Why Blogging is Essential For Marketing Strategy

As a business owner, there’s certainly no shortage of tasks that need to be completed on a daily basis. From handling sales to hiring and training staff and even accounting and payroll, no doubt you wear a lot of hats.

Whether you have recently launched your business or have been doing business for some time, hopefully you have a successful website up and running in order to generate leads. But…it doesn’t end there.

Starting and maintaining a company blog is an essential part of any business model, as it can further position you as a trusted expert in your field and also help folks find you. If you aren’t yet blogging or if you’re looking to revamp your current blog, read on for some best practices.

Why your company should blog

Simply put, a business blog is a frequently updated online site of articles that relate to your business and industry for the public to read. Many companies link their blog right to their website so that it can be easily found.

While it’s true that many folks won’t read your blog, there’s a good chance that those who do may become your customer one day, as all of your posts should link back to your website or offer a call to action of some sort.

Further, a blog allows for a conversation between you and readers/customers/prospects. Just be sure to stay on top of the comments/question that come in. Not to mention, blogging is a form of free PR, of sorts. Many times, business owners who blog are interviewed by journalists as subject matter experts in their industry. And free press coverage never hurt anyone!

Another benefit of blogging is that your content can be multi-functional if you really put it to work for you. In addition to posting to your blog, you can share your posts on your company’s social media channels as well as with other industry sites or publications to gain further exposure. Additionally, as you gain a variety of posts, you can even publish them in an e-book to give away to prospects and customers.

Once you start consistently blogging, you will begin to gain readers’ trust and they will come to rely on you as a valuable resource.

How to get quality blog posts

You may be thinking, “I am so busy as it is — I have no extra time to write blog posts.” That is understandable and you definitely aren’t alone. The good news is, there are other ways to generate quality blog content without writing it all yourself.

If you employ staff members, you may want to ask them to contribute on a regular basis. The task of writing a post is less burdensome if each person is only required to do so every month or so, depending on how often you post. (The key is to remain consistent with your posting schedule, whether it’s weekly, biweekly or even monthly.)

Oftentimes, your team has valuable thoughts and expertise that would be key to share in a blog post. And, more often than not, staffers are happy to be selected for this task. It is important, though, to ensure that writers meet any rough draft deadlines and that you or someone on staff proofreads and gives final approval to each post. After all, you have to be comfortable with the content that is representing your company.

If your staff is fairly small or if you wish to take another route, you may want to hire a freelance blog writer. If you already have a website/digital marketing company working for you, many times they may have a writer on staff or even know of someone of whom to recommend. The benefit of this strategy is that most professional writers know the value of incorporating search engine optimization in their blog posts for you, so that your company receives further exposure online.

Though the thought of starting a blog can be overwhelming at first, once you have a strategic plan in place it really can be a smooth and fun tactic that enhances your business prospects.