5 Benefits of a Small Business Blog Creating a Blog That Impacts Your Business for the Better

If you own or manage a small business, chances are you’ve been told to include a small business blog as one of your marketing efforts and you’ve probably thought, “Is it really worth my time?” How can posting business thoughts on my website and sharing on social media get my phone to ring and people walking through my door?

The fact of the matter is – it does matter. Blogging on a frequent basis is a relatively easy, inexpensive way to enhance your inbound marketing efforts, drive traffic to your site, and attract more prospective customers.

Here are 5 major benefits benefits of blogging for small business.

Every time you blog, you create a new, unique page — meaning you increase your chances to rank in search results. Search engines love to provide fresh, valuable content to searchers. What better way to provide frequent content than with blog posts? By blogging on a consistent basis, you give Google and other search engines new content to index and provide opportunities to plug in those all-important keywords to increase your visibility on search engine results pages (SERPS).

Blogs are a great way to provide solutions to searcher’s questions. If you choose to blog and create an editorial calendar, be sure to choose topics that are compelling and informative, using good SEO practices — like relevant keywords and search terms — in order to increase your chances of your content appearing higher in search rankings and ultimately driving traffic to your site.

None of this happens overnight, but with the use of new content and valuable answers to the questions your customers are asking, you have the chance to use your blog to enhance your searching engine rankings and driving traffic to your site.

The ultimate goal is for you to turn site visitors into strong, qualified leads. You can leverage your blog to get emails from interested leads by using call-to-actions that ask them to subscribe to your email list or download a whitepaper. Those emails can then be used for marketing purposes to increase touch points.

Not only will they regularly see your blog posts, the door is now open for email marketing opportunities to promote your business, send special promotions, and more. The more often you can connect with a lead, the better the chance of converting them into customers. The results speak for themselves. B2B companies with blogs get 67% more leads than those without blogs.

A blog is your opportunity to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry and build trust with your audience. Oftentimes, that information will be relevant and shareable across the industry as 94% of those who share posts do it because they think it will be helpful to others.

Write about topics that are relevant to your customers (or potential customers), share tips and tools, answer specific questions, and provide valuable resources. The more you know about your industry — and your ability to communicate this knowledge — the more loyal your current and potential customers will be to your brand or product.

When they see that you actually care about their success outside of being a client, they’ll be more likely to see past the “for sales” sign on your forehead and listen to what’s being said.

Using your small business blog to create two-way interaction with your customers and potential customers is an excellent way for you to learn what others are thinking or experiencing and allows them to gain insight into how you think and function. This will help build and cultivate your relationships, as well as create longer-lasting customers.

An active way to do this is by posing open questions and asking people to respond in the comments. Be open to new ideas, suggestions, points of view and questions from your customers; and then respond accordingly. Use your blog to be transparent with your customers by addressing customer service issues or complaints and providing a solution.

Creating this channel of open and honest communication will provide value to your customers and strengthen their loyalty.

Every time you blog, you create additional opportunities to market and communicate around your business. It allows for you to create and link in social media posts, as well as repurpose blog posts for events or special topics. This consistent and valuable content will increase engagement with your audience and drive them to your site — hopefully sending them down the path of becoming a qualified lead. It also allows you to link to similar blog posts or series that you create on your website so people stay longer and learn more about ways in which you can help.

Small business blogs make sense to include as part of your marketing because it requires minimal effort at a low expense and translates into big wins! Blogging allows you to boost search engine rankings, increase website traffic, and foster deeper relationships with potential and current customers.