If you’re not an avid blog reader or writer it is easy to assume that blogging is just about influencers sharing their day to day goings on with readers, outfit pics and fancy instagramable dinners for a hobby or perhaps a bit of pocket money if they’re someone that has built up a large following. Remember, there are influencers whose social media and blogging platforms do form their small business, for example, Olivia Blodgett who has made a career for herself sharing her travel stories and photography!
However, actually blogging is much more varied than that and realistically a blog is essential for small businesses – here’s why.
Advertising
As a small business, you probably don’t have the budget to compete with larger companies when it comes to marketing and advertising. When used in the right way blogger and social media is a great way to gain attention and get your products seen by the right audience, without needing the large budget of a traditional marketing campaign. Keep an eye on ongoing social media marketing trends to do what you can to ensure that your blogging game packs a punch.
A regularly updated website also looks good to Google, which means that they are likely to push you closer to the top of search results (look up SEO to look into this in any real depth). We all know that when people search on Google they tend to click on the results closest to the top in order to find what they are looking for; so the closer you are to the top the more likely people are to be driven to your business, which has to be a good thing!
Updating Your Website
Even if you have web design skills, the truth is that updating your website every day is not something that you are able to do. Not only is it time-consuming, but realistically you won’t have new products or product changes to add to your website every day. A blog helps your website to not be stagnant and instead ensures that you can add things like business news, product reviews and even tutorials on using your products which keeps your website looking fresh and inviting with minimal effort
Communicating with Customers
Keeping in touch with your customers is essential if you want your business to be a success. However, do you really always have enough to write a full email or newsletter update? Social media and blogging allow you to share small updates with your customers. This looks great to new customers, who will feel reassured that you are a business that cares enough about their customers to keep in touch and keep them updated – yet another great way to generate business and bring in revenue.
Being a small business you want to make sure that you explore every angle when it comes to bringing revenue into the business and blogging is without a doubt an avenue that you should explore. If you have any thoughts on whether a blog is essential for businesses then we’d love you to share them below
*Collaborative post