No matter what you sell, or your target audience, your website needs a blog. A blog will help you connect with existing and potential customers, and provide a means for a steady inflow of traffic for years to come.
While creating and maintaining a blog requires work, the long-term benefits are worth the sweat and the money. That’s because, like everything else on the internet, blog content is searchable and shareable. It can always be found in one’s quest to find the best product, service or tool.
Here are six big reasons your company site needs a place for researchers to find the right answers:
1. It educates shoppers. Why leave to chance potential customers finding the information they need from competitors or other sites that link to competitors?
2. It inspires interaction. A well designed and well written blog encourages visitors to share content and post comments. Interaction reinforces branding.
3. It allows you to share content that is relevant to your target audience. A clothing store, for example, could provide posts and articles on how to dress for date night, or tips on hair and makeup. Any product line can use supporting content that keeps customers coming back.
4. It personalizes the user’s experience. Write about things consumers talk about and your blog becomes a more personal collection of data and images. Any time you can converse with your readers is a huge plus.
5. It helps branding. By generating useful content that people share, your logo and brand will be seen often, and eventually talked about beyond your own site. It also helps by including applicable posts in one’s search results.
6. It instills trust and helps showcase your company as an authority. Honest and factual content gains respect and repeat visits. Businesses perceived as trustful authorities sell more.
If your company is like many small businesses, it’s been putting off blogging for years. This is primarily because of the initial investment of money and an ongoing investment of time. Though, there are a wealth of tools that will help you minimize the “time suck” of maintaining a blog, including software, plugins and third-party services. Did you know, for example, that there are blog editors whose sole purpose is to take your textual content and recreate it into informative posts designed to prompt discussions?
And, don’t worry. A blog doesn’t have to start with scores of posts. It can grow as your company grows, further making your website a place for repeat visits even when one is not ready to buy.
