You may groan out loud when a marketing agency, employee or consultant says that you really need to be blogging. But the reality is that a well-managed blog could become one of your business’s most valuable marketing assets. You probably understand that B2C businesses derive a major portion of their customers from the internet these days, but you might be overlooking the benefits of blogging in building B2B relationships.
Here are six good reasons to start a blog for your business today:
- Content levels the playing field. Your company may not be the biggest player in your industry, but blogging and leveraging your content marketing efforts can help provide valuable information to your most important audiences and establish you as a knowledgeable resource, putting you on the same level as everyone else. Visitors to your company blog, especially new visitors who find you via inbound search may differentiate your firm, based on how knowledgeable and relevant you are to their particular needs and problems. If your blog provides your customers, potential clients, and casual site visitors the quality information they need to do their own jobs better, they will keep coming back.
- A blog demonstrates your expertise. High-quality content posted on a regular basis can quickly establish your company as the go-to source of expertise in your industry. Your existing customers and new leads will appreciate the quality of information you provide and will be more likely to contact you when they need products or services from your industry. Building your company’s brand and name recognition through a strong online presence is one of the most valuable benefits of blogging.
- A blog is a lead-generating machine. Every time you post new information on your blog, you create content that the search engines will use to send visitors your way. Research on the benefits of blogging shows that even older posts are ongoing sources of new business leads. The content that you post today might still be generating leads for you ten years from now, and you do not have to pay an extra dime from your advertising budget to keep it on your blog. A simple opt-in form on your blog inviting visitors to sign up for your newsletter will create a list of customers and leads you can use profitably for years to come.
- Blogging targets visitors better than paid advertising. When visitors come to your blog, it is either because they have been there before or because they have found you during a targeted search for the information they need. Paid advertising in trade publications or other print media cannot target your potential clients as well as your blog.
- Blogging builds strong customer relationships. One of the benefits of blogging is the ease with which it lets you and your customers interact. Using the comment and reply functions of your blog lets your customers and potential customers ask questions and get personalized responses from the appropriate members of your staff. By interacting freely with your blog visitors, your company’s reputation as an accessible source of information will grow and potential customers will begin to seek you out over your competition.
- A blog interfaces easily with other social media. Your blog posts can be automatically posted to your company’s social media pages on Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms. Your posts can also be set up to be sent automatically to your email list, letting you get double the use out of each post. Your most informative or entertaining blog posts are likely to be picked up and shared by other users on social media, so that your company’s reach grows without any extra effort or advertising expenditures on your part.
You may think that creating and maintaining a blog is something you don’t have time for in and around actually running your business, but you can delegate the task to a talented employee or outsource it to an experienced internet marketing consultant who can integrate your blog within a strategic, lead-driving inbound marketing campaign.
