4 reasons to write a blog for your small business
Some straight-talking advice if you’re looking to write a blog for your business.
Are you weighing up whether you should write a blog? Be honest, how long have you been thinking about it?
It’s a task that’s probably been lingering in your self-conscience for a while, never quite making it to one of the hot spots on your daily to-do list. The aim of this blog is to give you some encouragement to take that next step and make starting a blog your new marketing goal.
How can a blog help your business?
- Use your blog to attract visitors to your website, allowing you to build new relationships and generate leads.
- It can help your business rank on search engines, which bring new organic traffic to your website.
- By sharing information on topics linked to your business, you can establish your voice in your industry.
- It’s a great way to engage with and add value to your online community by sharing content across your social media channels
Now let’s look at each of these in more detail.
#1 Build relationships and create new leads
Adding a blog to your website creates an area that is designed to be updated regularly.
This fresh blog content gives people a new reason to visit your site. Combine engaging content with a clear call to action (e.g. sign up, buy here, find out more) and strategic links to product and services pages and suddenly your blog is a lead generator.
#2 Generate more organic traffic
Each blog post becomes an additional indexed page on your website. You got it, that’s one more opportunity for you to get the attention of search engines and show up in results pages.
By giving each blog post a unique keyword or phrase you have a great opportunity to add more depth to your SEO strategy and attract traffic by using more diverse search terms.
To explain, whereas you may use a general primary keyword for a product or service page (e.g. ‘Midlands wedding photographer’) you can use a more descriptive version for a blog post (e.g. ‘engagement photo shoots in the West Midlands’ or ‘natural bridal portraits’.) This will give you opportunity to rank for search terms that are more specific to your specialism and that could also be less competitive in terms of Google traffic.
#3 Establish an authoritative voice
By consistently creating content that’s helpful to your visitors your credibility will sky rocket. So create posts that directly answer questions they might have or advice they are likely to be seeking.
By mixing practical ‘how to’ style posts with more opinionated pieces on trends you can create an online resource that your readers will turn to when they’re looking for reassurance or inspiration. Creating this library of knowledge will not only boost your credibility but also gain favour by providing free, valuable resources for your readers.
#4 Increase social media engagement
Your blog is a great source of inspiration for social media. One blog post can usually be used as the base idea for several social media entries. It can provide useful structure when you are building a content calandar for your social media channles.
In addition, you also make it easy for your customers and advocates to share information about you across their networks. If they find your blog post interesting or useful in any way, they may feel compelled to share links to your blog posts across their social media channels. Leading to more likes and follows for you.
What is a business blog?
A business blog is typically presented a section of your website.
When blogs were first launched they were basically an online journal. This involved the blogger sharing their experiences and opinions organised in regular posts. This was organised as a log with the most recent post first.
Since then blogging has become more savvy. Today, people use social media as their ‘journal’ and to take people behind the scenes of their business. Blogs today are more of an online resource – a collection of ideas, knowledge, landmarks and advice that define your business and brand.
So, what’s stopping you from writing a blog?
I asked this very question on my Instagram page. There were 4 key themes in the responses.
- Perfectionism
- “I’m not a writer”
- Time
- Technical
Here’s my response to each.
Perfectionism
By trying to make every post the best thing ever written on a subject, you’re putting yourself under unnecessary pressure. What people want is something useful, inspiring or informative. It doesn’t have to be hilarious, beautifully presented and impeccably written. And remember, a blog post isn’t permanent. If you spot an error or need to add something, you can do it later.
“I’m not a writer”
You don’t need to be a writer to write a blog post. Your readers are interested in your knowledge and perspective and for that reason you’re 100% the best person to write your blog.
Time
It takes time to write a blog. What’s important is making it time well spent. That means minimising procrastination and using a process that makes it simple. That’s the aim of my blogging guides. More on these coming.
Technical
It’s probably not as complicated as you think. Blogs are designed to be easy to update so once you are up and running the technical side of things should be straightforward.
Need some help? I’m here.
I’m a copywriter. I write for businesses. But I also recognise that hiring a copywriter isn’t the right solution for every business. With my Word Stylist resources I want to bring tips, process, template and strategies to business owners and professionals who want to learn how to write their own content. My first resources are two blogging guides.
Which guide is for me?
Version one: A guide to writing blogs for your business
This is aimed at business owners and people looking to write a blog for the company they work for.
- A 9 part blogging guide covering the 9 key features of a successful blog post.
- 15 pages & more than 2500 words of my writing wisdom.
- A separate template in Microsoft Word with a checklist and prompts to help you get started.
Version two: A guide to writing blogs for your clients
This is aimed at copywriters, VAs and business support professionals who write for clients.
- A 10 part blogging guide aimed at anyone offering a blog-writing service to clients.
- 16 pages & more than 2500 words of my professional tips.
- A separate template in Microsoft Word helps you create a user-friendly, professional document for your clients.
There’s more to come. Stay tuned.
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