A blog is defined as an online diary. It is a place to pour your heart and soul out and write about whatever you want. Online blogs were public places where you portrayed your private life - emotions, feelings and all.

That’s how blogs started out back in late 1990’s but the face of blogging changed soon following an exponential growth in blogs by the late 2000’s with over 50 million blogs.

By 2005 over 32 million Americans read blogs and blogs started getting mainstream.

Even though blogs started out as personal homepages, today blogs generate income and can influence consumers. On WordPress alone, there are 76.9 million new blog posts published every month. 

In fact blogs are very effective marketing tools. Blogging for your business can generate leads and customers bringing the 'moolah' you are working hard for. 

But many people rarely understand the goal of a blog. They jump on the blogging bandwagon because others are doing it without having a plan or goal for the blog.

Starting up a blog blindly and expecting it to generate a response from visitors is a major mistake.

For all businesses - big or small, a blog is a dynamic marketing tool and a very important aspect of online marketing strategy.

Blogging for business works.

In fact 2016 statistics reveal that 36% of Fortune 500 companies use blogs and small businesses that blog get 126% more lead growth than small businesses that do not blog.

This is the power of blogging.

It should be an integral part of any business from Fortune 500 companies to one-man business set-ups.

Let’s see how blogging for business works and why you should do it for your business too.

Drive traffic to your website or business

Who doesn’t want more visitors, more leads and more customers?

If you are in the business to make money and be successful this is what you want. There are other ways of driving traffic such as paying for ads which is expensive especially if you are just starting out and trying to get your business going. Then you have the option of buying email lists which is unethical and will not win you any customers or you could invest some time and money into starting a blog for your business.

By blogging you are creating a variety of information which adds value to your visitor’s knowledge pool. It educates your visitors, giving you the chance to reach out to new customers by presenting information that represents your business. It is the channel through which you can directly communicate with your customers which fresh new stories and information which will fuel their curiosity and give them the relevant information that they need. 

So, you’re wondering how that will drive traffic to your website?

By sharing and using social media for marketing.

When you have a new blog post you have the opportunity to share new information on social media. After all there are only so many times that you would change your website content and people don’t want to see the same stuff again and again.

But by creating new blog posts you are creating content which people can share on social media and this increases your chance of being exposed to new customers. With new regular blog posts which contain helpful information you are driving to build new relationships through social media.

Your blog posts should address customers through all stages of the buyer’s journey which will help to tackle their problems and issues and target the right type of customers and also draw them through the journey leading to a sale. According to HubSpot, 47% of buyers viewed 3-5 pieces of content before engaging with a sales representative.

Fuel your SEO needs

Conventional SEO methods take a while to get the results that you are looking for. But with blogging you can fast-track that process. 

Writing a blog for your business gives you the opportunity to incorporate important key words in a post. And every time you write a new post you have a fresh set of keywords. Over time you have a repository of keywords originating from your blog posts.

Search engines love new valuable content, rewarding you for your effort with better search rankings. It also enables search engines to find your site easily through your topic and keywords.

Every time you post a new blog, you are telling search engines that your website is constantly updating with new information – you are creating new indexed pages, which give you another opportunity to show up in organic search.

Websites that have a blog, tend to have 434% more indexed pages – which is relevant to search engines and from SEO standpoint. With lots of pages to crawl and index search engines know that your website is a source of information for people to consume.

Position your business or brand as an authority in the market

With blogging you can talk about your business and services and use it as a platform to announce new initiatives. Your blog becomes the face of your business by projecting your brand personality and what you are all about. 

But a blog should never be restricted to only talking about your business and services. This will drive returning visitors away and opportunities to turn them into customers are lost.

But by posting relevant information which addresses your target audience and their issues you are empowering them with knowledge. With every blog post you are building your authority about your business and everything that you do. 

Your expertise shines through your blog posts and you begin to earn the trust of your visitors.

In the U.S. 81% of online consumers trust information and advice from blogs. They know they can rely on the information you provide and thus trust your business and services which leads to more customers.

As your blog grows and your authority expands with good content, other sites will link to you increasing the number of inbound links to your site from reputable sites. Search engines love this and your popularity increases in search.

It’s a win-win situation.

Develop a relationship with your visitors and customers

As a marketing tool blogs are very effective ways to reach the end users – your customers. By establishing your trust through blogging, you are developing new customer relationships every day. Blogs help you target your niche audience by being focused on topics which addresses that audience. 60% of consumers feel more positive about a company after reading custom content on its site - and this is a big driver to successful conversions and more customers.

Traditional means of advertising is hard on the budget and for many small businesses making it unaffordable. But blogs deliver – marketing for your business and at a very low investment (cost of hiring an appropriate content writer).

With blogging you can start a two way conversation with your audience, by answering comments and addressing their issues. You are now seen as source of trustworthy information and as a business that cares about their customers and visitors.

Blogging should be an integral part of your content strategy. It’s hard to imagine a marketing plan without a blog to push ideas, opinions and useful information to consumers on a daily basis. The key to a good blog post is providing helpful and useful information. Without that, readers are not likely to share your information and will leave your website without a second thought to what you offer not matter how good your product or service is.

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