Βlogging for business: 5 reasons your business needs a blog

In today’s busy digital era-word, it’s hard to stand out and differentiate yourself from the competition. It seems that all, companies and online creators, to an extent, have ‘me-too’ offerings, or this might be the perception out of the loud ‘noise’ (clutter).

Despite all this noise, or rather because of it, blogging is one of the most valuable tools that businesses have, to build their online presence. Believe it or not, consumers around the world would rather spend money on brands that take a stand on (known-important) issues, over companies that shy away, according to the Edelman Earned Brand Study 2018.

The 64% of respondents (8,000 people in 8 countries, including the U.S., U.K., Germany and Japan) said they are buying from, or boycotting Brands based on the company’s stance on a social, welfare, or political issue.

The top-5 reasons you should consider

Here are the 5 top reasons why your business needs a blog:

No1. Blogging allows your Brand to get found in online searches

When people have a question or a problem, what’s the first thing they usually do?

When my daughter was 7-8 years old, she decided she had enough with the conflicting information she was getting about Santa Claus and she decided to take the situation into her own hands. So, she googled it: “Does Santa exist?” I wish she wouldn’t find the answer, but she did…

You see, 3.5 billion searches are processed in Google every day. Do you blog? Blogging allows your business to get found in online searches. If you write amazing content, you WILL definitely get found. Blogging is the easiest and the cheapest organic traffic generation tool you can get.

If you are using social media for your business — and you should — don’t stop! Social media generating traffic to your own blog is a clear, measurable, content-evaluation action. At the same time, don’t forget that people don’t always look for solutions. They desire to be entertained. Look on Instagram interesting personal stories with a view.

So, blogging is one thing, but if you don’t consistently produce amazing content for your blog, to help people solve their problems / be educated / find something new, you are losing an enormous opportunity.

No2. Blogging builds perceived authority

Blogging gives you the change to establish your expertise, share your unique opinions and show what you are standing for. People look for authentic views in the ear of ‘copy-paste’.

Also, do remember that people do business with people, companies and brands that they know, like and trust. So, make your blog a ‘door-opener’ to a relationship with them. Give them answers, while earning their trust, and you will influence -at the end- their buying decisions.

No3. Blogging produces results for years

Time is the most valuable resource and finding the time to blog seems daunting. Indeed is an act of personal commitment and a time-consuming act. But it is also an investment well-worth of your team’s time and business targets. Please picture this: a blog post you write today will continue to generate traffic and leads for years.

On the other hand, paid media/advertising stops producing long-term value and search results the very minute you stop paying. And it’s not that effective either if you consider the distaste of people to intrusive/annoying sometimes ads.

According to the Business2Community “Simply posting paid advertisements on search results pages isn’t enough. Up to 70% of the links that users choose to click on are organic results, such as business blogs with the appropriate structure and key terms, and not sponsored links (or ‘native’ (paid) content)”.

No4. Blogging increases inbound links

According to hubspot.com, companies with active blogs generate 97% more links to their websites. Inbound links are valuable for two reasons:

1. They boost your SEO ranking helping your site appear higher in searches and
2. They generate more referral traffic. While there is little or no reason for other blogs and websites to link to your static website, when you add blog posts that offer value and can serve as a resource, you will get more inbound links

No5. You own your blog

Your blog is an asset that you fully own, which is not the case with Facebook, Instagram and the other social media platforms. They can be expensive. They can slow-down their effectiveness. But you don’t own them…

You can’t control the social media platforms’ decisions or their algorithms. You can’t control how many people see your posts, or if your account gets shut down for whatever reason.

That’s why your blog should be the backbone of your business’s online presence. Build your blog as your content hub, offer value, hand-over opinion articles and you will get rewarded for years to come.

Closing

just as a closing remark and a helping stimulus, you can check the best-awarded business blogs according to business.com:

• Whole Foods (natural food) – concentrates not just on products, but on culture and lifestyle
• Bomgar Insider (SaaS solution for IT support) – asks its customers for input on product decisions
• Insightly (CRM and project management software) – delivers targeted information written to address the issues faced by their customers
• The Pioneer Woman – started as a blog, but today, Ree Drummond is a TV star, a celebrity chef, and the author of a number of cookbooks
• Virgin Airlines – company’s blog with many details for customers – the CEO’s (Richard Branson’s) blog

Read behind the lines of these great blogs. I’m not suggesting you should copy these. But think twice. What do you stand for? What is really worth for the world to know? How can you help or satisfy your audience?

Go out there, blog. Stand as a strong voice. Who knows, the next awarded one could be your blog! Here’s to your success.