There are only so many hours in a day. With so little time, owners might be wondering why they should write, build, and maintain a business blog. Keeping a business blog can be incredibly beneficial and below are a few good reasons to start one if you have not already.
A few months ago, and even a bit now, the trending headlines were all about how "content is king". Debates shifted from what SEO techniques should be implemented to what sort of content is best for a website. While I personally would not abandon an SEO strategy and just begin blindly writing content, there is no doubt that a solid blog could boost your search engine rankings. It is old news to state what seems like the obvious, so below are some contributing reasons why producing excellent content will beneficial for your online marketing purists for SEO and beyond!
1) Blogging for SEO purposes. Yes, it's true, blogging will help you with your SEO strategy. It is incredibly beneficial for those within a highly competitive market. Let's say you are a newly started web design company and you're competing with others in your local market that have been around for years, posting a blog will help you. There are some excellent blog posts that can still have low PR and still show up on the first page of Google because of the topics they target. Try aiming for those popular, but sometimes neglected, long-tail keywords, test the waters and see how your traffic is affected.
2) Building trust through expertise. Blogging about topics that you are knowledgeable about will help your audience depending on your market. This is especially useful for B2B clients and businesses with sites that cater to a niche market. Publishing informative content will help build trust around your brand. Individuals will be more likely to utilize your services if you show that you know what you are talking about.
If you cater to a B2C community, once you have a target audience located, work to create content that will be of interest to them. While this may be obvious, I do see marketers forget who their target audience is and publish content that is of little relevance to them. It might work for some brands to keep a blog that caters to experts but markets to non-experts. However, I would rather nurture leads and foster an environment that encourages my clients to interact with me. This way you can listen and learn more about who you cater to.
3) Set your self apart from the competition. With thousands of websites out there, keeping an original blog that is reflective of your brand and style will set you apart from the clutter. Writers tend to present content in a certain light. That could be witty, funny, serious, emotional, whatever your overall voice is, present that to your audience. If you sell cat products and are a huge fan of jokes, it may not be a terrible idea to write content on your business blog that is reflective of that. Your personality showing through will give you a unique edge and it will be less robotic, making your consumers more interested in all that you have to offer.