Should My Small Business Have a Blog?

For creative individuals, blogging is an amazing way to share their thoughts and opinions. However, for small businesses and companies, blogging is a powerful tool for attracting new customers and creating a loyal fan base. Here are some quick stats to help you get started. It is said that 81 percent of U.S. consumers believe that blogs are credible sources of useful information. Furthermore, small businesses that actively maintain a blog have 97 percent more inbound links – which equals to more visitors and customers. So, are you still asking yourself if your small business should have a blog?

In this article, you will get to learn about how blogging can help your small business. In addition, we will talk about some of the common mistakes newbie bloggers make and we’ll give you a couple of helpful tips for starting a small business blog.

The Benefits of Having a Small Business Blog:

Search Engine Optimization and Ability to Index

Google loves nicely designed websites that provide unique and useful content. However, web design is only one part of this equation. Having an amazingly designed website for your small business won’t get you far when it comes to Google and other search engines. This is where having a blog comes into play.

By publishing high-quality content on your blog, you are actively helping your website to become more visible by Google. What this means is that you should publish genuinely useful content that is built around previously researched keywords. In turn, your visitors will share your content and your blog (as well as your website) will gradually start to earn quality backlinks. This will help Google to see your website as a useful source of information which will position your website higher among search results. More visitors mean more customers – which means more money in your pocket in the long run.

Get to Know Your Customers

Large companies have numerous ways to get information about their customers which helps them create highly successful marketing campaigns. However, small businesses have a hard time obtaining that information – which is why blogging is an invaluable tool.

By regularly posting great content and interacting with their customers, small business owners can use backend tools to obtain feedback. For example, they can see what visitors like to read as well as what they are saying in the comments section. In turn, this helps them better understand what people want, which can greatly help small business owners with their marketing decisions.

Establish Authority and Communicate Your Mission

One of the main benefits of having a blog is that it can be seen as a tool of two-way communication. An important part of marketing is building a recognizable brand. To do this, business owners need to communicate their mission and make sure their customers understand what their businesses stand for. After all, almost every reputable marketer will tell you that a strong brand is an important part of encouraging customer loyalty.

So, you might be wondering how to use a blog to promote your mission? Let’s say that you are selling organic food. You can express your brand’s purpose by posting in-depth information of how organic agriculture helps our environment as well as in what ways these products are healthier than traditional food. This shows your customers that you really care about what you’re selling and it shows your human side.

Building Relationships and Networking

So far, we referred to blogs as marketing tools. However, blogs are much more than that. If you decide to invest time into writing and publishing high-quality content, this could possibly open a number of opportunities. Aside from building a strong and ideally personal relationship with your visitors and customers, you can also build a strong business network. In other words, you never know who might be paying attention, right? This could be another business owner looking for a partner in a certain endeavor. This is why small business blogs are a great way to get to meet like-minded individuals.

Tips for Starting a Small Business Blog:

Make It Useful and Unique

Copying or spinning existing content won’t get you far when it comes to Google and building a strong relationship with your customers. This is why it’s imperative to publish unique articles that are genuinely useful.
The best advice we can give you is to put yourself in your reader’s shoes. Try to think of what kind of information your readers would appreciate and try to provide insider knowledge. Spend some time reading similar blogs and see what they’re missing. Then, offer something new and something personal.

Use Social Media

After investing time into research and writing genuinely useful content, the biggest obstacle will be attracting an audience. To help build the initial momentum, use the power of social media.
Social media networks allow you to tap into existing audience groups. You can even spend a couple of dollars on creating sponsored ads that have the power to reach a large number of individuals. After that, try to offer bite-sized content that redirects to your blog posts. Even though this can be challenging, this effort will most certainly pay off in the long term. After having attracted a small fan base, your blog has the power to exponentially grow through likes and shares.

Be Consistent

You shouldn’t expect a massive success after publishing a couple of amazing blog posts because blogging is actually a marathon. This means that you should regularly and consistently update your blog with new posts and allow it to grow at a certain pace.

Give yourself some time to experiment and see what kind of content your readers like to consume. This kind of fine-tuning takes time, but remember to be consistent in your communication. Your newly acquired experience will tremendously help you in the long run.

Common Blogging Mistakes to Avoid:

Forcing Marketing and Being Overly Promotional

Your blog could be a powerful marketing tool, but you shouldn’t turn it into your primary marketing channel. As a small business owner, you probably know that being too pushy or overly promotional can scare off your customers. Instead, use your blog as a way to regularly provide interesting, useful and informative content.

Bad Writing

Creative writing is a form of art and not everyone can do it. This is why there are numerous writers on the Web, offering their services and helping you verbalize your message in the best way possible. You can even hire a number of different writers to provide different voices to your blog. However, don’t forget to be consistent in your messages.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that if you’re looking to build your online presence, having a blog is one of the best ways to do this. Take your time, think about your voice and messages you want to spread, and go ahead and start your own blog. Your customers will value your business more and you’ll reap the numerous benefits.