As a small business, having an online presence is key to selling your products/services
Your websites main purpose is clearly to inform people of who you are, how to contact you and pointing users to your products, services and aims. However, a beneficial addition to a business site in today’s online world is a blog.
There are many advantages to having a blog and we have listed just a few of them for you.
A constant stream of business updates
The name blog originates from the words ‘web log’ and in essence, it is a news feed or a diary. This journal for your business, as long as it is consistently updated, can be a customers or clients way of keeping up to date with your developments.
Every time you post an update, you give readers an insight into the behind the scenes workings of your business. Posting announcements, good news and opinion pieces about your sector among other things is a great way of building an audience of potential clients. This all feeds into creating a more trustworthy feel for your business by showcasing the people of the business.
It shows the personable side of the company
By writing informal content for your blog, commenting on things happening in your industry and sharing your good news, it gives readers and potential customers an insight into the person or people behind the company. Having that kind of connection through your blog with your audience is an invaluable asset that many companies do not have. Sometimes it can be as simple as those extra personable steps that makes your business really stand out.
It provides social media content
Alongside having a blog, setting up and maintaining social media profiles for your business is essential. A blog and social media profiles go hand in hand, benefitting and complimenting one another.
When you post a blog on your website, you can also post an update with a link to it on all your social media platforms. Not only will this grow your blog’s readership and your social media following but it provides you with content to post on your social media profiles.
The blogs are instant ideas for social posts and your social media is free publicity for your blog and website. It’s a win-win situation to grow all your audiences at once, as long as you put time and effort into it.
Improves the overall SEO of the website
As a business you want yourselves to be highly searchable and easily found on all search engines. You can achieve this by creating a great website, getting your name spread online (in the right places) and partaking in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
A blog gives you another opportunity to improve your website’s SEO score. You have the chance to update the score on a regular basis without having to redo your website completely.
It also gives you the chance to highlight keywords or areas you may want to target through your marketing strategies on and offline. Writing a blog about the subject of your marketing and sharing on social media will produce an opportunity to grow your reach and audience further.
Having this consistency through your blog, social media and marketing campaigns will benefit your organic search results and Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns online too.
You can develop relationships with other businesses, customers, clients etc.
Your blog can help you to start conversations. These conversations can help you develop relationships with other businesses in your sector. You could also connect with ones you may work with in the future, as well as current or prospective clients/customers.
All business people know networking and building good solid working relationships is vital and blogging is just another way of doing that. It’s specifically important for small business as you will, in the main, have less contacts and influence in your sector and you are trying to find people to connect with.
This is a simple, free and non-time consuming way to network with the people you need to know.
You can use it as a creative outlet
Using a blog will make you more creative as a business. This can unlock a lot of potential in your staff as well as your business connections. If you work in a creative business, you should be making use of as many online avenues as possible. This will easily show off your skills as well as spreading your name.
If you are working in any other sort of business, a blog can add some much needed creativity to your website. This may well encourage your staff to use their creative skills and think outside the box a little more business wise. This can be very beneficial in unlocking other talents and keeping the day-to-day job role fresh and exciting for your staff.
Also, by posting commentary and/or opinion pieces on your blog, you can build up your name to become a respected voice within your sector.
If you have just set up your business or you already own a small business and are looking to grow your network and reach, try setting up a blog on your company website. It will give you a great outlet to spread news, be creative and connect with your audience.
Watch out for posts on the benefits of social media, SEO and PPC for your business coming to our blog soon.