23 Jul The Benefits of Blogging for Businesses

For years, blogging has always been viewed as a hobby where enthusiasts can share their opinions and thoughts on products and services, or document their lives and connect with others through online storytelling. However, as the digital marketing landscape evolves, blogging is very quickly becoming a driving force behind Online Marketing for Business, no matter the size, as it helps create value for your business while growing your online presence.

Today, we’ll expand on the benefits of blogging for your business and provide practical examples that show the impact that blogging has had on our clients’ monthly reports. (Here is another post if you need to find out how blogging works)

Establish Yourself as an Industry-Expert

By consistently posting blog posts, you build trust and confidence in your brand among customers, as blogging authentically forges a relationship between you and the reader. Additionally, by sharing your expert knowledge about your business, you start asserting yourself as an industry leader.

It’s sort of like when you meet someone new and they’re constantly talking about their love for fine cheeses, chances are that the next time you’re looking to put together a cheese platter for a special occasion, you’ll turn to them for advice. Now, imagine when you call them up for help, and they tell you that they actually own their own cheese store and they conveniently offer a service where they’ll put together the cheese platter for you. See how that person went from being an expert on cheeses to becoming someone you trust? And, in the end, it resulted in him getting a sale. Blogging works the same way, only you’re establishing that trust online.

Create Value for your Customers

Chances are that you’re likely finding that customers aren’t as open to your full sales pitch as they once were. The reason for this is that customers are taking it upon themselves to do their own online research to support their buying decisions as it’s less aggressive than a sales pitch and allows for them to understand what they’re actually paying for.  

The trouble with this approach is that customers aren’t always sure what they should be looking for, so will hear a recommendation from a friend, family member, or online influencer and accept that what works for one will work for them too. By writing blog posts, you’re offering valuable resources that helps your customer make an informed decision. Ultimately, you’re offering free information without the aggressive sales pitch which results in loyalty and brand presence. 

An example is our client, PEPPADEW®, who offers delicious recipes featuring their products, on their website. Their strategy thinking is that someone might be searching for something new to try for dinner tonight, spots one of their recipes and heads to the shop to buy all the ingredients to make the dish – the recipe already calls for a PEPPADEW® product and suddenly a blog reader becomes a customer.  Hopefully, they loved the recipe and will return to try a few more available on the website, which means they become a returning customer too.

It’s just like our own blog. Instead of us phoning all of our clients and trying to tell you the benefits of blogging, we’re offering that information for free so that you can access it anytime, anywhere, on your terms, so that you will be able to make an informed decision and decide whether it’s for your company or not. 

Boost Your Search Engine Rankings

Blogging is a great way to boost your Google rankings. In the same way that your customer starts seeing you as an expert on a topic, Google starts taking notice too. Every time that you post a new blog post, Google is forced to relook at your website and consider your rankings, and the more you’re talking about your industry and the products or services you offer, the more Google starts seeing you as an authority on the topic. Remember, that it’s Google’s job to give us the most relevant result for your Google search, so if your blog posts offer relevant and high-quality content that answers questions that your customers frequently ask, then you’re likely going to climb the ranks!

It’s also important to note that just because you have a blog, doesn’t mean it’s going to immediately boost your rankings. There are a few important factors to consider; your content needs to be well-researched and speak to your audience, while also being backed by a SEO strategy. (Find out How SEO Works for Business) It’s no help sharing a recipe on the website of a guesthouse because it’s very unlikely that someone who discovered your website by searching Google for a chocolate cake recipe is going to go from baking a cake, to booking a stay at your guesthouse. Instead, for a guesthouse, you can look at sharing blog posts about the local area like 5 Activities to do in XYZ or 5 Reasons to visit XYZ. 

In addition, your blog posts need to be correctly optimized and discoverable by people searching Google, which is something our team at SOMS does as part of your SEO strategy each month. We recently found that one of clients always had a blog section, but they weren’t taking the time to correctly optimize those blog posts. After 3-months, we’ve already seen an increase of 490% in their website traffic when compared to the same time last year.

Blogging serves as an affordable digital marketing service that complements other parts of your content marketing strategy. You can share blog posts on your social media platforms and in email newsletters (View the Top 10 Benefits of Email Marketing) to drive traffic back to your website, while also using it as an affordable and effective way to boost SEO and create brand awareness. It’s one of the most underrated marketing efforts, yet it offers great return when done right! (Once you start SEO, find out Why You Shouldn’t Pause SEO)

If you’re considering implementing a blog on your company’s website, get in touch with the team at SOMS to discuss a strategy that works for you.