You Need a Blog
Don’t let the perceived effort of creating a blog hold you back from giving it a try. Your business can reap big rewards with focused, thoughtful posts that don’t eat too much of your time.
Blogging takes a lot of work. (Says the writer who’s posted to this blog far too infrequently.) There’s coming up with topics, which can be—or at least seem like—a huge undertaking; accessing sources; organizing your thoughts; and then actually writing, editing, and rewriting the darn thing, plus finding photos. However, a blog—or multiple blogs—on your website offers many benefits, including driving traffic, building community, and providing service to your audience that only your brand can offer, in your brand’s voice, and from your brand’s perspective.
Some stats from Hubspot:
Lead generation: Blogs are reported to drive nearly 70% more leads than sites without blogs.
Trustworthiness: Blogs are the fifth most trusted source of online information.
Traffic: Businesses with blogs on their websites garner 55% more traffic than those that don’t.
Perhaps the biggest benefit of a blog lies in content creation that you can share and repurpose across your website and social media channels to engage your audience. Many small businesses and associations focus on speaking at their audience instead of with. Yes, you have deadlines and offers to communicate to your followers, but those posts don’t drive engagement, nor do they always drive people to your website. They’re typically low performers, meaning they probably don’t even reach your audience. But we you provide content your audience can engage with—whether through commenting or by clicking through to an article—your metrics start to grow, which means your audience grows and your pool of potential customers expands.
Blog posts also serve to keep people on your site longer. Including links that cross-reference other pages on your site allows readers to click around from post to post, link to link. All of that clicking can lead your site to work its way up the search-engine rankings, too.
If you have endorsees for products or services, blogs are a great way to introduce those members of your team, explain why they choose your product or service over others, and share their talents with your audience. Guest posts from endorsees can be even better, because they allow you to capitalize on your sponsorship without a lot of time investment, other than editing the posts to align with your brand’s voice and standards.
No matter the size of your business, a blog builds credibility. It makes you and your brand experts in your field, and allows you to share that expertise to the extent that your audience comes to rely on you to provide just what they need, when they need it. You and your brand become trusted friends and allies your audience trusts and is confident spending their dollars with.
Want help starting your business’s blog? Give me a call! I can help with the structure and ideation, or handle the entire project for you, from ideation to publication. I currently produce a blog for Horse&Rider, a brand I led for almost 10 years. Get a taste of it here.