Having a blog for your online business is very crucial for brand development. With the high number of people currently connected to the internet, and over 20 billion pages being viewed by more than 400 million people monthly, blogging is convincingly one of the best marketing tactics to adopt for business growth.
Read: How to create a blog in less than 20 minutes
A blog is an incredibly powerful tool required by all online marketers to drive traffic to their business. Publishing well-curated and informative content to your online business blog will help generate quality leads, and in turn, boost sales.
However, some online business owners don’t see the need to have a functional blog. They only believe in running ads on Facebook, WhatsApp, or Google. The thing is, running ads is not a bad idea but there are more benefits derived from owning a blog. Below are the top 10 benefits of having a blog for your online business.
1. Generation of traffic to your website
There are several means of driving traffic to your website. You can decide to buy an email list or run ads, however, both are relatively costly. If you want your website to gain more visibility, adding a blog page is the best. Because as you publish high-quality content, it makes Google index your content and rank on Google SERP (Search Engine Result Page) if well optimized.
Google algorithm needs content to index, so as you are consistent in publishing your content, it makes google recognize your page and always check in frequently for more content. If you target your keyword very well, your website will rank on Google’s first page, and in turn, drive more leads to your website.
2. It helps to boost your online presence
As an online business owner, a strong online presence is one of the keys for your business to survive. You can boost your social media presence and get more customers by blogging. You write quality and non-plagiarized content about your brand, publish on your blog page, and then share it on your social media network. However, if you suck at writing, you can decide to hire a content writer to help do the job.
The more the number of people your blog post reaches, the more your audience grows. When people perceive value in what you post, they will consider you a go-to person in your industry and become part of your network. Your customers can also help share your blog post with other people which will help build your social media network.
3. It produces long-term results
This is one of the reasons why having a blog is essential for every online business owner. Unlike other marketing strategies that are geared toward short-term results.
Having a blog produces a long-term result. It will continue to get ranked by the Google algorithm so far the content is still on the blog. This means you will continue to get new audiences over time.
4. It helps to generate more leads
A lead simply refers to your target audience. One of the important benefits of having a blog is also the generation of more quality leads.
As you continue publishing your blog post and sharing, it will reach your target audience. If your post is solving some of their problems. They will crave to know more about your business and eventually become your customer.
5. Generation of income
Blogging helps to generate more income for your business. The more traffic that keeps coming to your blog, the more the number of customers you’ll have, and also the more the in-flow of sales. You will keep generating more income and more customers as you are publishing more posts.
There are several other ways of generating income from a blog too aside from your own business. You can also run an affiliate marketing business with your blog, where you post content based on the product you are affiliating for and then insert a link as a call-to-action for those interested in the product.
Once people are convinced about your post and buy the product then you make your money. It’s simple, however, it requires patience.
Read: How to make money blogging
6. It helps to build your brand credibility
Customers are now researching extensively on a product before making a purchase. Having a blog will help provide your audience with necessary information on your product which will position you as an expert in the industry.
When they feel your business is credible and trustworthy they will patronize you next time.
7. It helps to grow your email list
Having a blog is also one of the ways to grow your email list aside from email marketing. When people read your blog post and gain useful information, they will be moved to sign up for your email newsletter.
You can do this by including a link to sign up for an email newsletter on every of your blog posts.
8. It promotes strong customer relationship
When your customers realize that you know what you are doing because of the kind of content on your blog, they will keep reading your blog, and patronize your business. This will create a medium for you to interact freely with them and also respond to their comments.
On the other hand, they will feel safer and more secure, even though they have never seen you physically. There will be a stronger customer relationship if you keep satisfying their needs.
9. Free publicityÂ
Blog also provides free publicity for your online product through backlinks or inbound links. Backlink simply means a link on another person’s blog that people can click on to view your blog post.
Whenever you post new content on your blog, it will be made available for other bloggers to reference on their sites. They will be able to see, discuss, and share it. If they insert the link on a post in their blog and people click on the link, the new audience will be redirected to your blog. This is a good means of generating traffic for your online business and with that, you will be smiling to the bank.
10. It is cost-efficient
The most ideal cost-efficient marketing strategy for businesses is blogging and SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
When applied correctly, you will be spending a low amount of money to run the blog. As long as you are writing a post on your blog and google is indexing it, you will always be getting free leads.
Conclusion
There are many benefits you can derive from having a blog as an online business owner. It helps to build your social media presence and facilitate strong customer relationships. Also, the joy of gaining free leads from your blog without running ads is limitless. If you have been contemplating having a blog for your business, it’s time to clear your doubt and take action.
