9 Reasons You Should Blog for Your Business

It used to be that small businesses had to spend a lot on advertising and hope for customers responses. Not that advertising is a waste of money now, but the onus has been moved to the owner/marketer to spend time on “content marketing.” Costs less, but it moves the responsibility to your ability to grab attention.

The strategy is very different. With advertising you place your ad in a place where the target customer might see it, a practice called “interruptive marketing.” Think of billboards, radio, and television. With content marketing, you place your information (not perceived as an ad) in the path of the target customer who is seeking it out. Content marketing uses content to draw attention to a company, product, or service online. This “inbound” content marketing practice might share a similar goal to traditional marketing, but there are major differences as well. It is especially important that the content is not perceived as selling something.

Face it. We all have become publishers. Publishing a business blog is an important part of your marketing now. Most business owners hate the thought of writing a blog post every month (that’s all you need, but more frequently is better).

Here Are the Reasons to Create and Manage Your Blog

1. It Drives Traffic to Your Website. A blog post is like a worm on your hook. Visitors who read your blog are 97% more likely to click around on other pages in your website.

2. Blog Posts with Embedded Keywords Improve Your SEO. Know your keywords! With those keywords your website is more likely to rise to the top of organic searches. The more you blog, the more traffic you get.

3. Think of It as Educating Your Market. An informed customer is a better customer. The more they know about what you’re selling the more they will appreciate your expertise.

4. Blogging Creates Trust. People buy from people, not companies. Blogging can create relationships and trust. Relationships turn into buyers. Be sure to include a call to action in every blog post.

5. Establish Yourself as an Expert. Want customer loyalty? Want people to look to you to solve everyday problems? Be the authority in your field. Blogging can help you win speaking engagements and devoted buyers. Look to the geniuses like Steve Dotto (https://dottotech.com/) and Ray Edwards (https://rayedwards.com) for inspiration. (They may be great resources for you as well).

6. Learn to Use the Metrics. By using the right analytics on your blog posts, you can discover who is coming to your website and what interests them.

You can’t manage something you can’t measure, so let the blog metrics tell you what to do. I’m not a fan of Google Analytics. Try www.kickfire.com instead. (Get in touch with me and I’ll give it to you for free for 6 months)

7. Use Your Blog Posts Over and Over. Repurpose your blog post on Linkedin, FaceBook, your email newsletter, and so on. Turn it into a video with PowToon (https://www.powtoon.com).

8. Use a Video Instead. This may be a good alternative for the non-writer. The latest term is vlogging,” using video as a blog post. Google it. Or, even better, look it up on YouTube.

9. Consider “Curating” Posts Written by Others. You don’t have to write every word in your blog. You can curate content that you think your audience would find value in, add your own commentary, and publish it on your blog. Think of it like an art gallery. The gallery doesn’t paint all the art, they just give us a place to view it. “As long as you don’t plagiarize, break any laws, publish duplicate content, or fail to attribute the source with a backlink to the original content, then content curation is a viable way to bring interesting content to your audience and increase your blog post publishing schedule.” (That last sentence comes from Susan Gunelius at Lifewire https://tinyurl.com/y7cah8h4)

For more info on curating, look at https://www.scoop.it/, where you can find curated content in minutes and even publish your topic page and distribute it automatically to your contacts and build your brand in it. My friend Karen Dietz has thousands of followers and has become a bestselling author, TEDx & Vistage speaker using Scoop.it. See https://www.scoop.it/u/karen-dietz/community

BY Vicki Garcia
Vicki Garcia is the Co-Founder of Operation Vetrepreneur & President of Marketing Impressions, a 30+ -year- old marketing consulting firm. Apply to join Operation Vetrepreneur’s FREE Think Tank Groups at www.veteransinbiz.com or visit www.operationvetrepreneur.vet for more info.