good chance either your competition is or soon will be. Having a blog online will give you a lot of advantages particularly if you use it right, updating it regularly, with quality content.
When you are optimising your blog well, using the best keywords for you and your industry your business can achieve a valuable point of competitive advantage.
6. Build a Community Around Your Business
When you offer something valuable, people naturally want to be associated with you. Over a period of time you can create a community of people around your business who are actively following you and are willing to listen to what you have to say. They will help you build your community being your best supporters and promoters.
7. Create a resource centre
You can build a great resource made available for your customers including things such as reports, testimonials, videos, white papers, EBooks, blog posts, etc. Where else could you do something like this and with so much ease.
I could go on and on.
Just start getting your business blog started.
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