Business.com
Thanks to modern technology, all it takes to gain the attention of your target audience is a few clicks of the mouse on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, just to name a few. With a majority of people using their social networking sites throughout the day, it makes sense to get on the bandwagon and follow what the crowd is doing. Social media is also one of the most cost efficient marketing mediums available, making it a necessity for small businesses or small budgets.
One often-overlooked, yet critical piece to any good social media marketing campaign is blogging. It allows you to keep your audience posted on the latest news with your company, industry or products. As important as this blogging point is, there are many more reasons why you need to take the plunge and start a blog for yourself.
1. Brings Traffic to Your Website
Having the blog directly connected to your website will bring plenty of new traffic, as long as the content is well-written and useful to your audience. If the blog is not connected to the site, include a link to your homepage in a visible location on the left or right menu bars. After each blog post, take time to post a link to the article on all of your social media sites in order to attract more attention to it.
2. Shows You Are an Expert in Your Industry
One of the best things about writing blogs is it gives you a chance to shine in your industry. Writing about topics that your readers will find helpful and that you have a great knowledge of will help build your reputation as an expert in your field. This is an excellent way to gain the trust and loyalty of customers and prospects.
3. Can be Used to Connect with Customers
Respond to each comment or question left on your blog as a way to show your customers that you hear them and are available to help them. Also, if one commenter has a question, there’s a good chance other people will have the same question. Consider writing an article dedicated to this question as a way to educate your audience on a subject that has been brought to your attention by other readers.
Everyone likes to know they are listened to and by responding to comments or writing blogs based on questions or concerns will leave customers with a positive and lasting impression on your company.
4. Builds Brands
Every social media or blog post you put out there will increase your online presence. The reason for this is because, as long as keywords are also being placed in the articles, potential customers will have a much easier time finding your company when they search for one of those keywords. Also, the more someone sees your company’s name, the more it will be remembered.
5. SEO Purposes
This somewhat ties into building your brand in tip #4. Consistently putting articles online will help your search engine rankings and will leverage your brand. Another important SEO reason to start a blog is because the search engines love new content.
When there is new, quality content that isn’t overly stuffed with keywords, it shows search engines, such as Google, that your website is active and up-to-date.
All of these reasons should be enough for you to stop procrastinating and finally take charge of starting a blog. As I previously mentioned, make sure to stay consistent and write quality content that your customers would want to read. Happy blogging!
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