Most business owners running small businesses don’t have enough money to spend on promoting their products or services. Generally, every promotional campaign comes with a cost. Maybe you are wondering if maintaining a website with a blog is worth the time and effort. Here in this article, we list 12 reasons why blogging is important and must be included in the marketing campaign of small businesses.
The short answer is a resounding YES! Blogging is a relatively easy, inexpensive way to enhance your inbound marketing efforts, drive traffic to your site, and attract more prospective customers.
According to the study, 57% of companies who have a blog reported acquiring customers from their blogs. In that same study, a survey of marketers revealed that 81% of businesses say that their business blog is a critical factor for success. More than 40% of websites are now built on WordPress and hence we can conclude that a blog is one of the low-cost and effective content marketing tools.
14 Reasons Why Blogging is a Must for Small Businesses
#1. Drive Traffic to Your Website
A blog is a popular way to drive traffic to your website. It is seen, most people don’t search the internet to only buy the product, but also to get information. And a blog allows you to put informative content. Search engines also regularly look for valuable and informative content to satisfy user demand. Therefore, a blog is a must on your website if you want to drive traffic to your website.
#2. Better SEO to Increase SERP
SEO stands for search engine optimization. On the other hand, SERP stands for search engine result page. If you have a website that nobody can find out about, then there is no point in having it. In any way, you have to make your website available on the search engine for the users when they search for a specific keyword.
In addition, a blog helps to get a better page rank in search engines. When users search for a keyword, search engines display more relevant sites on the first page. As an example, if you type rental business ideas on Google, 99businessideas.com comes from the top position. So, a blog also enhances the page ranking if you can put the right content addressing the specific audience.
#3. Position your Brand
You can present your brand as an industry leader through a blog. A blog allows you to create informative content for your users. And when you put information and rich content, people take you as an industry expert. A dependable source of information and valuable advice. Therefore, it helps to position your brand in the industry in an unquestionable manner.
Read: Best Small Business Website Builders
#4. Develop Better Customer Relationships
The blog is the best place to develop customer relationships. Generally, trust is the major aspect of the internet. A blog allows for creating authority on a specific subject and is a low-cost platform to present yourself as an authority on your selected subject. By producing quality information that’s true and reliable in every blog, you are making sure that you can become that authority.
#5. Generating Leads and Conversions
Well-crafted blog posts can serve as effective lead magnets by offering valuable content in exchange for contact information. By strategically incorporating calls-to-action (CTAs) within blog posts, businesses can capture leads and guide visitors through the sales funnel, ultimately leading to conversions. As per HubSpot, B2B marketers who maintain blogs get 67% more leads than those who do not have a blog.
#6. Customer Engagement
There are several options you can nurture in the blog to enhance customer engagement. However, you will need to find out the demand and interest areas of your users. Generally, tutorials or ‘How To’ posts are very effective in this area. If you can help people in solving a specific problem, then you get more customer engagement.
In addition, you can also post regularly your company news and announcements for your customers. Also, in the blog, you can discuss topics and get feedback directly. This tells you a lot about your customer base.
#7. Showcasing Products or Services
Blogs offer businesses an opportunity to showcase their products or services more dynamically and engagingly. Through product reviews, case studies, tutorials, and success stories, businesses can demonstrate the value and benefits of what they offer to potential customers.
#8. Market Research
When you put a lot of content on your blog, you can perform market research on customer demand. The dashboard of your blog provides the different types of search results. You can see, which blog posts are more popular. What posts people are viewing more? It gives you ample opportunity to get information about your user’s interests.
#9. Communicating Your Mission
Your blog is one of the best places to communicate your mission to the users. You can tell the brand’s purpose and it encourages customer loyalty. When you communicate your business objective, it goes beyond with product you sell. Simply, it helps you stand out from your competition.
As an example, if your business is e-waste recycling, then you can simply put your mission to keep this earth a better place to live without waste.
Suggested Read: How to Start a Blog & Make Money
#10. Communicating With Customers
Customer communication is an important part of every business. When you give an offer, you will need to promote it. However, in the blog, you can simply put a post regarding the new offers. On the other hand, when you are going with limited stock or no stock, you can also communicate with your consumer through a blog post.
#11. You Can Offer Promotional Material
Your business blog is one of the best places to offer promotional items. If you can create a blog with a dedicated user, then you can offer promotional materials for them. Generally, it helps most for eCommerce sites. It is a great way of keeping your customers informed.
In addition, you can keep your consumers coming back to check updated offers. However, never post ONLY promotional offers. If you do that, people will not continue visiting your site.
#12. You Can Become a Source of Value
Another reason why blogging is important for small businesses is because it provides value-based content. When you put informative content that people want to know, they will come to your site frequently. Before writing content, ask yourself what your reader is going to get out of that specific content.
Additionally, for whom you are providing the piece of information. You must create content to either inform educate or entertain. And if possible, do all three.
#13. Networking
For a small business owner, networking is an absolute necessity. When you successfully create a blog with several viewers, it enhances your credibility. Directly and indirectly, it helps to attract potential influencers within your specific niche. And generally, it comes with new opportunities.
#14. Building Trust and Loyalty
A value-based blog always helps you in building credibility. When you honestly share your experience and advice people get value from it. It enhances the buying tendency of your users. More willingly and unquestionably people go for buying or taking services.
As an example, if you have a hair salon, you can provide tips and advice on ‘how to keep the hair healthy and beautiful. Additionally, you can provide solutions to the specific problems that people face regularly. Therefore, having a website with a blog provides makes a lot of sense for small businesses.
Editorial Team at 99BusinessIdeas is a team of experts led by Rupak Chakrabarty with over 25 years of experience in starting and running small businesses. Started in 2010, 99BusinessIdeas is now one of the largest free small business resources in the industry.