Whilst you have no doubt heard that blogging is a great way to generate leads for your business, you may not have found any useful information on what you need to do to blog and how to make a blog a success. Here are some blog business benefits which show you can’t afford to delay starting a blog for your business.
Why should I think about blogging for my business?
What’s so special about short articles which people can comment on? Blogging is a powerful marketing tool because it draws in precisely the people who you want your business to appeal to. It attracts them with content covering things in which they are already interested. This enables you to establish a relationship with them as a potential customer.
Some of the key blog business benefits include increasing online visibility; improving understanding of your products and services; and, of course, generating leads. This form of inbound marketing brings users to your website. With good content on a blog, you can keep bringing them back, using clever conversations to answer questions, discussing topics relevant to your industry or showcasing how your products or services deliver value.
Getting blogging right
By creating the right content and publishing it on your blog at the right time, your content marketing efforts will drive more traffic to your website and increase the visibility of your brand on search engines, whilst improving engagement across social media. Blogging helps to build trust as you present your knowledge and authority on subjects in which you are knowledgable and by sharing your expertise for free on your blog, you can expect that visitors may return to find answers to future questions from your site.
One of the biggest blog business benefits is the chance to convert visits to your website into leads. Add a call to action such as registering for emails or downloading a brochure in exchange for a discount code or free trial offer in each blog post and you can generate a qualified lead that your sales team can nurture and potentially convert.
Starting a business blog
Research your target audience and understand what their problems are and what interests them. Use this to inform your plan for the subjects that you will cover on your blog. Research relevant, achievable keywords or search phrases for which your site should be ranked. Plan to include these in relevant posts and use your industry knowledge and professional expertise to create a content plan that will garner attention and thus assist in achieving sustainable presence in the SERPS (search engine results pages).
Get your timing right, producing regular new blog posts that are tied into your marketing calendar and make sure you can support your blog by sharing and promoting your posts via social media and other channels at the times they are most likely to be effective.
Plan how you will manage and mediate any comments made on your blog articles; it is essential that you interact with anyone who takes the time to interact with you and you will want to maintain your right to reply if there is any spamming or trolling on your blog. If you get it right, a good blog can provoke lively, constructive conversation and debate.
Want to know more?
You can visit The Hub for tips on starting your business with a domain name, a business email, and a website. You can also download free insightful e-books there.