22 Reasons You Need a Small Business Blog Plus, 11 Ways We Will Help You Start and Keep It Going

With today’s growing online consumers, a small business blog is becoming more and more essential to maintaining a strong online presence, standing out above your competition, and obtaining long-term customers. Given the benefits of business blogging and the role this strategy plays in digital marketing, small businesses must seriously consider adding them to their marketing strategy.

However, we know that many owners have concerns about what blogging for small business involves and whether or not it’s really worth the investment. In this post, we’ll outline what a small business blog is, the reasons you should consider incorporating a blog, some real talk on why you’re avoiding it, and specific ways we can help you get one started — and keep it going.

Before we get into all the benefits of blogging for marketing, let’s start by answering the question: What is a business blog?

It’s not uncommon to hear the word “blog” nowadays. It’s incredibly prevalent in the digital-sphere, especially for influencers and marketers. However, we’ve found the term muddled over time as the online world has expanded and people become more unique in their approach to personalized content.

Let’s first start with how it all got started.

Blogs originally began in 1994 as a personal diary that people shared online. In this online journal, you could talk about your daily life or share about things that you were doing. Over time, people saw an opportunity to communicate information in a new way and leverage the medium for business purposes. Thus began the beautiful world of blogging.

A blog, as defined by First Site Guide, is an online journal displaying information in reverse chronological order, with the latest posts appearing first. It’s a platform where a writer or a group of writers share their views on an individual subject or provide factual information that readers may want to learn about.

The appearance of blogs has changed over time, and these days blogs include a wide variety of items and widgets. However, most marketing blogs still include standard features like a header, main content, sidebar with social profiles, and a footer with a call to action and links to other helpful resources.

According to Blog Tyrant, a blog post should contain at least 300 words in order to rank well in the search engines, but long posts (1000 words or more) will rank more easily than short posts. CoSchedule found posts with around 2,500 words typically rank the best. (Hence why this one’s about 3500 words.)

As small business marketing blogs have grown in both length and popularity, the importance of business blogging has ballooned to a point where marketers make it one of their number one recommendations when creating a marketing strategy for small businesses. With almost 4 billion people worldwide currently connected to the internet, there has never been a better time to include small business blogging in their marketing strategy.

Below, we explain the top 22 reasons your business should seriously consider adding it into your marketing plan.

Without further ado, let’s get into why blogging is good for your business, and be sure to scroll down to see how to start a small business blog.

One of the most important reasons why blogging matters is because it boosts your SEO results. Search engine optimization (SEO) involves a series of activities that optimize your content in order to improve your organic (i.e., free) traffic. The better you optimize your small business blog posts for SEO, the higher your web pages will be listed on search engine result pages.

This means more people find your website and get to know your business. In fact, it’s been found that companies who blog typically gain at least twice as much web traffic as those that don’t blog.

As a business owner, you know more about your industry than buyers often do. As someone who is devoting their entire life’s work to understanding the industry and creating products or services that stand out, you know some things and have been there/done that. Blogs are an excellent opportunity to share your tips and tricks and share knowledge in your community — ultimately showcasing your expertise.

The more you establish yourself as a thought leader by educating prospects and current clients, the more you build trust. As an industry expert, prospects come to you to learn more and understand all that they can about a particular topic. Once it comes time for them to need that service or product, who do you think they’ll likely reach out to? That’s right – you!

First, customers will stay customers if you continue to provide answers to their problems. Connecting with them not only reminds them that they haven’t been forgotten, but also informs them you offer plenty of other solutions to contribute to their success. Once they discover you have a great deal to offer them besides just explanations of your offerings, they’ll be likely to come back and support what you have to offer.

By delighting customers, you turn them into promoters who tell others about the excellence you provide. These customers refer you to friends and associates, share your blog content and social media posts, and leave positive feedback on review sites.

Instead of potential customers simply navigating to your website and reading the basic blurbs on what it is you do, they now have a reason to stay longer and read more about your thoughts on what’s happening in the industry, tips and tricks you offer (for free), as well as what may be happening in the local community.

When you attract new visitors to your website it creates an opportunity to generate leads. This is where your Calls-To-Action (CTAs) comes in handy.

A CTA is a way of directing your website visitors through your website — keeping them engaged on your site — and guides them through their journey from awareness to purchase. You can also use the CTA button on a blog post to move the visitor along to another relevant blog topic covered on your website or even convert them to a relevant page on your website that explains your services.

