We are often asked by clients ‘should I blog?’. Our answer is usually that it depends on several factors: do you know why you should be blogging, do you have something worthwhile to say, and do you have the time to commit to creating interesting and engaging content on a regular basis?

Starting a blog is easy, but maintaining it takes commitment. You need to have specific objectives, a plan of action and a schedule for delivery. If you don’t, blogs commonly get pushed to the bottom of the to-do list, and an out-of-date blog is worse than having no blog at all! Old content is a big turn-off for visitors, who will look to a website’s blog for reassurance that it’s up-to-date.

Managed well, a blog can bring many benefits to your business. It can drive traffic, increase brand awareness, build your social media following, position you as an expert in your field and generate sales.

Driving traffic

Creative and engaging content is highly valued by search engines and an active blog with quality content will help your rankings! The more quality blog posts you publish, the better your SEO.  You can also use handy plugins such as Yoast to advise you on how your latest post will be perceived by readers and search engines.

Long term results are one of the biggest benefits. One post has the potential to generate hundreds, possibly even thousands of leads over time. Google ‘should I blog?’ and a blog posted in 2014 appears on the first page. A good blog post is a long-term asset for building brand awareness and self-promotion.

Increasing brand awareness

Blogs give you the ideal platform to shout about your business. You can provide insight into your company, philosophy, staff and your products. A blog gives your business a voice and a personality, which in turn helps build positive relationships and brand awareness with existing and prospective customers.

Building your social media audience

Your blog can form the heart of your social media strategy, providing rich targeted content for your audience. This interaction can be used to gain an insight into your customers (look at their shares, comments and reviews) and provides an ideal opportunity for your business to share their positive feedback and testimonials.

Establishing authority

Some of the best business blogs address their customers’ common questions and enquiries. Establish yourself as expert in your field by creating and sharing informative and helpful content.  This works especially well for service and sales focused businesses that need to build customer confidence.

Generating sales leads

Every blog post is an opportunity to generate new business and sales leads, and is simply done with a well targeted, informative article and a relevant call to action at the end; as an example—

Do you need help planning your blog? Give us a call, we’d be delighted to help you get started. (See what we did there?).