Does your business have a blog? Does it need one? Almost always, the answer is yes. In 2022 and beyond, business blogging is essential an essential piece of a successful business marketing strategy.

Creating and maintaining a blog for your business can be overwhelming but it doesn’t have to be. Though it is work and it does take time and planning, the benefits are well worth the time and effort.

Before we talk about how to blog for business, let’s take a look at the benefits of business blogging.

Benefits of Having a Blog for Business

There are many benefits to having a blog for your business; some obvious, some not-so-obvious. Below are just a few of the benefits.

Drive More Traffic to Your Site

The more pages with good information you have on your website, if done correctly, the more opportunities there will be for it to show up in search engine results.

Provides Content for Social Media

You can share links to your blog posts on social media and you can also repurpose blog content for posting on social media. For example, a how-to blog could be made into an infographic for social media. You can take pieces and parts from other blog posts to create social media posts and tweets, as well.

Hooks Your Target Audience

If you offer answers and solutions to common questions and problems readers and potential clients have, they will begin to follow your blog and follow you on social media.  The next time they have a similar question or problem, the first place they will look is your blog.

Builds Trust in Your Brand

Blogging is a great way to build trust in your brand because you are connecting with readers, offering solutions to their problems or answers to their questions and you are showing them you know their needs. You are meeting them where they are.

Consistency is Key When it Comes to Blogging for Business

In addition to helping your audience and potential clients/customers with answers to their questions, it is important to be consistent. Creating a blog post and then waiting months before creating another one is worse than not blogging at all. When it comes to blogging for business-or any kind of blogging, really- it is crucial to post regularly and consistently so people know you are current and still in business.

Ideally, at least one blog post per week should be published, typically on the same day each week. That said things happen and posts may not always be on the same day each week or you may miss a week here and there but the important thing is to stay current and relevant.  If you miss a week, jump right back in the following week with a new post.

Another thing worth mentioning is that the purpose of blogging, beyond building trust in your brand by showing you are an authority on what your potential clients are looking for is to drive them to your website or into your business. If your business website is lacking, you will lose them.  How do you create a responsive, relevant website? The answer depends on your business and what your product is but there are a few basic factors that go into designing and creating a successful business website.

Write Blog Posts that Encourage Conversation

While this statement does mean encouraging conversation among others outside of the blog post, it also means craft your posts in such a way as to evoke feelings strong enough to make people want to comment. It is important to reply to comments in a timely manner with thoughtful responses that keep the conversation going, leaving them with a question to answer so they will reply back.

Oftentimes, others will see the comment conversations and join in on the same conversation so be sure to reply back to every comment with a thoughtful response and encouraging further comment conversations.

Blogging and SEO

It is not enough to just simply write, when it comes to blogging.  Not only do you need to write about something that will solve readers’ and potential clients’ problems, you need to write and craft your blog posts in such a way that when they search for answers to the problem you are writing about, your post will show up.

This is called Search Engine Optimization or (SEO). There is a formula for making this happen through the use of well-thought-out keywords and relevant content. If you don’t SEO your posts correctly, people won’t find them and they won’t grow your business.  What is the formula for SEO? That is a good question and one that is difficult to give an exact answer to because search engines are always changing their algorithms.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that this is the age of the internet and of instant gratification.  People much prefer to find what they are looking for online even if they plan to go find it in your storefront.  They want to look up what hours you are open, whether you have the product you are looking for, read your reviews, read your blog posts, see how you interact on social media, etc.

If you do not have an appealing, informative website, or are lacking in any of these areas, the trust you are trying to build will not happen.  How do you make sure you are doing all the right things in all of these areas? You create and follow a comprehensive business marketing plan. If you are unsure what that entails or you have one that isn’t working or you’d like help creating one, Carmik Design can help! Contact us, today to get started!