Why Your Business Needs a Blog

Five years ago, every business had a website. These days, it seems every business has a blog. Typically written in a journal-style format, these interactive articles are popping up all over the Internet, with more than 40 million blogs currently in existence. No industry is exempt—from lawyers debating the latest intellectual property laws to candle merchants raving about the benefits of aromatherapy,we’ve got ‘em all. In fact, you are likely reading this on my my small business marketing blog, right now.

Why are blogs so popular?

The answer is content, content, and more content. People love finding the exact information they are looking for and blogs, especially well-targeted blogs, provide it.

When they’re done right, blogs offer a valuable benefit to the reader. A well-researched, well-written blog article should provide your readers with informative, relevant, and entertaining content that helps them make more confident buying decisions. But what can it do for you and your business?

• Creates a sense of community. Many blogs offer readers the option to comment on the content presented, encouraging interaction and increasing the reader’s emotional investment in the website. This ongoing dialogue increases the chances of repeat visits to your site.
• Gives your business a personality. Any website can peddle pet care products. But when you supplement them with useful articles on grooming, bathing, and personal anecdotes about your own animals, you’ll be more likely to create a connection with customers and gain an edge over the competition.
• Boosts organic search traffic. By its very nature, a blog is a dynamic and constantly changing entity, making your site more appealing to the Yahoos and Googles of the world. By including strategic keywords and internal and external linking, you’ll increase the odds that your site will earn higher rankings in search engine results, increasing your flow of web traffic.
• Requires a very low cost investment. With the plethora of free blogging tools, such as WordPress and BlogSpot, getting a blog engine up and running is as easy as a few clicks. Publishing articles won’t cost you a dime, although you will have to invest the time required to write the content. (Avoid copying text verbatim from other sites, as this can potentially cause your site to be flagged and delisted by search engines.)

If you’ve got the time and the inclination, adding a blog to your website can be a great way to engage your customers, establish a public face and personality for your business, and provide a platform for promoting featured products and services that are very relevant to your readers. And you don’t have to be a techie to take part—with today’s user-friendly applications, anyone can become a blogging expert within minutes.

How do I start blogging?

Interested in blogging? I recommend Wordpress as a blogging platform. This is what I use for my blogs. It is incredibly flexible and has a very large community of users who are constantly making it better. Speak to your web designer about integrating a blog into your existing website. Or, contact us and we’ll recommend one of our “M4RR Approved” partners, who are carefully selected for the quality of their work, their professionalism, and their marketing chops (the latter is surprisingly hard to find in a provider sometimes).

Blogging is big commitment. At least one a week, or more, you have to add fresh content. If you have never blogged before, it can be hard to get yourself going and into the habit. It’s kind of like exercise. The good news is that it does get easier as time goes on! If you have any doubts about your ability to keep blogging on a consistent basis, then I recommend you start working with the simple, free, hosted version of Wordpress found at Wordpress.com. Unlike its brother Wordpress.org, which you would install and integrate into your current hosting service, Wordpress.com is hosted by the good folks over at Wordpress and you don’t need a hosting account or any techie knowledge to start. You can be up an running within minutes.

The downside to all this convenience is that you won’t enjoy the same flexibility and benefits of a self-hosted version. For one, you won’t have complete control of its look and feel — you will have to choose one of the preset “themes” from the library. Also, the day you decide to move to your own blog (and trust me, that day will come), you will probably sacrifice some of the organic search traffic you developed with your Wordpress.com site. Speak to a really sharp web professional, or even better an SEO specialist, to help you minimize this impact.

As with most marketing tactics, the key now is to understand how it fits with your overall marketing stategy and then take action! If you are motivated to begin, talk about it or ask us a question below. If you have a blog, share it below. Happy blogging!