With so many other demands on your time, why should blogging become one of your priorities? Let’s look at the tried and tested reasons why adding a blog to your website should be a part of your marketing strategy.

Why Should you Blog?

1. SEO & Website Traffic

All businesses want higher rankings in search engines, and/or more website traffic. To increase your website traffic, ranking for the keywords, queries and topics your customers are looking for, is vital.

A cornerstone of SEO is content, especially new and regularly revised content. One avenue is to add to and update your existing pages, but a blog opens a different communication channel to discuss in detail topics of interest to your audience. A blog can also function as a news, or regular update section.

Optimising your blogs with on-page SEO techniques [ADD BLOG link] will also give you a boost, sending the right signals to search engines.

When paired with Social Media sharing a blog can significantly increase your traffic.

In summary – done well – regular blogging makes it easier for new visitors to find you and it gives previous visitors a reason to return.

2. It’s an Essential Part of Content Marketing

Following on from the last point, when your business has a content marketing strategy [add blog link] (and let’s face it, it should!), blogging is one of the easiest ways to implement it.

“Content marketing is a marketing program that centres on creating, publishing, and distributing content for your target audience — usually online — the goal of which is to attract new customers.” Hubspot

It’s goal is providing your customers with valuable information or tools, it creates trust and confidence, raises brand awareness and builds authority. Sounds awesome right?!

So it follows that your blog is the perfect medium to hit these goals. Regular blogs of new (or revisited) content sends out a clear and positive message about your business allowing it’s expertise to shine through.

3. Connect and Communicate with Your Target Audience

As a more informal communication option – blogging is perfect for starting conversations with your existing or potential clients. A comment section allows collaboration, sharing and engagement. This can contribute to building a community of regular visitors and contributors.

TIP! – Always reply to comments on your blog. This shows interest, can stimulate discussion and may encourage others to comment. Also, it’s ok to set a conversational tone – in fact, this can make your writing far more accessible, enjoyable and consumable.

Remember a blog can include – case studies, how-to’s, and expert opinion articles. Equally you can share news, new product and service launches, class schedules, upcoming events and more. Think of it as your personal PR tool crafted specifically for people who share an interest in your business!

4.  Branding your online business

Although this may not be your primary reason for blogging it is something to be aware of. Writing in a style that reflects your business values, mission and the personalities of the people who work there is the aim. This sets the tone and expectation for people who then visit your physical business as well as your digital shopfront.

5.  Leverage new opportunities for yourself and your business

Over time, becoming known as an expert for a certain topic will result in people reaching out to you when searching for information in that area. This can result in new business (and personal) opportunities.

In our next blog we’ll explore what to blog about and touch on how often you should blog. Future blogs will cover where and how to promote your blog content and repurposing to maximise your return.

Look for our next blog – we’ll be discussing “What Topics Should you Blog About? (and what to avoid)”.

Sources and Resources link