If you have your own website, it is always in your best interest to have a blog that goes with it. It gives you the opportunity to engage with your audience and take some time to interact with them in a more personal manner. The more that you can engage and interact with your audience, the easier it will be for them to remember your brand and understand what it is truly about.
1. Blogs Allow You to Create Fresh Content
Google and other search engines love sites that create new content on a regular basis. As you may not be able to change your pricing structure or your landing pages on more than once a year or every few months, a blog makes it possible to create new content on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Therefore, simply creating and adding content to a blog is a boon for your site in itself.
2. Blogs Allow You to Educate Your Audience
Let’s say that you own a plumbing company and have a website aimed at gaining customers and growing your brand. For many, calling a plumber may be the option of last resort to solve a minor problem. With a blog post, you can tell the potential customer why a professional can be helpful as that supposedly minor issue could be the first symptom of a major problem lurking in the background.
3. Blogs Allow You to Position Yourself In a Crowded Marketplace
In addition to being able to educate customers, you can position yourself as the expert in the field who should be taken seriously. By creating comprehensive and entertaining blog content, you can gain recognition for your brand and make it the first one that people think of when they need service. Let’s again say that you were running a plumbing company. There are dozens of plumbing companies in your local area. With great content, you tell your customers that you care the most, can do the best job and are worth the money you charge for work done.
4. Get Good Rankings in the Search Results
When you create content, you give yourself multiple chances for ranking well for a variety of keywords. Remember, content doesn’t have to solely be text. You can create videos or infographics in addition to articles. This helps you connect with those who may be able to best grasp the content through pictures or would rather watch a video than read an article.
5. Content Can Help You With Social Media
When done right, your blog post will live on multiple online properties. The goal when you start blogging is to get your content shared across social media channels as well as reprinted or otherwise reposted on blogs and sites throughout the Internet. The more likes and shares you get, the more brand recognition and visibility your business will receive. Furthermore, getting your content liked and shared can build credibility for your brand. For the most part, people don’t want to read or share content that isn’t useful or isn’t worth bothering their friends over.
6. Blog Content Starts Conversations on Your Site
Companies that exist on the Internet do so to facilitate a conversation with their customers. At the end of each blog post, your customers can leave comments, suggestions or concerns that they may have about the content or your brand in general. Customers can also ask for new products, ask for help with products that they are using today or simply interact with others who may use the site. In addition to creating a conversation, the site benefits because conversations may be indexed by search engines, which offers even more opportunities for ranking.
7. Use Your Blog to Make Money
When you start blogging, it may be possible to monetize your blog and create a critical source of revenue. For instance, it may be possible to link to affiliate products or post advertisements on the blog to make a steady income. Sponsored content may also help make money while strengthening relationships with other brands.
Creating a blog is something that should be considered mandatory when making your site. It allows you to build rapport with customers, improve your visibility on search engines and even make a little extra money. Therefore, it can be a great tool to both market effectively and market in a way that doesn’t tie up your marketing budget.