Consistent blogging has become an essential way for small businesses to build their brand awareness. If you are a small business owner, having a blog is crucial in engaging and communicating with your customers. Creating new content for your website or social media channels also improves your rankings in search engine page results.
All businesses, large and small, face constant challenges to adapt to consumer demands and new digital trends. New technology continues to impact consumer behavior and customers want to develop relationships with brands. Now, more than ever, small businesses need ways of driving conversations, addressing customer interests, and creating relationships.
Blogging offers an inexpensive way for small businesses like yours to meet the needs and demands of your customers. A small business blog also helps you attract more customers and strengthens your authority as an industry expert.
Read on to find out how to use blogging to drive the success of your small business. At the end of the article, you will find out how to write the perfect business blog post.
What is Blogging?
The term blogging comes from the word “weblog.” Blogs started as a sort of online diary where individuals shared their thoughts, experiences, and opinions.
Now, blogs are an essential way for businesses to post information on topics related to their industry. The most successful companies regularly post content to drive more traffic to their website.
A business or corporate blog can include images, videos, text, screenshots, and other interactive content.
The Importance of Blogging for Small Businesses
Consumers are hungry for content and want to read about and research products or services online. Blogs give small businesses an excellent way of meeting those needs.
According to Forbes magazine, blogging benefits businesses because it creates trust between themselves and their customers. Blogs that contain authentic, educational, and storytelling content are trust builders. These kinds of blogs don’t push products or contain a lot of advertising, but they are helpful resources for interested consumers.
Some statistics also help to reveal the importance of having a small business blog. For example:
- 77% of all internet users regularly read blogs.
- Businesses who blog 2 – 3 times a week have more website traffic than companies with fewer blogs
- 7 out of 10 consumers prefer brand promotion through blogs rather than advertising.
- Nearly 70% of consumers say that a blog increases a website’s credibility.
3 Ways How Blogging Benefits Small Business
Here are three powerful ways of how blogging can drive your business growth.
1. Blogging boosts your rankings in search engine results
Creating regular, fresh content is one of the best ways to increase your search engine optimization (SEO).
Coming up with relevant content that includes well-researched keywords means that search engines will continually index your site. Google wants to deliver the best, most current, and most relevant search results. Regularly blogging will help you do just that.
Posting articles regularly helps you create specific content focusing on the very solutions your target audience needs. You can also create blogs specific to your local area which will help you rank better in the local search results.
2. Create value for your customers
Blogging is one way to provide better customer experience and set yourself apart from your competitors.
Your blog can provide snippets of valuable information that your customers will appreciate. Google also uses snippets of useful content to provide quick answers to online queries.
For example, you could write articles on how to do something, what are the best types of something, or provide checklists. If your website visitors find the information helpful and useful, they are likely to return to your site, share the information, or buy your product or service.
These short articles also form part of the buying process that can help you convert more leads.
This type of high-quality content builds trust with your audience. Blogging also allows you to post some of your content on social media. Providing links back to your blog helps to drive even more visitors to your website and increase revenue.
3. Become an industry leader
Providing valuable, educational, and entertaining content is the best way to establish your authority.
Especially if you are a local business, you want to be the “go-to” resource for people in your community. In time, regular blogging will help you build up a library of informative articles that are an essential asset for your online reputation. All of this builds trust, credibility, and ultimately leads to new customers.
How to Write the Perfect Blog for Small Businesses
So, now you know that blogging can help boost your SEO, create valuable content for your customers, and set you up as an authority.
How can you write a blog post that will drive your small business success? Here are the best tips for writing a business post:
- Keyword Research. Use an online keyword planner tool such as Google Ads to find phrases that have good search volume but low competition. Ideally, the primary keyword phrase should answer questions your target audience is looking for.
- Create titles and headlines. Before writing your content, use variations of your keyword phrase to create a title and subheadings. This structure gives your article focus and helps readers find what they need.
- Write with clarity. Make sure and follow the best writing practices for grammar and clarity. First and foremost, write for your readers. But don’t forget that the search engines also index your site and can tell the difference between a well-written article and poorly written one.
- Include visuals. Images and videos play an essential part in emphasizing your message and engaging your readers. Optimize images correctly and don’t forget to add keywords to the “alt description” tag for better SEO.
- Avoid shady SEO tactics. Never stuff keywords into text, i.e., repeating a specific phrase all the time. Don’t copy and paste someone else’s content. Don’t use invisible text on a page.
Blogging for Small Businesses: Takeaway
If you are a small business, regularly posting blog articles on your website is a great way to drive greater success. Your blog sets you apart from your competitors can become your unique selling point.
Blogging is just one part of a successful marketing campaign that small businesses use. Another way to engage with your customers is to get more online reviews.
Find out how Starloop can help drive your business success by helping increase your rankings and attract new customers.
