Having a company blog isn’t about standing on your soap box and self-promoting until people get bored. Below we’ve identified 5 reasons to start a business blog and we’ve tried to include some practical tips to get you started.
Show that you are an authority and expert in your space
A blog provides the perfect platform for you to showcase your experience and expertise in your field of work. Think about the conversations you have with colleagues or friends about your business and blog about the same topics that come up. What about all those times when someone asks for your advice and you give it gladly? That’s great blog fodder. If one person has asked, it’s likely that many people will want the same advice.
In doing this your customers will read your advice and come to trust you and by extension, your business or your brand.
Attract more relevant visitors to your site
It’s a well-known fact that putting fresh content on your site attracts more visitors. Google and other search engines favour sites that have fresh content, so they get a higher score and are thus pushed up the rankings.
The key thing here is to ensure your new content is relevant to your business, your products or your field of expertise so you attract relevant users. People who are interested in your content are far more likely to buy from you.
Give your brand a voice and personality
Personality is important. If you can get your business’ voice across in your blog, you can build trust and rapport with your readers. You’ll add strength and depth to your brand and your audience will come to recognise you for communicating in a certain way. Think of Innocent Drinks and Pret a Manger, they both have very distinct personalities coming through their writing.
For example, if your product makes something easier for people, it would make sense to write in an easy to understand, accessible way. If you sell to businesses and you want to build a professional brand you may decide to use more formal language, or not!
Connect with like-minded people
Not only will you attract a relevant audience. Your users can comment and ask questions opening up a dialogue between you and like-minded people. Be sure to answer every question posted, thank users for positive comments and openly and honestly address any negative comments as you would if they emailed or called you.
Show your human side and people will warm to you.
Give something back to your customer
A blog is a great platform to give existing customers added value. Post articles about topics that will help and add value to their work lives. Top tips and practical pointers explaining how to do things as well as why to do things are great types of content to help them get started.
Too often articles will explain why you should do something and miss out how to actually go about doing it. This can be of real value.
Hopefully, we’ve demonstrated the value that a business blog can add to your site and does to ours. We’re often pointing our customers towards the blog when they’ve asked a question because more often than not we’ve answered it already here!
If you need help with setting up a business blog, check out our Blog website package. It includes everything you need to get you started and more.