It's the question of the day for many business owners, marketers, and sales people - Should I start a blog?
Let me answer that question with another question... do you have a marketable product or service? If you do, the answer is most likely going to be yes, but let's explore the benefits of blogging to see if it fits your business. It's not a one-size-fits-all solution, after all, and knowing why to blog is just as important as knowing how to blog for business.
- Develop contacts by attracting new and repeat visitors to your website
- Help potential buyers understand options for what ails them
- Position your business as the answer
- Convert your subscribers into promoters
- Create self-sustaining marketing that continues to work for you long after it's published
First, let's discuss inbound vs outbound marketing:
If your approach to sales and lead generation is prospecting through cold-calling, you're an outbounder, and blogging isn't going to make a whole lot of sense, at least not yet.... unless you're trying to make a change. The reason being that outbound drives the relationships into the hands of your business development teams, whereas blogging drives relationships to the business itself. (we prefer the latter because it's sustainable and results in stronger branding practices.
Reason #1 Develop Contacts by Attracting New & Repeat Visitors
People often ask me for SEO pointers, thinking that it's complicated and requires coding and a deep understanding of Google's algorithms, when in reality, it largely relies on integrating a keyword strategy across multiple digital mediums, including blogs... ESPECIALLY blogs.
Every blog you post that jibes with your overall strategy is going to elevate your keyword rankings, which means that Google, Yahoo, and Bing will start positioning you higher and higher in those valuable searches with each one. Choosing the right blog topics means choosing concepts that help your buying audience resolve challenges that are related to your business. When they search for solutions, they're going to find and subscribe to your blog, which will serve as the first step to becoming a loyal customer.
Provide quality content, and they will subscribe to your stream, which means more organic contacts... and more organic contacts means quality sales leads.
Reason #2 - Educate Buyers on Why they Need to Buy
Blog ideas are not always easy to come by when you don't know why you do it. Educating buyers on problems you can solve is one of the best reasons there is.
One of the first places we go to find answers for challenges we encounter is the internet, so why not create informative posts that help your audience identify options for resolving theirs? You're an expert in your industry, and often times one of the most difficult aspects of cold-calling is getting people to listen to your pitch. Educating through blogging helps you plant seeds without being intrusive.
Think about it... They're coming to YOU, and there is no better of a situation than buyers seeking your counsel.
Reason #3 - Position your Business as the Answer
Online branding means putting yourself in front of consumers at every corner. When it comes time to make the purchase, the first place they're going to look is the source that helped them understand their ailment to begin with.
Wouldn't it be nice to pitch a product or service to somebody who is not only interested in your offering but you as a brand as well?
Of course it would!
Reason #4 - Convert Your Followers into Promoters
Closed loop marketing implies that all of your marketing efforts are tied into a bigger picture strategy, and blogging is as much apart of that as an interactive website, an email drip campaign, and social media management. In fact, blogging ties into every single one of those elements.
And it just so happens to be one of the most sharable content mediums in your marketing arsenal.
A large number of blogs that you'll read in your lifetime will likely be shared by friends and colleagues on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or LinkedIn. And guess what? THEY are probably not the authors of that content, but they are actively promoting them (and the businesses behind them) because of the valuable information they contain.
Reason #5 - Marketing in Perpetuity
Think about reasons 1-4. Now think about what happens to your blog after it's been published for 6 months... or how about 6 years? Nothing happens to it, except that it continues to attract followers, educate buyers, position your business as the answer, and convert your followers into promoters.
They continue contributing to your SEO rankings, and saturating the web with your expertise.
Within the last 6 months, how many blogs have you visited that were months or even years old? Probably a lot more than you realize, and yet, the information contained is still relevant, helpful, and effective.
You guessed it: Blogging strategy is good GREAT for business!
I understand that blogging is a daunting task when you're just getting started, and it may even seem a little cumbersome, especially if you're still an outbounder. However, it's never too late start, and it's okay to stumble a little here and there (you can always go back and edit). Orange Pegs Media wasn't always an inbound firm, and because we were assembling our marketing strategy piece by piece, we went through many growing pains.
But you don't have to, because we're sharing our story for your edification. Now that you know why blogging for business is so important, use our other resources and articles (such as the time we deleted our RSS feed) to get yourself started.
Interested in exploring our blog writing services? Click HERE.
For a self-help guide to blogging for business, click HERE:
