4 Reasons Your Small Business Needs a Blog

For businesses with robust, multi-channel marketing programs in place, the thought of adding one more communication channel to the mix can be overwhelming. Who will generate the content? Who will monitor and engage with the community? How will you know if it’s working?

While the answers to those questions are far from universal, some communication channels align better with a business’ overall goals than others. Take a blog for example. When built on the right platform and rich with the right content, blogs can help business to attract new clients. They can also become trusted information sources for media. Still unsure if a blog is right for your business? Keep reading for more information on the benefits of business blogging:

Blogging increases website traffic and generates leads

Blogging is a powerful way for businesses to educate prospects and secure leads. According to HubSpot, businesses that blog attract up to 55% more website visitors than businesses that do not blog. Beyond just increasing overall website traffic, blogs help bring more qualified visitors and leads to a site.

Google loves blogs

Businesses often ask us how their PR/marketing program can help them to ‘get found’ online. A blog is one way to achieve that objective. While Google judges websites and determines organic search rankings based on a broad range of criteria, fresh content is one of its chief considerations. To Google, an up-to-date blog says you are generating fresh content and an active member of the online community. Depending on how your blog is setup, you may also be adding a new page of content to your website every time you post. Did I mention that Google also likes websites that are content-rich?

Blogs help build trust by showcasing expertise

Whether you are looking to hire a marketing agency or secure a new accountant, it is important to know what you are buying and who you will be working with. Oftentimes, consumers will turn to the web to gather some of this information.

Let’s pretend that you are a small business with 10-15 employees and your bookkeeper of 25 years has announced her retirement. After 25 years, it’s time to transfer your records from a trusted advisor with whom you have built a long-standing relationship to a complete stranger. Having been some time since you looked for a bookkeeper, you have a few questions on your mind and decide to turn to Google. You pop open your browser and type in your first question, “How to transition records to a new bookkeeper.” Google returns a variety of results, including a blog post entitled “How to transition records to a new bookkeeper.” You decide to click and find yourself with a reasonably detailed response to your question. Impressed that the company who wrote the post read your mind (otherwise known as understanding buyer personas) you decide to flip through their site to learn a bit more about the company. Thanks to their blog, you know that this company understands one of your pain points, is familiar with the position you are in and has experience working with other folks in similar situations…and you haven’t even picked up the phone.

Blogs are great places for people to interact with your brand

Have you ever read a blog post that was so great that it motivated you to leave a comment? Have you ever read the comments on a blog post and found that the dialogue that the post inspired was equally if not more compelling than the post itself? Blog comments can take on a life of their own. While this does require bloggers to spend time monitoring/reading the comments, the content within the comments can help to identify topics for future blog posts and create additional touchpoints for the brand with clients and prospects. Respond to blog comments, as appropriate, to ensure readers know your brand is actively engaged and values their questions/feedback.

While maintaining an effective business blog requires an investment of both time and resources, blogging is a valuable tool for cultivating leads. Before launching a business blog be sure that you have a mechanism in place for generating and optimizing fresh content as well as monitoring and responding to comments. A blog that is updated infrequently and where readers do not feel valued can do more harm to your brand’s reputation than it can provide value in the form of qualified leads.