Blogging for small businesses can drastically increase your conversion rate by turning leads into customers. A small business blog doesn’t have to be incredibly salesy in its language, but it can end with a specific CTA that directs readers to next steps. Did you know 61 percent of U.S. consumers say they’ve made a purchase based solely on a blog? Thirty-one percent say a company’s blog is the second most influential factor in making a purchase.

Blogs are cost-effective marketing strategies. In many cases, the ROI of content marketing is three times higher than the ROI on paid search. That means more bang for your buck, simply by writing about what you know best.

Businesses that take time to voice their opinions, concerns, insight, and knowledge via blogging are the ones that truly stand out. Too often, small businesses assume that their prospects and customers understand as much as they do. By blogging, they are ensuring their voice is heard and information is kept up to date.

Leaders of your small business are best suited to handle complicated topics because they usually understand the more intricate elements of the business. They would be wise to sit down with a younger employee or marketer and explain it to them in “kindergarten” language, not to be patronizing, but to speak in a way that is understandable. That employee then writes the blog, making it easy to digest for the greater audience.

If you and your employees are serious about keeping your small business blog posts updated and fresh, it will naturally give you an opportunity to share content on your marketing and social media platforms. This is especially helpful when small businesses are coming up short on ways to engage on social media.

Here’s an example of an internal link — connecting one page of this website to another page of this website. If your website contains only 4-5 pages of content, then your internal linking opportunities become quite limited. Creating blog posts builds many more ways to link your webpages. And why’s that matter? There are many benefits to internal linking, but the two that matter most are (1) Google loves them and (2) your users love them. What more is there to say?

It’s one thing to get into the nitty gritty about product features and functions. It’s a totally different thing when you’re able to write about how that product functions in the real world. Some of the best blogs feature current customers and the ways in which your service or solution is making their lives better.

Each small business blog post is your very own long-term asset to be used over and over on social media, in podcasts, email newsletters, or any other form of content marketing you use. For example, a blog post that’s well received might serve as the basis for a webinar. Consider your blog the foundation for building brand awareness, while promoting your products and improving your online reputation.

By taking a look at blog analytics in the backend of your website, you can gauge what topics matter to your audience. Track posts by site visits, shares, time on each page, comments, popular subjects, and click throughs. The better understanding you have on what readers like, the more you can tailor the content to fit their needs.

If readers are keeping up with what you have to say, use your small business blog as an opportunity to share what’s happening with the company. This could include projects, awards, new locations, etc. Remember, the more they know about you, the more they can trust you.

Blogging allows you to share information about your business and its services, but it also allows you to share opinions and thoughts on certain topics. Blogging creates a great way to share the personality for your company and makes your business more approachable. Don’t be afraid to share your interests on your blogs, comment on timely news topics or market trends or educate your readers on a particular topic.

The really loyal readers who enjoy the information and opinions you provide can be notified by email newsletter or special notifications. Give your audience the opportunity to keep up with your company by providing CTAs where they can subscribe. This naturally builds your email marketing list and gives you additional opportunities to get the word out.

This truth is important in two ways. By having employees assist in writing your blogs, they are encouraged to delve deeper into the “how” and “why” of the industry they serve. Also, by having resources they can constantly refer back to, it allows them to not only return to evergreen content to refresh their memories, but gives them skills to directing conversations with prospects.

Staying ahead of the competition is key to customer loyalty. Blogging for your small business forces you to stay ahead of the curve in your industry, constantly thinking of trends and news that will appeal to your audience. The basic act of writing will make you think about your business at a deeper, more complex level and give you the leg up on competitors in your industry.

Blogs give small businesses the opportunity to share so much with the wider world and give voice to their leaders. Stories only serve to bolster and build up the business in a way that serves audiences as well as the storyteller. It’s wise to invest time and resources into a medium that will provide incredible benefits and encourage others who read it.

Now that we’ve unpacked how a blog can help your small business, we hope you now better understand all the rewards you can reap. But we know, if you’re like many small business owners, you’re still hesitant about diving in and taking on this marketing strategy.

