Blogs are one of the most useful tools you can use for your business. Not only can they help you to increase your business’ online presence, but they can also build brand awareness and allow you to position yourself as an industry expert. 

Additionally, blogging is a free and easy way to get more traffic to your site and strengthen your company’s reputation, resulting in more leads, traffic and – most importantly – sales. 

However, in order for blogging to be effective you need to ensure that you’ve got a solid content strategy and the blogs are being written by an expert. 

Unlike writing for magazines or social media, blogs are a little more technical and need to be fully optimised for search engines, as this is what will help to build your online presence and increase the organic traffic to your site. 

But why is blogging so important for your business and how can you implement it into your marketing strategy? 

It Increases Organic Traffic 

One of the main reasons why blogging is important for your business is that it has a huge impact on your website’s SEO, helping to attract more organic traffic to your site. 

Search engines favour websites which are regularly updated with fresh, relevant content, as this gives them content to regularly index. However, if you’ve already nailed down the information on each of your web pages, you don’t want to be changing it regularly just to help your SEO strategy.

That’s where blogging comes in.

Uploading blogs to your website is one of the best ways to keep it up to date and keep those search engines happy.

Additionally, editorial content helps you to target keywords that your site might not otherwise target, allowing you to capture customers at all levels of the funnel, from those who are ready to convert to those who are just looking for a bit of advice. 

For example, our main website might target keywords which explain our services to the user, such as ‘co-working’, but not questions which people ask, for example ‘The Benefits of Co-Working’. By writing a blog post about the benefits of co-working and why it’s so popular, we’re able to attract people to our site who might not have come across it in any other way.

Additionally, people searching for the benefits of co-coworking are likely to be in the interest stage of the funnel, and just contemplating joining a co-working space. Therefore, if you can attract them to your site at this stage of the funnel, then they’re more likely to convert once they’ve made their decision.

Finally, this increase in organic traffic can help that page to rank better organically too. This is because search engines will view the page as more authoritative and useful to the user, thus increasing its ranking potential.

It’s Inexpensive 

Blogging is one of the most inexpensive strategies to implement for your business. Even if you’re investing in a content marketing specialist or marketing agency, the return on investment will certainly make it worthwhile.

Unlike PPC, social media ads and influencer marketing, other than the content creation stage, there’s no additional cost when it comes to blog writing. Not only does it help to increase your business’ web presence, resulting in new leads, an increase in traffic and a general increase in brand awareness, but it also helps to drive long-term results. 

Although other channels, such as organic social media, are also free to use, they are not guaranteed to be around forever and don’t always offer the same long-term benefits. Although a number of brands use a social-first strategy, there is a lot more risk involved in this compared to a content-first strategy. 

After all, you own your website – if your website host closes down, you’ll be able to move to another one with your content and audience still in tact. However, if the most popular social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram ceased to exist then you’d lose all of your content and customers. That might sound extreme, but even changes in strategy and algorithms on those social media sites can compromise your reach, and you have no control over if and when that happens. So if you’d purely concentrated on your social media strategy and neglected your website, you may find you have to build your audience again from scratch. 

Although social media certainly has its place in your marketing strategy, a content-first approach will provide you with long-term results that will ensure your business is successful for the foreseeable future. 

It Positions You as an Industry Expert

Another key reason why blogging is important for your business is how it helps to position you as an industry expert, resulting in more leads, conversions and trust in your brand. 

For example, you could take two websites offering the same services for the same price. However, if one had a blog which was regularly updated with informative, engaging content about the industry, then not only will the website perform better organically, but it will also help to build trust in the business and increase its chance of generating leads.

Or imagine going into a shop. If the shopkeeper was unable to tell you anything about a particular product you were looking at, but the one next door provided you with an abundance of information about that same product, you’re more likely to buy from the vendor who provided you with the information.

Additionally, by regularly posting blogs around a particular niche, you’ll become a go-to within the industry, increasing traffic to your site, brand awareness and your search engine rankings.

One of the best examples of this is Grammarly, a digital writing tool which helps to ‘correct and enhance’ writing. Their blog is full of informative articles about grammar, writing and business. 

By targeting these categories, they’re able to capture their customers at all levels, from business owners who might invest in their platform for their employees, to writers and students looking for writing advice for their work.  They also provide content on how their platform works, not only allowing their existing customers to get the most out of the platform, but also demonstrating their high level of customer service to potential new customers.

This strategy helps to position them as industry experts, making people more likely to invest in their platform, share their content on social media and strengthen their SEO strategy, helping to further build their brand. 

It Provides Content for Social Media

Blogging and social media go hand in hand. Yes, we explained how over-reliance on social media can be a negative, but when you use it in conjunction with your own content, it can pay dividends.

Everyone has heard the term ‘going viral’, and regular blogging is one of the best ways to increase your chances of doing so. By creating a regular stream of engaging blogs, you’re giving people the chance to share your content on social media platforms, getting you one step closer to being seen by the people who can make a huge difference.

Additionally, blogging also provides you with content to share on your business’ social media channels, helping to strengthen your entire marketing strategy.

How to Implement a Content Marketing Strategy

Contrary to popular belief, blogging is a real skill – not everyone can write a fully-optimised blog post that not only performs well organically, but also engages the reader. 

So if you’re considering integrating a blog on your website but no prior experience in blog writing, it’s a good idea to enlist the help of a content marketing expert. They will talk you through the ins and outs of writing a fully optimised blog post that will not only help your SEO strategy, but also engage your readers and position you as an industry expert. 

Before you even begin writing a blog post, there’s a lot of preparation and research that has to be done. Firstly, audience and keyword research will need to take place, as this will help you to establish who you’re targeting and how to reach them. 

Next, you’ll need to look at creating a key dates calendar, targeting some of the most important dates in your industry, helping you to establish the best times to publish each blog post.  

Finally, after carrying out all of your audience, keyword and key dates research, you’ll need to put together a content calendar, coming up with topics, titles and additional optimisation for your blog posts to ensure they perform well organically right from the start. 

Once you’ve created your content marketing strategy, it’s time to start writing. Aside from ensuring your content is easy to read, engaging and informative for the reader, you need to make sure it’s fully-optimised so it performs well organically.

However, it’s important to note that it can take a little while to see results from your content marketing strategy. You should usually start to see an uplift in traffic and rankings within 3-4 months, however, it can take up to 6-9 months to see real, tangible results. Therefore it’s important to persevere with blogging in order to reap the benefits in the long run.

Although it might sound like a long process, and one that builds slowly at first, blogging is one of the best online tools you can use for your business. Whether you’re running a small or large business, an effective content marketing strategy is a must-have.

If you’re looking for more tips and tricks to help you to maximise your business’ potential, then check out our blog to find out more about coworking, our members – and more!