You’re a small business owner and you’ve heard that blogs can be a useful addition to your digital marketing strategy. But you’re wondering: Do I need a blog for my small business?
Yes, you need a blog.
This post explains why. It provides some statistics about the value of blogs, how they contribute to getting found, nurture potential customers, and close sales.
Why Does My Small Business Need a Blog?
Blogging is now not only a useful part of a Digital Marketing strategy; it’s becoming essential to getting found and closing sales.
Reason 1: Blogs bring you traffic, which brings sales.
Before making a purchase, most consumers now research the products or services they are interested in online. If you want to attract potential customers to see your products or services, you need to make sure your website appears in their search. To do that, you need search engine optimization (SEO).
There is a lot to know about SEO, but at its core, SEO is about having content that is useful to your audience and making sure search engines understand that content. When you do those things, you’ll get traffic, and ultimately increase sales.
Blogs are an important way for businesses to improve their ranking in search engines. They allow a site to meet a bunch of the criteria that search engines have for considering content relevant:
Keywords: Blogs allow you to create content that contains keywords that are relevant to your products and services, including long-tail keywords.
Recency: Posting a blog regularly keeps your content fresh. Search engines rank websites that are updated regularly higher than those that aren’t.
Quantity: Regular blog posts increase the number of pages that are indexed in a search engine and give you more opportunities to be found.
Dwell time: Blogs keep people on your website longer, and the longer people spend on your website, the better that site will rank.
Internal Links: Blogs give you opportunities to link from one page on your site to another. Internal linking is one of the easiest strategies for increasing your SEO.
External Links: If your posts are high-quality, external sites will link to them. Building external links is another important SEO strategy.
Basically, if you want sales, you need traffic. If you want traffic, you need to be found on search engines. Blogs help your small business get found.
Reason 2: Blogs nurture and convert customers.
Making a sale is often about more than simply getting potential customers to see your product—it’s about relationships. People want to know who the company is behind the product they’re buying. When we start a relationship with a potential client, we create trust and interest.
Blogs nurture this relationship. They provide potential clients an opportunity to see your business personality and learn more about what exactly they’re buying. They help warm up potential clients and close a sale.
Reason 3: Blogs build your authority.
You are an expert in your domain, but your clients may not know that. Blogs allow you to show your audience how much you know on your subject.
Publishing useful, in-depth content, allows you to demonstrate your expertise. This helps customers feel comfortable investing in your product or service.
Reason 4: Blogs build on your other digital marketing strategies.
Are you wondering why you would start a blog when you are already on social media? Or, maybe you feel like your email marketing strategy is already working well… would a blog be better?
The truth is, they complement each other. Social media is great, but a post’s lifetime is very short: a day or two on Facebook, and about an hour on Twitter. Email marketing is also great, but it requires that you have a bunch of email addresses potential customers. Blogs complement each of these marketing strategies.
Blogs capitalize on your social media by driving your followers to your website. This gives you a way to create further sales from your social media.
Blogs also give you content that you can use for your social media. Rather than scrambling for interesting content to post, you can use your blog as a source for high-quality content. And, if it’s good enough, people will share it, building on its contribution.
Finally, blogs build your followers. When someone reads your useful, high-quality blog post, they will be more likely to follow you on Twitter. Similarly, if you have good quality content, website visitors will subscribe to your email list.
A healthy blog can complement your social media, email marketing, and other digital marketing strategies.
Reason 5: Blogs keep current customers engaged.
Marketing is often a one-way game: you broadcasting your message to your potential customers. Blogs create an opportunity for two-way interaction. Your audience can engage by commenting on your blog, sharing it with their friends, or by contacting your company directly.
Each time they come back to your site to read a post, they are a little more likely to buy what you’re selling.
Reason 6: Blogs differentiate you from other businesses.
There are likely several other businesses in your industry that provide similar services to your company. Blogs can help you stand out from them.
Blogs give you the opportunity to tell your company’s story, show your personality, and develop your overall brand. They also allow you to showcase features of your product in a long-form way that is difficult with other mediums.
Use a blog to highlight what’s special about you. Does your firm specialize in a particular service? Use your blog to talk about it.
Reason 7: Blogs create demand and interest in your products.
Blogs not only let you highlight what is special about your product, but they also let you explain why your consumers need them.
Your blog is your platform to tell the world what problems your product solves, why it is desirable, or why your audience needs your service.
Selling protein supplements? Use your blog to explain how much protein athletes need. Are you an online marijuana dispensary? Use your blog to explain how new product strains are developed and what their effects are. Trying to get people to make a reservation at your Bed and Breakfast? Use your blog to talk about the highlights of your location or upcoming events.
Reason 8: Blogs help you understand your audience.
Effective sales and marketing depend on a solid understanding of your target audience—the more you know about them, the better you are able to serve them. Blogs give you a way to understand your target audience because they are engaging: readers are able to post comments on what they like, what they don’t like, and what they wish were different.
Basically, blogs act as a place where customer reviews can happen, directly on your website.
Not only that, but you are able to look at your traffic statistics to gauge what is popular. Is your audience particularly interested in reading about one of your products? Maybe you focus your marketing efforts on that product.
Bonus: Blog Marketing Statistics
Still not sure that you need a blog? Here are a few statistics that showcase the importance of blogs for marketing:
Organic search is incredibly important.
One survey found that 90% of respondents had done an online search to find out about a product or company in the last week.
93% of all web traffic comes organically from a search engine.
91.5% of that traffic goes to websites on the first page of a search engine results page.
Blogs increase your web traffic from search.
Companies that blog get 55% more traffic than companies that do not blog.
After about 21 blogs, traffic can increase by as much as 30%.
Blogs increase your sales leads.
Blogging companies see about 126% more lead growth than those companies that do not blog.
Content marketing, including blogs, earns up to 3 times the leads that paid search advertising earns.
Posting 1 or 2 blogs a month helps businesses earn 67% more leads than businesses that do not blog.
Blogs increase your sales conversions.
More than half of all online consumers in the US (61%) have decided to make a purchase based on a blog post that they read.
80% of companies that blog have acquired customers through their blog.
Blogs are cost-effective.
People feel more positively about blog marketing than any other marketing tactic, including targeted ads, traditional advertising, and social media ads.
Seeing a positive ROI is 13 times more likely for marketers that blog than those that don't.
Blogging and other inbound marketing cost 62% less than outbound marketing.
Blogging, and other inbound marketing, costs 62% less than outbound marketing.
Conclusion
Businesses are increasing their spending on content marketing, including on blogs. Why? Because blogs are an effective way to get found, increase traffic, and make conversions.
But take note: blogging is a long-term game—it doesn’t pay off instantly. New blogs can take months to gain traction and improve your SEO. If you are a smaller business, have a relatively new online presence, and post less frequently, it could take even longer. Have patience; in the long run, your blog may become one of your most effective marketing tools.
So what are you waiting for? Roll up your sleeves and start your blog today.
Want to get started with a blog? Contact us and we will help you create a blog that generates leads and sales.