We get it and understand that many of the following questions may still be holding you back:

• Who’s got time for that? Writing takes time and attention, especially for well-researched topics. And what business owner can find either of those things in churning out a 600-word blog post every couple of weeks amidst all the interruptions of the day?
• Why spend time doing something I despise? Not everyone is a natural born writer and not everyone is able to articulate thoughts into clear and concise words. I could always delegate it, but would they be able to say what I want to say and how I want to say it?
• What if I can’t be consistent? Blogging isn’t something that I can start and then stop because I know meaningful leads require consistency. We, as small business owners, are busy and focused on developing and growing the company, not regularly writing up blog posts.
• What would I talk about? Our industry is not as glamorous as others and so topics are scarce. Who has the time to brainstorm a million ideas to generate the content calendar? Big businesses always seem to have enough to talk about, but small businesses don’t generate nearly enough excitement.
• Is it even worth the money? Spending resources on blogging doesn’t feel like an option that will bring in the clients and attention we desire. Where is the return on investment for something that seems to sit in the background of our website? Is it really worth the hype?
• Could I write something that moves people? A voice that compels readers to take action seems to require great persuasion — not the easiest of tasks.
• What’s subject/verb agreement, active voice, passive voice and plural possessive mean again? It’s difficult to remember all the rules that make up a sound structure that is grammatically correct. If we plan to post blogs, it needs to read well.

Know that you’re not alone in those hesitations, but also know that we can help you reap those benefits of blogging. Read on.

The above questions are common, and we’ve walked through a number of them with clients in the past. To help provide tangible results, we also want to encourage you that we are here and prepared to assist with blogging.

Here’s how and why:

Our team is passionate about creating compelling messages that make a difference for readers, no matter what industry it may be. We have a talented group of writing professionals who enjoy crafting stories that pack a punch. Not only that, we live and die by correct spelling and grammar rules — meaning your blog posts get noticed for all the right reasons.

Before we start the writing process, we begin our journey with you by first understanding your unique story or, at the very least, helping you discover what that story may be. We then delve into the Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How of your business, and how it applies to prospects.

Before writing begins, we work alongside you and your team to brainstorm content ideas that make sense to the business. Once topics are chosen, we then develop an editorial calendar for optimal social media marketing management — built around your goals and audience needs. Upon your approval, we place the plan into action.

Our blog marketing strategy ensures that blogs aren’t just created, they’re seen. We take inventory of the current content in place and work to update old blogs with updated references, links, and language. We also comb the post length and structure used in current blogs to help improve the readability score. These two combined techniques increase your SEO so blog posts don’t get buried in search engine results.

Google spiders are important, but they don’t make purchases. That’s why we first take the time to get to know your audiences — their likes and pain points — before carefully crafting words that move them to take action. Whether it’s updating old blogs or writing new ones, we put time and dedicated effort to research each topic, industry background, and your solutions. This means audiences get blogs that relate to them personally.

As a small business, we know you rely on us for a successful digital marketing strategy that you can count on. This means we don’t make excuses, we stay organized and focused, we stay on task, and get the job done by the deadline.

Our clients range greatly. We have worked with all sorts of business — from HVAC businesses to bicycle shops to architecture firms to endodontic practices — and so much more. We are capable of writing for all sorts of companies and would love the opportunity to serve you as well.

Every single member of our team is incredibly creative and brings their own unique perspective to the table. As a group we ensure language fits your needs and suits your audience, but we also seek to make the content stand out. We often take the road less traveled and our clients benefit in return.

We’re dedicated to results that matter and won’t rest until the job is done right. We are not in the habit of doing anything halfway. The work we produce prioritizes quality over quantity. After all, we’re not interested in littering the world with meaningless marketing.

We know that the nature of business sometimes means the information we are working from may no longer apply. If a project suddenly demands a change in direction, we are flexible to shift gears. However, we always want to make it clear that we steer away from scope creep and keep the mission at hand on task.

We deeply value strong relationships that are here to stay. Therefore, it is our goal and driving ambition to become your trusted partner of choice in telling chapter after chapter of your developing story. We are ultimately here for you and to see you succeed.

You’ve invested in your small business; don’t let your website and online presence become simply an idle asset. Set yourself apart from the competition and become a relevant player in your industry by investing in a small business blog, and turning your online presence into something dynamic and lead-generating.

We recognize the challenges and confusion wrapped up in adding a small business blog to your content strategy, which is why we are here as the experts to help. By choosing to invest your time and resources into blogging, you can be sure you will see an increase in traffic to your site, a greater trust in your small business as an authority in the industry, and a greater lead over the competition.

Interested in taking the next step to learn more about how our business blogging services can help?

Find out more about us — who we are and who we aren’t — and then send us a note at hi@keyholemarketing.us to share your unique needs. We look forward to showing you some of our work and start dreaming about what we can do for you!