The Beauty of Blogging for Business

With the fast pace of change in digital technology you might think that blogging has had its day; but on the contrary, in an increasingly competitive online marketplace, having a blog on your website is more important than ever.

You may have a fantastic website but how are you going to encourage people to visit it and – crucially – keep them coming back for more? You can’t keep adding or constantly rewriting pages, which is why a having a blog is so useful. Every time you write a blog post, it’s one more indexed page on your website, which means it’s one more opportunity for you to show up in search engines and drive traffic to your website.

Having a blog also gives people a reason to keep coming back to your site, particularly if you write about a topic that your target audience will find interesting. You’ve probably heard the saying ‘content is king’ and by creating high quality content and sharing this across the web you can turn prospects into buyers and buyers into long-term fans. By quality content we don’t mean shouting about how good you are but listening to your clients, finding out their wants and needs and providing information that they will find useful or educational.

For example, it could be a subject that is currently in the news such as the Brexit vote. You might think this is not directly relevant to your industry but there are few businesses that won’t be affected in some way – you just need to find the right angle. Similarly, you could write about something which may not be of general interest but is specific to your sector, such as a change in legislation or a new product or service which has just come onto the market.

Alternatively, one of your sales or customer service advisors might notice that lots of customers keep asking them the same question. If visitors to your website can find the answer on your blog it will not only save your staff time but also help to position you or your company as an expert in your field, thus building trust and confidence amongst your target audience.

The posts will also provide you with interesting content to share on social media, and by including a link you can drive traffic to your website. To maximise PR opportunities from your blog you could also pitch your articles to the local news media or regional business press, as well as any sector specific journalists working in your field.

If you wanted to add another dimension to your blog you could do a video blog or a ‘vlog’. Vlogging has taken YouTube by storm and created overnight success stories. Some people have even turned it into a full-time career and the good thing is that in theory, anyone can vlog as long as they have a camera, an internet connection and something interesting to talk about.

So if you think having read this article that blogging or even vlogging is for you, but you’re not sure where to start, listen. Listen to what your customers want, listen to what key people in your sector are talking about and try and get involved in the conversation. And one last word of advice: for maximum impact don’t forget to share your content both online via social media and offline via journalists working in your field. After all, content is king as they say!

KS.

This post was originally published in issue 87 of Lincolnshire Business magazine.