The cynics among you might read my blog title and think, as a professional copywriter, it’s hardly surprising that I would try to convince you of the benefits of business blogging. Of course, I’ll tell you you need one – writing business blogs is my livelihood – it’s my way of bringing home the proverbial bacon.
You’d be absolutely right. I do have a vested interest in the end result.
I’ve seen first-hand the impact on a small business that a blooming marvellous blog can have. In my professional opinion, business blogs are the bee’s knees. Here’s why.
1. They boost your visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs).
There are a mind-boggling 3.5 billion Google searches in a single day. When someone uses Google to ask a question, it deploys its Google bots to locate the answer.
The Google bots undertake three activities to find the most relevant results to their query:
- Crawling: Scouring the internet for new, quality content.
- Indexing: Storing and organising the content found by crawling (a huge database of all the content they consider worthy of sharing with searchers).
- Ranking: Ordering the content from most to least valuable and relevant.
Therefore, your business blog has two real purposes:
- To provide new content for the Google bots to find – their first job is to look for new and updated content. Because small business websites are largely static, with little if any new content added regularly, a blog is a great opportunity to encourage the bots to crawl your site for indexing purposes.
- Once they’ve found the content, the Google bots add it to their index. The more quality content you create, the more they store, the higher your chances of getting ranked, and the more visible you become.
Makes sense, right? If you want to learn more about writing for SEO, read my post on writing SEO-friendly content.
2. They showcase your knowledge and establish your expertise.
Increased visibility is excellent news for a small business, but what you do with that visibility is just as important. For an entrepreneur in a crowded marketplace, credibility is fundamental to selling your product or services to strangers.
A business blog is an excellent way to demonstrate that you know your stuff, showcase your product or service, and give potential clients a sneak peek of what you’re like in real life.
Giving others confidence in your abilities to understand their most pressing problems, and efficiently solve them, is powerful. It’s one of the tactics I’ve used in my marketing and the most successful way I’ve secured new and repeat business from my clients.
The key here is trust – so how do you build it?
Ask this question on Linkedin or other social media platforms, and you’ll hear the phrase ‘content is king’. But that’s not very helpful when it comes to putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.
Much more helpful are Google’s E-A-T guidelines, which give insight into what Google considers high-quality content. Their algorithm takes into account (amongst many other things):
- The expertise of the content creator
- The authoritativeness of the content, its creator, and its website
- The trustworthiness of the content, its creator, and its website.
In a nutshell, great content should:
- Help the user
- Be created by an expert
- Be posted on an authoritative site
- Be trustworthy (linking to authoritative sources), and
- be updated regularly.
A catalogue of helpful content optimised for search engines ensures you get noticed by the right people for the right reasons and builds your credibility.
3. They build rapport with the right clients and repel the wrong ones.
Giving value via a business blog sets you apart from competitors. I know who I’d prefer to work with if one company gave next to no information, while the other had a thoughtful, helpful blog I’d used to help make my purchase decision.
Worth noting, though, is the link to visibility.
Greater visibility is less of a blessing and more of a curse if those seeing, engaging with, and responding to your content are the wrong people.
Expertly crafted content targeted at a specific audience has the happy side-effect of filtering out undesirable prospects while simultaneously moving your ideal clients closer to their investment.
4. Perfectly purposeful copywriting creates opportunities.
Putting yourself out there for the world to see can be challenging (trust me on this, I’m an outgoing introvert). Having a voice is daunting for many people. But as a small business owner, especially at the start, if you don’t blow your own trumpet, no one else will do it for you.
A business blog with a clear purpose (and audience) creates opportunities that wouldn’t otherwise be available. Things like:
- public speaking gigs and guest expert slots
- networking on social media (e.g. I saw your post about finding SEO mind-boggling. I’ve written a blog post about this, which I think might help…), and
- nurturing those all-important connections and contacts into clients and colleagues.
5. Blogs unjumble your thinking.
I’m a professional copywriter, so written words are my medium. Put me in a room and ask me to speak on a subject and I’ll get sweaty, start babbling, and do a mediocre job (at best).
Ask me to write something, and it’ll be clear, engaging, and exceptional.
When I begin writing, I’m always surprised at how much I actually know about a subject. The initial brain dump (or ugly first draft as I like to call it) slowly transforms into a polished piece of work I’m proud to publish, excited to promote and ready to reuse again and again.
Blogging is a necessary part of your content marketing strategy.
For small business owners, blogging for your business can feel like a significant commitment. It is.
But when done right, business blogging reaps great rewards and ROI. We’ve already talked about increased visibility, demonstrating expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Not to mention the higher calibre of leads once you’ve repelled those you’d rather not pursue.
It’s also a gold mine for ready-made, easily updatable, and re-publishable content.
One 1000-word blog post can produce masses of social media content, infographics, podcast topics, video content, lead magnets, printables, checklists, and further blogs.
Every blog you write creates a rich, ready-made catalogue of content you can use, reuse, and reimagine to your heart’s content.
When you’re a busy business owner, short on time, that’s priceless.
Ready to begin blogging for your business?
Five reasons why blogging for your business is the absolute bee’s knees and a necessary element in your content creation strategy.
If you’ve made it this far, you likely agree with me.
That said, knowing you need to do something and how to go about doing it are two completely different things.
If you lack the time, confidence, or inclination to write blooming marvellous blogs for your business (but know you need to do so to get ahead in your industry) I’m here to help. A professional copywriter ready, waiting, and at your disposal.
Let’s talk details over a virtual cuppa.
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