Does Your Business Need a Blog?

Written on 25 July, 2019 by Julia Hammond
Categories Blog

As a small business owner, your website is your digital business card. Your site lists your services, shares your brand story and helps users decide why they need your business. Attracting visitors to your website can be the most difficult part of online marketing, and even the most beautiful websites will struggle to get hits if customers don’t know they’re there. That’s where blogs can help.

Blogs are a terrific way to appeal to a wider range of customers by addressing the questions they’re seeking answers to. In this post, let us help you discover more about blogs and how your business can implement them into your overall marketing strategy.

 

Which businesses can benefit from blogs?

Put simply, most businesses will benefit from publishing regular blog posts. E-commerce sites can use blogs to directly link to their products. This is especially successful when the topic is discussing a common problem faced by clients and a sale is the solution. For example, a fashion company’s blog titled ‘How to Dress for Work in Summer’ could discuss the difficulties of finding work-appropriate outfits in hot weather whilst sprinkling links to their seasonal office-wear throughout.

Service industries can use blogs to position themselves as the leader in their field by discussing ideas and issues that customers might be facing and offering advice on how to tackle them. These blogs can also showcase a more fun and human side to your business. Imagine a pest control contractor posting a blog entitled ‘The Top 10 Fictional Pests You Wouldn’t Want in Your Home’ (high on that list would undoubtedly be the Baby Demogorgon from Stranger Things). At the end of any blog, a call to action reminds customers that the product or service they need is only a click or call away – and the phone number is right there.

 

Establish yourself as a thought leader

If you exist in an industry that is ripe with competition, having a regular and relevant blog is a sure-fire way to establish yourself as an expert in your field. If your blog content addresses common issues your customers are experiencing, you will be able to list all the different solutions your business can provide in a conversational medium. Over time this helps build trust in your brand as the go-to source of information for your area of expertise.

 

Improve your organic traffic

There are lots of factors that impact your ability to reach the top search engine results. Of course, keywords and other SEO strategies are important but blogs can play a part in your organic traffic too. First, blogs are a great way to answer questions; from ‘What is…?’ to ‘Why does…?’ people love to search for answers. If your blog provides the answer you might find yourself the top result sooner. Second, search engines are always trying to bring the most relevant, recent results to their users. By regularly updating your blog your website will always have fresh content to offer.

 

Generate new leads

Blogging is a long-term strategy. It won’t generate leads overnight, but it will nurture new leads as it takes customers through their buying journey. Around 96% of visitors to your website aren’t ready to buy your product or service, but they came to you for a reason. If you can provide the other content or information they might be looking for, you’ll be able to nurture them through the first stage of the buyer journey; awareness and research. In time, they’ll build trust in your brand and recognise you as a thought leader and eventually as they reach the purchase stage, you’ll be on their radar. Alternatively, if your website doesn’t have the information they need, you risk losing them forever.

 

Find a way around ad filters

Consumers are getting smarter; if they don’t want to see certain types of ads, they’re able to block them out. Using special filters like Ad Blockers, paid advertising methods are often turned away at the door – meaning that your pay-per-click methods need a helping hand to land your business on a customer’s screen. Blogs won’t be affected by any form of ad filters and they can nurture new leads early in the buyer journey, as discussed above. For customers that prefer a soft sell, a blog is a great way to add value to your sales pitch by sharing with them information on a topic of interest as well as positioning your business as the solution. With a recent Google update catapulting the necessity of organic, engaging writing, there’s never been a more crucial time to begin blogging.

 

Our expert writers can help you build your blogging cred

You’re the authority in your field; we’re the authority in ours. Our skilled writers can write blogs that address the important issues that your business handles on a day-to-day basis. We’ll work with you to define topics that suit your business and help you devise a blogging strategy that kicks all your goals. From creating short or long-form blogs to compiling whitepapers for corporate use, our content writers are ready to join your marketing team. Start your blogging journey by speaking to a Webcentral consultant on 1300 638 734.

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