Blogging is one of the best ways for people to create an ‘online presence’, either representing themselves or the company they work for, and it is fast becoming the predominant way for companies to gain more customers, and increase their brand awareness. Blogging creates connections between people and companies. Connections bring more website traffic, and the average company that blogs generates 55% more website visitors, 97% more inbound links, and 434% more indexed pages.

Through writing a blog you are connecting with your peers on a more personal level; thus forming an online mutually beneficial relationship – especially if you are a business. 81% of businesses reported that their company blog is useful to critical for their business, and  small businesses that blog get 126% more lead growth than small businesses that do not blog.

By churning out relevant content you are encouraging readership, increasing your authority and increasing peoples trust and faith in your company. Through providing people with interesting and useful information you are marking your selves as industry leaders and influencers; even if your blog contains posts that do not directly involve your company. For example, a home cleaning company might blog about keeping the environment clean and tidy. Consistently blogging good content can mark you as an expert in your field; and people are always looking for expert advice.

Customers tend to feel more inclined to trust a company, and their values, if they have a blog which produces frequent relevant content. And 79% of online shoppers spend 50% of their shopping time researching products online, which means they are scouring yours and your competitors’ websites for reasons to buy from you.

Infographic

When looking on your website, a customer is already 57% into purchasing your product already, after initially deciding upon what products they want to buy, or services they want to use.

  • Before you start making your blog, the most important thing to consider is research. Take a look around the internet at other Business Blogs, and more importantly do your competitors have a blog? If so, what are they talking about? Are there any industry blogs for your field out there? What are they talking about?

It is pivotal that the content you produce is relevant and interesting, so finding out what the hot topics in your industry are, is great place to start getting ideas together for your own blog.

  • Then you need to think about how you want your blog to look, is it going to be professional? What will your design be? Try to make the layout of your blog recognisable to your company, and then keep it the same. Customers trust brands that they instantly recognise, and you need to separate your blog from everyone else’s.
  • What’s really important also, is who is going to run your company blog? And how many posts per week will you publish? The more frequently you post the more traffic you will get to your site, and consequently the more customers you will gain by doing so.

Building relationships with people and other companies online creates a mutually beneficial relationship that will be long-standing if you utilise your blog correctly, and engage in interaction on a regular basis. Information is so vastly and quickly distributed around the web these days, that it is easy to see companies as ‘all the same’. Blogging is your company’s opportunity to stand out amongst a sea of businesses trying to get themselves noticed above everyone else. Consumers want to know the people behind the brand, and like to have a more personal approach from them online. On your blog you can enable the ‘comments’ feature, which allows you to directly address a customer in person if they leave a comment on your post.

A great way to hold consumer engagement is through sharing your blog posts on various social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, Google + etc. This creates a buzz around what you are talking about, and gives more opportunity for it to be distributed around the web – thus reaching further possible leads for your business; and possibly leading to inbound links which increases your sites domain authority, making your business more highly ranked.

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 So, in summary:

“Why should my business have a blog”?

  • It generates more traffic to your company website
  • It builds a relationship with consumers and results in return visits and recommendations
  • It is a great way to interact with your customers
  • It makes your website more authoritative and can ensure your company is more highly ranked when searched for
  • It gives you publicity through word of mouth and search results

 

“What must I remember to make it successful”?

  • Keep it consistent – blog posts need to be published frequently, and you need to stick to how often you post. If a customer knows you post twice a week, they will look for your new post twice a week. This will encourage regular visits to your site.
  • Keep it relevant – make sure you only post about relevant topics that people within your industry, and your customers will want to know about.
  • Be an expert in your field – ideally you are providing people with useful information, therefore people will trust what you say and your company will be seen as experts within your field of work, which then adds authority and value to your company as a whole.
  • Keep the structure – keep your posts to a similar structure, and watch the spelling and grammar. People want to see professionalism from any company they choose to work with, or purchase from so its really important to withhold your brand image on your blog. Check, check, and check again until you are satisfied that this is the best post to offer to your consumers.

Sources

http://www.impactbnd.com/78-delicious-blogging-statistics-to-sink-your-teeth-into/

http://socialmediatoday.com/mikevelocity/1698201/blogging-stats-2013-infographic

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