Business blogs have become essential to maintaining an online presence. It can help you stand above the competition, and even get you new customers. No business is going to grow in a vacuum. Growth happens in relation to your target audience and your competitors. Here are some of the top reasons to start a business blog.

Blogging Helps You Compete

There are plenty of small businesses that provide similar products and services to yours. No two businesses are identical, however, and that is what you need to emphasize. Blogging about what makes your company unique, and showing some personality through your writing will distinguish your business from other similar businesses. A sure fire way of making yourself known to your target audience is by starting a blog.

Boost Traffic to Your Website

Whether or not you have a blog, you most certainly have a website. Most blogs are separate to the business website – either a separate section, or a different site altogether. Whichever way you prefer to manage your blog, having a secondary link to click on gives you another way to target new visitors to your site.

Become an Industry Expert

In your business blogs, your expertise about your industry, products, and services can really shine. By sharing high quality and relevant information with your readers, you can become known as the primary resource who provides useful material, updates them about new tools and products, solves their challenges, and in the process advance your business.

Build Valuable Personal Connections

It’s well known that people buy from people they like. A big part of business is about the personal touch. You can bring that personal touch via your blog. Just because it’s a business blog, doesn’t mean it has to be all business. That would be boring for most readers. Inject some humor and personality, show off your personal brand, and make sure you respond to comments. This can help you build a community with like-minded people, as well as help you learn more about your audience.

Blog Posts = Social Media Content

Blogging, especially when combined with social media is a powerful way to promote your business online. It’s not easy to find new ideas and content for social media. But when you’re blogging, you can use the same posts for your social media content. Another smart tip is breaking up each blog post into chunks, and expanding on each point as a separate social media post. Take shareable quotes, and use them on Twitter too.

Use Blogging to Answer FAQs

Do you know what are the most frequently asked questions about your business are? What are your clients asking you most often? You probably already have an FAQ section on your website, but consider answering these FAQs in detail in different blog posts. You can define the answers, and maybe even give real life examples. All of this will only get your clients and potential clients even more comfortable with buying from you.

Promote

Are there special offers and promotions going on in your company right now? Use your blogs to promote them. There are some businesses that will not promote anything through their blogs. However, as long as you’re not promoting your products or services in every blog post you write, and your blogs are informative, nor informercials, then a little bit of self-promotion will do no harm. Remember not to go overboard with this. The main focus of your blog should remain as a resource provider to your clients and readers.

If you’re still not convinced that a business blog is a good idea for your company, then consider this. It has been statistically proven that blogging helps businesses. Statistics show that when you have custom content in your blogs, it warms up prospective customers to your business. A business that has a blog is also shown to generate more leads than a business that doesn’t. And finally, blogging is just as effective as using advertisements, and much more cost friendly.

Blogging is an effective way to tie all your online and offline strategies together, making a seamless customer experience. A business blog represents different touchpoints where clients can learn more about your company, products, and services, and ultimately make a purchase. When leveraged in the right way, a business blog can be the catalyst that converts a mere visitor to your site, into your next client.

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