5 reasons why your business needs a blog
Most companies know that they should be blogging, but finding the time and motivation to write regular blog posts can be difficult. Let’s face it, as a small business owner, you’re probably focussed on keeping up with immediate needs like closing sales and providing your products and services to your customers. But while most people know that a blog writing can be great for SEO, many don’t realize that it can provide you a lot of support in managing your direct customer relationships.
Here are 5 reasons why your business needs a blog, and some blog content ideas to help you get started:
1) Your blog can answer common Customer Questions
Most customers have lots of questions. Before they purchase your product or service, they want to know if your company will provide them good service, and if your product or service is the right fit for their needs. They may also want to know how your offering compares to the competition. Customers may also need help understanding how your product or service works, or how it can solve their problem or the problem of a friend.
If you’re regularly fielding customer questions, take note of what people are asking most often, and use that information to develop a customer-friendly blog series that can provide them more information. For the customers who find your information before they speak to you, you’ll probably discover that they are better informed, and are closer to purchase, saving you time and making your job easier.
2) Your blog is great shareable content for social media
Social Media is an excellent rapid-fire marketing tool, but it takes time to do it well. Creating regular blog content provides you a great resource to share and get engagement, and informative and educational blog posts are a great fit for social media’s non-salesy, personal connection approach. As your blog grows, you can also re-share past posts and get more mileage out of your hard work creating a blog.
3) Your blog can position you as an expert and build trust
While your website explains the product or service you deliver and some of your company story and history, your blog is a great place to prove that you’re really an expert at what you do. By answering customer questions, writing content that shows you’re on top of what’s happening in your industry, posting customer success stories and case studies that prove success, and going deeper into what you do, customers will build trust and respect for your company and its expertise. A blog can put you miles ahead of a competitor who just tells you that they offer a service.
4) Your blog provides added value to existing customers.
Your past and existing customers are important people to continue reaching through your marketing efforts. They’ve already decided to purchase your product or service, and have the potential to be loyal, repeat customers, and/or great brand ambassadors. Continue reaching them with blog content that helps them get the most out of their purchase. This can include providing tips on how to use your product or service, or sharing other solutions to your customers’ problems that complement your offering.
5) Blogs are good for SEO
Yeah, you already knew this one, but it’s important to mention. Your website is often a well-branded and carefully curated marketing piece, designed to help navigate customers through to contacting you. The great thing about a blog is that you can use it to go further in depth about your products or services, what types of customers they’re best for, how to use them, and much more. Long-form content (2000 words or more) that is well focused on a specific topic often gets the best SEO, but this isn’t always practical or sensible to create on your main website. Along with keeping all of my other blog suggestions in mind, it’s a good idea to think about keywords you want to be found for, and use them to help guide your blog writing process.
If you weren’t already, hopefully you’re now convinced that a regular blog is a good idea for your business, and have a few blog content ideas to start writing about.
Is blog writing not your thing? That’s where I come in! If you need help creating customer-supportive, SEO blog content for your business, get in touch!
