What is a Blog?
A blog is a website or part of a website which features articles, often themed articles, in chronological order. A blog enables you to include longer, more detailed articles than you can on the likes of Facebook and Twitter and allows you to incorporate photos and videos as well as using it as a way to tell the story of your business. But why should you use a blog for business?
Five reasons why you should use it as a key communication tool for your business.
1. Position yourself as a leader in your Industry
A blog can communicate that you are an expert in your field and will allow you to stand out from the competition. You can write articles about topical issues in your industry, for example if you are a retailer blog about future trends for the coming season or if you are a tourism business write about the destination that you are located in. The key is to write an article at least twice a month and keep them upbeat and interesting. A word count of 500 – 1000 words is ideal.
2. Optimises Search Engine Optimisation
A blog is a great way to optimise search engine optimisation. Hubspot, the USA leading social media experts, have reported that companies who have active blogs receive up to 55% more traffic including higher rates of both organic and referral traffic. The key thing as stated above is to update your blog on a regular basis. Once you post an article the content will be live, so when someone searches on your particular topic your post will be seen months and even years later.
3. Tell your story
Facebook and Twitter are great ways of promoting your business and Bright Light Marketing would highly recommend that businesses use both mediums. However there are limits to the amount of words you can use but a blog gives you scope to really talk about the trends and topics that drive your industry. Marketing is essentially storytelling using different mediums to get your story across and a blog allows you to tell your story in more detail and you can then use social media and e-newsletters to promote your blog articles. Again research from Hubspot highlights that your social media activity will be more effective if you have a blog which is regularly updated and promoted through your social media channels.
4. Transform your website
Quite often a website can be like an online brochure. We all know that we should be updating our websites on a regular basis but what do you update it with? This is where a blog comes into its own as it can change your website into a site that is updated on a regular basis with valuable content.
5. Attract future customers
At the end of the day all business want to retain existing customers and attract new customers. A regularly updated blog gives your existing customers a reason to revisit your website. If you are writing interesting and relevant articles on your blog it will also attract new customers. Interesting, factual and relevant blog articles gives your potential customers a reason to become aware of you and to engage with you. Over time you build up trust so that when you promote your product and services they are more likely to buy from you.