15 Benefits of Blogging for Businesses

Does your business have a blog?

According to stats, 60% of businesses who own a blog acquire more customers than those that don't.

A blog is a website through which opinions are shared, information is passed, and most of all businesses directly engage with their customers.  It is a valuable tool for marketers.

In this article, I shared 15 benefits of blogging for businesses

15 Benefits of Blogging for Businesses

It is the soul of content marketing. I am sure that content marketing is a part of every business marketing strategy. Every business owner wants customers to understand what their services are about and convince their customers on why such services are needed and the best way to do this is using a blog. Be it through Videos or images or articles, owning a blog gives you an edge in content marketing.

Its the communication channel with your leads and customer.  A blog is like an online customer service for businesses to answer their customers -frequently asked questions (FAQ) and connect with customers and leads by sharing relevant information(s).

It drives traffic to your website. Though a blog is a website, it is an information sharing website and not the actual front of your online business.  By writing relevant articles and sharing it online either through social media or search engine you indirectly through your blog drive traffic and sales to your business.  This you do by including a call-to-action link to the main business website on the blog.

It is simple and easy to use.  Setting up a blog is not rocket science.  You do not need to be a website designing genius or an HTML guru to start a  blog.  There are several blogging platforms out there and most of them are free. Blogger,  Wordpress are the few good ones around.

It is your company/business voice. Your business is an abstract entity and needs a voice to let people know it exists to serve them.  The blog is that voice.  It gives you room to tell the customer about your new and old product and space to share your company's initiative and get customer views about them

It makes you an authority in your industry. By posting frequently and updating your customer about your industry and answering questions from customers through your blog.  You are indirectly establishing yourself as an authority in your field.

It converts traffic to leads and leads to customers.  The main objective of a business blog is to generate traffic and leads.  Every article you post through your blog gives you a fighting chance to convert traffic to leads and if the post is convincing enough then leads are converted into customers.  You generate leads by adding a call-to-action button on your blog that gets visitors to fill in their data.

A blog gets your business discovered.  Blog, as I pointed out in point 1, is the soul of content marketing and by sharing your blog content on social media, your brand and business get discovered as more people re-share the post on their own social media page hence indirectly giving you the popularity you need.

It brings in money for freelancers.  This is more and the most important reason why you will need a blog.  It brings in money for both normal bloggers and business bloggers alike.  For normal bloggers platforms such as AdSense and media.net are advertising agents that help bloggers make money. For business owners, it helps push up sales.

It builds customers confidence in you.  As mentioned earlier your blog is your customer relations service online and by providing solutions to their problems and updating them about new products and services, customers will see you as a professional and a reliable source of information in your industry. They will have no choice but to come to you for services.

It is a good free PR.  A blog creates free press for your business and most especially you.  Publishing great content entices a journalist to look for the person behind such great content because they see you as an expert in your field and will like to share your story with the world.

It keeps your focus on your goal.  A blogging strategy requires you to define your blogging goals (who you are blogging for and why.)

It keeps you on your feet.  To be seen as an expert in your field and to drive more sales and traffic you need to post new content regularly meaning you need to be up to date in your industry.  A blog keeps you alert about trends, changes and info about your industry.

It gives you insight about your customers.  Many blogging platforms come with analytic data that tells you who your customers are,  where they are coming from, country and behaviour.

It powers your social media.  By creating good content,  your marketing becomes easy as you provide value to your customer who likes wisely share it on social media and thus you gain valuable followers also. 

6 Reasons Why every Business needs Digital Marketing

Digital marketing has really shaped the way marketing is to be done.

Over the past few years,  entrepreneurs have taken the internet by storm providing several alternative solutions through the internet to problems, thus making it easily accessible.

Some of this services include online stores, services providers, blogs and much more.

 But then using the internet has become more than just starting a business through the internet. It entails a lot of mores as many competitors are now appearing on the web.

However thanks to various web inventors, the internet has provided a wide horizon and among them is marketing which is a major need for start-up businesses.

For various startups, the internet makes them be able to customize, distribute and accomplish their marketing goals through digital marketing.

 According to T. Pinero OOTERO and X. Martinez Rolan.

Today rather than a subtype of conventional marketing, digital marketing has become a new phenomenon that brings together customisation, and mass distribution to accomplish marketing goals.

The various internet applications that have emerged, including the various mobile gadgets, has opened up ways in which we think about marketing on the internet.

Marketing through the internet has pushed boundaries for startups, giving them a more user-friendly, omnipresent, and interactive way to accomplish their marketing strategies and meet up with their goal.

6 Reasons Why Every Business needs Digital Marketing

Branding

A brand can be a name, symbol, logo and much more, that distinguish a product or services from others. On the internet, a brand needs a reputation to survive.

Digital marketing offers new brands an opportunity to create and build a reputation for their brands, increasing their scope and presence through their constant activities on the net.

Usability

The internet offers several platforms that are very simple to use in other to improve their experience and increase their brand presence in a wide scope. Some of this platforms include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and a lot more. This platform gives a startup the required audiences they need.

Interactivity

The internet offers it, users, particularly start-ups an opportunity to increase customer base and improve their customer services.

Through online interaction, startups are able to keep a long-term relationship with their customers. It offers startups direct conversation opportunity with their customers. This could be in the feedback form about their product and services or through their help forum.

Advertising

 This is one of the most important tools every start-up needs. Every business wants a platform where they can spread the news about their product and services to attract customers and the internet provides for this both for free and paid.

With a large number of users on the internet, every kind of businesses around the globe have a very big opportunity in advertising their product through the net as it will get to a reasonable amount of users.

That is for paid ads. But for those who want free ads, you have to work your way up the ladder with good content and SEO marketing skill.

Video and Images communication:

Posting of videos and images through social media platform is now the other of the day. This is another relevant form of advertisement and when you do it right...bingo for you.

Creating the right picture alongside your post or creating the perfect video for your product is way better than writing a lengthy post. Various social media site and apps enable you to use this two tools (videos and images) to send the right messages.

Measuring Output:

Compared to other conventional marketing forms, where it wasn't easy to track one's product growth or follow up with customers, Digital marketing introduces several analytic tools, giving start-ups the opportunity to follow up and access their output and customer base.

With the right plan and strategy, startups can use their internet presence to build a concrete and trustworthy brand as long as they live up to their objectives.