The Top 3 Reasons Why It Is Important for Businesses to Blog

Deciding on a first article for our new blog was somewhat difficult.  While this is one of many to come, it was important to make this one very purposeful with the ability to set the tone for what to expect in the future. 

 After a lot of thought, the obvious answer began to stand out.  Our company focuses not only on helping design world class websites, but also making sure something comes of those new sites.  For this to occur, it is important to prospects can find the site and that they actually care about the content that exists on the site.

One of the key ways we do this for our clients is by creating a blog.  So what better first blog to have than one actually about blogging!

There are countless benefits as to what a blog can bring to the table for a company. Here are a few of the key ones that we always like to highlight:

1. Blog’s Drive Additional Traffic to Your Website

Let’s think of how someone actually finds your website.  The typical process is they have some type of need or question they would like to have answered, so they head to a search engine and type in a set of key words to find a website that can solve their problem.  So how exactly does a blog help with this? 

 Well, for starters, those key words that your prospects are typing into search engines should always be referenced in your blog.  The more often these key words appear in your content, the more likely you are to show up when it matters most: when someone is looking for you.

 Secondly, each additional blog post is another indexed page on your site. This is a critical part of the SEO process, as this is something that search engines measure to see how relevant your site is.  Each additional indexed page is another opportunity for your site to show up when someone is searching for help. 

 In addition to this, by blogging often you are telling search engines that your site is active.  Sites that have not been updated in a very long time are hit with penalties that can reduce where it shows up.  Additionally, this gives your prospects a reason to keep coming back!  Who wants to go to a site that hasn’t been updated in a year anyway?

 Last but not least, people will want to share your content if it is meaningful and helpful.  By sharing, for example say through social media, you are reaching a potential audience you have never had contact with before. This in itself will help boost your website traffic to an audience that likely also cares about the same type of content and topics.    

2. Blog’s Help Build Your Contact List

Adding to a contact list can be a very difficult thing to do. More importantly, building a contact list of people who want to hear from you is even more challenging.

 A blog is a great resource to do this.  As long as you have good content in place that people care about, people will want to hear more from you.  You should always have the option for individuals to subscribe to your blog.  More times than not, people will want to hear from you regarding other topics as well as long as you have positioned yourself as an authority in the space you are blogging about. 

 When prospects sign up for your blog, they should be automatically added to your market list and only segmented to receive communications they have asked to receive. A good marketing software (i.e. Hubspot) will automate this process for you.

In addition to this, people will often share your blog posts to other people if they find it compelling. These individuals may be the ones who want to learn more, therefore signing up for a blog or other communications that your organization offers.

3. Blog’s Help Position Your Organization as an Authority 

Let’s face it, people hate being sold to.  That being said, people do enjoy to make decisions themselves and “buy.”  Let’s take a scenario that we can all relate to: buying a car. 

The last time you bought a car, did you walk up to a dealership and let someone tell you what to get? Probably not. If it was within the last 7-10 years, you likely hopped on your computer and did some research prior to speaking to anyone whatsoever.  You looked for trusted sources to educate you on a decision you were about to make.

Blogging can help you establish this credibility as a trusted resource in whatever field you are in.  People also want to buy from companies they trust, so not only do you educate them on why your solution is the right one, but you are doing this without actually having to sell to them in first place. 

In addition to this, you start to become a company that people want to hear from versus one that people try to ignore.  With all of the marketing “white noise” out there today, this piece cannot be valued enough. 

 There are plenty of reasons why your company should blog, and these are just a few of them.  It can certainly be time consuming, the the benefits far outweigh the time invested to make it successful.