10 reasons why blogging for business works

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Yesterday, I delivered a marketing workshop to a small group of people keen to learn how the internet can help grow their business.

We covered social media, email marketing, online press releases, WordPress and more. But the issue that captured most attention was blogging for business – especially when I shared my site’s analytics report, which shows big spikes when I post a blog.

They were skeptical at first about the benefits of blogging for business, but as I went through the details – and the fact that it is not as onerous as it seems, I could see their eyes lighting up.

So for the benefit of that group – and the rest of you – here are my top 10 reasons why blogging is good for business.

Blogging for business

1. Search Engine Optimisation: When you want to improve your rankings for certain pages or keywords, it’s a fairly simple thing to use those keywords in a blog – and hyperlink to relevant pages. It’s how my site ranks better for “annual report writing” at the time of year that people are looking for an annual report writer.

2. Become a subject matter expert: Sharing your opinion on relevant issues affecting your niche sets you up as a subject matter expert. And even if visitors don’t need your product or service right now, if they see you as an expert, you will be front-of-mind when they do need you.

3. Social sharing: Posting regular blogs means that you have regular content to share on your social media profiles. Not to mention to invite other people to share. Who knows, one day, one of your posts may go viral.

4. Cost-effective marketing: While not every post should include the hard sell, it doesn’t hurt to occasionally use your blog to promote your products and services. And while it might take an hour or two to write, it is relatively cost-effective compared with other traditional forms of marketing. And if you work on some on-page optimisation, and have content that people want to share, most of the hard work is done for you.

5. Keeps you on your toes in your biz: If you commit to weekly (or even monthly) blog posts, it means you need to keep abreast of any changes or news in your industry. So you can kill two birds with one stone – professional development and marketing.

6. Attract new leads: When someone shares your post via social media they are promoting your biz to a whole new audience. And who knows how many of them are in the market right now for whatever you are selling.

7. Show some personality: These days, mainly due to social media and the conversation it allows customers to have with brands, it is getting more and more important for businesses to show their brand personality. And what better way than through a regular blog?

8. Drive traffic to your site: As mentioned in the introduction, each time I blog, I see a spike in visitors to this site. And it is usually around 60-70 percent new visitors (or at least visitors coming from new computers). And more traffic breeds more traffic.

9. Establish authority: A blog is a great way to establish and maintain authority and trustworthiness in your field, so when something newsworthy happens in your industry, your target audience’s first thought will be “I wonder what Joe Biz’s blog says about this?”. Not only that, but the opinions you share on your blog may attract the attention of traditional media, who may call you for comment. You just never know.

10. Networking opportunities: When you blog regularly in your field, you get noticed by other people who are blogging in your field. This gives you the opportunity to perhaps invite guest posts (or write guest posts elsewhere), which again puts you in front a a new audience. Not to mention the fabulous contacts you make in your field and in complementary fields. On order for this to work however, you have to put a stop to the thought that competition is bad. Competition is great, and your competitors may well be your best allies.

It is pretty obvious from the above that blogging for business is a great way to get your product or service noticed, get traffic to your website and get sales.

So what is stopping you? Get blogging today.

Till next time

Nicole