Having a blog is essential for small businesses – but it has to be consistent and it has to be good quality. By this, I mean content that is well-thought-out, well-researched, accurate, insightful, and has no spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. Good quality writing on your website and in your marketing materials shows that your business pays attention to every detail and this, in turn, shows you do the same with your customers.
A key part of this is having a blog on your website – one you add to regularly with high quality content that includes researched keywords and topics relevant to your ideal clients.
A blog is essential for small business owners. I could give you lots of statistics that show you this (and there are a few later on in this post), but the key reason is that people buy from people they know, like and trust. A blog is the perfect way to share insights into you and your business that will help you build those relationships with your audience.
A blog that is consistently updated will bring traffic to your website, generate leads and conversions, and strengthen your brand recognition. It’s a fantastic way to build and demonstrate authority in your industry whilst helping you beat competition in organic search traffic. Google and other search engines love websites that are kept up to date; if you’re adding to your blog regularly, you’re more likely to check the rest of your website and ensure it always represents you and your business, no matter how it evolves.
On top of all this, blogs are fantastic for marketing. One blog post can be repurposed into social media posts, newsletters, podcasts, videos, and more. Chapter 9 will explain how to do this in more detail.
Blogs are the perfect place to share business news, announcements, sales, awards, and more. They’re also great for educating your customers on the services you provide and the problems you solve. Customers may only know about one area of your business – use your blog to let them know about all the different services you offer.
The more your customers read about you, the more they get to know you and how you can help them. Regularly updated blogs build an engaged audience and customer relationships, and the long-term SEO improvement as a result means more potential customers can find you.
Here are a few statistics to back all this up:
- 83% of consumers trust blogs when looking for product recommendations.
- Websites with blogs have a 434% higher chance of being ranked highly on search engines than those without.
- Websites with blogs generate 67% more leads than those without.
- 76% of marketers rate blog articles as very effective for lead generation.
- 87% of marketers find blogging essential for brand awareness.
- A small business with a public-facing blog will see 126% more lead growth than one without a blog.
Starting a blog for your business can be daunting, especially when you haven’t been trained. Writing for your business is very different to the writing we’re taught at school! This is why I support small business owners like you, either by training you how to write well or by doing it for you.
My Blogging for Your Business Masterclass is the perfect way to get started. Find out more and book your place below.
If you need support with writing or editing, or you’d like more top tips for captivating content, let’s have a chat over a cuppa at a time to suit you.