How Small Business Blogs Are Becoming a Must

A small business blog is becoming more and more essential to maintaining a strong online presence, standing out above your competition, and obtaining long-term customers. Given the benefits of business blogging and the role this strategy pays in digital marketing, small businesses must seriously consider adding them to their marketing strategy.

Is it worth the time and investment? Here are 10 reasons why you need a small business blog in your marketing strategy:

1. Gets you listed in relevant Google search results

Blogs are essential to a strong SEO strategy. With blogs, keywords in your industry are naturally used and those are included when Google is scanning your pages to rank your pages on their search engine. This means more people find your website and get to know your business. In fact, it’s been found that companies who blog typically gain at least twice as much web traffic as those who don’t.

2. Helps make you known as the local or industry expert

As a business owner, you know more about your industry than buyers often do. As someone who is devoting their work to understanding the industry and creating products or services that stand out, you know some things and have been there/done that. Blogs are an excellent opportunity to share your tips and tricks and share knowledge in your community – ultimately showcasing your expertise.

3. Develops trust with prospects

The more you establish yourself as a thought leader by educating prospects and current clients, the more you build trust. As an industry expert, prospects come to you to learn more and understand all that they can about a particular topic. Once it comes time for them to need that service or product, who do you think they’ll likely reach out to? That’s right – you!

4. Inspires people to take action

When you attract new visitors to your website it creates an opportunity to generate leads. This is where your Calls-To-Action (CTAs) comes in handy.

A CTA is a way of directing your website visitors through your website — keeping them engaged on your site — and guides them through their journey from awareness to purchase. You can also use the CTA button on a blog post to move the visitor along to another relevant blog topic covered on your website or even convert them to a relevant page on your website that explains your services.

5. Creates an onramp to a purchase

Blogging for small businesses can drastically increase your conversion rate by turning leads into customers. A small business blog doesn’t have to be incredibly salesy in its language, but it can end with a specific CTA that directs readers to next steps.

6. Keeps your marketing spend low

Blogs are cost-effective marketing strategies. In many cases, the ROI of content marketing is three times higher than the ROI on paid search. That means more bang for your buck, simply by writing about what you know best.

7. Helps you stand out by making your unique voice heard

Businesses that take time to voice their opinions, concerns, insight, and knowledge via blogging are the ones that truly stand out. Too often, small businesses assume that their prospects and customers understand as much as they do. By blogging, they are ensuring their voice is heard and information is kept up to date.

8. Fills your social media content calendar with ease

If you and your employees are serious about keeping your small business blog posts updated and fresh, it will naturally give you an opportunity to share content on your marketing and social media platforms. This is especially helpful when small businesses are coming up short on ways to engage on social media.

9. Creates internal linking opportunities

If your website contains only 4-5 pages of content, then your internal linking opportunities become quite limited. Creating blog posts builds many more ways to link your webpages. And why’s that matter? There are many benefits to internal linking, but the two that matter most are (1) Google loves them and (2) your users love them.

10. Builds your email marketing list

The loyal readers who enjoy the information and opinions you provide can be notified by email newsletter or special notifications. Give your audience the opportunity to keep up with your company by providing CTAs where they can subscribe. This naturally builds your email marketing list and gives you additional opportunities to get the word out.