You’ve got a great website for your business, nailed a posting schedule for your social media accounts and you’re waiting for the business to come rolling in.
But it’s just not rolling in as quickly as you’d like.
So you’ve been researching all the ways to market your business and it seems like everyone is recommending you start a blog. Should you start a blog for your business?
YES. And here’s why.
Should You Start a Blog for Your Business?
Your business blog will be one of your biggest marketing tools.
We’ve all been there. When you’re just starting out it can be hard to get business from anyone who isn’t family or friends.
This is where starting a blog can help take your business to the next level. Writing blog posts about your industry will add great value to your website which is fantastic for SEO, social media sharing and your reputation within the industry.
It’s the best way to promote your business on Pinterest.
You’ll be amazed at how much extra traffic your blog can bring in from Pinterest! You should aim to provide tips and advice in your blog posts and make sure you have an attractive image on your post for pinning purposes.
My Pinterest account is one of my biggest traffic sources and I’ve had some great leads come from people who find me there.
For inspiration take a look at your own Pinterest homepage feed and see which pins seem to get the most re-pins. You’ll notice quickly that ‘How to’ pins are among the highest performing, so work out what free advice you can give within your industry and get writing!
You’ll join a fantastic community with real networking opportunities.
Bloggers are some of the friendliest people you’ll find online and they’re keen to build each other up.
There’s a real sense of community within the blogging world, even more so when you find bloggers within your niche, and it’s a fantastic opportunity to meet potential customers.
Before you know it you could be supply your product or services to a whole network of bloggers and all made possible through your blog.
You can promote your products and services on your posts.
It’s great to share advice for your industry and help out your audience but there needs to be something in it for you too!
You’ll notice throughout my posts that I will link to my services where relevant and, if you’re on a desktop computer, you’ll see to the right of each post is a sidebar which is prime real estate on a blog.
You should use your sidebar to encourage readers to visit other areas of your website or business, sign up to your newsletter, check out your amazing podcast… whatever you want to promote!
Readers are more likely to share your website to their followers.
A useful blog post is much more likely to be shared by others than a page of your products and this puts your business in front of fresh eyes.
This is another reason why it’s important to promote your products and services throughout your blog posts (see my last tip!) as for a lot of readers this post will be their introduction to your business.
Your blog design matters.
It’s not all about writing great content, although that’s a huge chunk of it, your business blog needs to look good otherwise you won’t keep your readers long enough for them to get to your content!
Your blog should become part of the foundations of your website, much the same as your homepage.
If you’re not too confident about DIY-ing your blog design then get in touch and we can discuss working together on a blog design which flows into your existing website and converts readers to customers, or maybe a brand new website design to showcase your blog!
I hope this post has helped you make the right decision about starting a blog for your business. It can seem daunting at first but the best thing you can do is just start writing and forget about sweating the small stuff.
The secret to getting ahead is getting started.
