The Benefits of Blogging for Your Small Business

Small businesses generally have tight marketing budgets, and often look for creative ways to communicate their brand. To extend your own company’s reach and share information with your target audiences, blogging can serve as a useful tool. Even consider every post you write to be free advertising. Setting up a website and appropriate social media accounts are some of the most effective and efficient ways to reach potential customers online and communicate with existing ones.

Help Consumers Find What They Need

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the term used to describe a company's efforts to attract internet traffic to its blog or website. When consumers are browsing for a certain product online, search engines help them find what they need. It makes sense that small companies with a strong online presence often perform better in searches and attract more website traffic. Blogging about products and services, as well as current events in the industry, can help customers find your business when they search online. Continually updating a blog can help to establish long-term relationships with customers, and encourages return visits to your business' website.

Give Consumers a Visual

Blogging doesn't necessarily mean creating content-heavy posts every day. Depending on what goods or services your company offers, successful blogs can be highly visual with pictures or videos instead. For example, fashion designers or stylists can share their latest creations in pictures. Restaurants may post pictures of entrees or booksellers can share new arrivals to their store. Consider investing the time and effort to develop high-quality visual content along with copy.

Reinforce Branding

Blogging can be an easy way to reinforce a company's brand and let its personality shine. Your website's style and content can be used to communicate what your company is about, even if blog content is not read in-depth. Posts can be formal and professional, or even more casual, depending on your business’ brand. Study which posts have the most engagement in the form of comments and shares and determine how well the company message is resonating with blog followers.

Use a Blog as a Foundation

A blog can serve as a foundation for a small company's marketing strategy. Use social networks to connect with new customers and guide traffic back to a centralized blog or website. In addition to providing quality content, add buy links and contact information within your posts to make it easier for interested customers to click through and purchase products or find out more about the company.

Even a minimal online presence can be beneficial to any company. For local customers, simply providing a company address and phone number can help companies attract business. But, as with all business strategies, it's best to set a plan for blogging and stick to a posting schedule. Review website analytics and compare them to sales growth to learn the benefits of blogging, and find ways to tweak your marketing strategy going forward.