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10 Reasons your small business website needs a blog

Every small business in this age of digital marketing needs a blog. Anytime I create a website for a client, I always provide them with a blogging option. I give them a few examples of what they could blog about or just suggest that they announce the latest news about their business or promo offers.

I find it unfortunate that a lot of website owners still think that blogging is for professional writers and journalists. This is hardly the case as you don’t need a degree from a higher institution to talk about your expertise. Even none website owners are on free blogging platforms like Blogger sharing their knowledge on different topics.

Find below, 10 reasons people blog. These are also reasons that you should be online doing the same for your business or cause.

Marketing is a big reason your business needs a blog

It is only logical to start with this as the top reason your small business’ website needs an active blog. If you have a static corporate website with all basic information about your business, then that’s just the first step of marketing your business. Now you CAN be found online and people can learn about your business.

The next step is giving potential customers many reasons to use your service or product. You can achieve this by writing posts that describe the efficiency of your service/product. You can also write about improvements you’ve made, the experiences you’ve had, or case study type stories.

Build an online portfolio

A blog is one way small businesses talk about what they’ve done in the past. A fashion designer could talk about a beautiful outfit that was made for a client and the inspiration (or challenges) behind it. The said designer could also go into details and show off pictures that would be shown off to potential clients anytime they ask for “what you have done in the past”.

Some websites with such portfolios even allow website visitors to leave comments and reviews about displayed projects. This level of engagement with your target audience is another reason your small business absolutely needs a blog.

Build a professional network

So far, the above examples have been about reaching out to customers. For some business owners, a blog also serves to connect to other professionals in their field. An event manager, for example, could write about the right kind of music for certain events. Such an article would be attractive information for Deejays who could offer to collaborate on subsequent events.

A commercial printer could also discuss printing guidelines that could be useful to graphic designers. You could also take this a step higher and have other professionals in your field write for your blog (as long as it’s relevant to your business).

Increase online exposure

I already said before that having a website for your small business is a great step in digital marketing. Another step after giving customers a reason to patronize your business is making yourself easy to find online. You can do this by having a lot of blog content on your website (that is relevant to your business). This ensures that customers searching for your services online would always find your website listed on search engines.

This is what we call Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and it generally involves fixing keywords into your site content that your target audience will be searching for. You can carry out research for what your target audience is looking for online and use those keywords repeatedly on your website.

This should increase your search engine rankings and, consequently, improve your exposure online.

why your small business needs a blog
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Show people you know your stuff

Another way to boost customer confidence in your brand is to talk about the solutions you came up with for problems they have. Everyone loves the pro with the answers and that pro is more likely to get jobs. A baker could explain why a certain brand of buttercream is not the best for multi-layered cake and why.

This serves to tell clients that the baker is an authority in their industry. Being able to plant this seed of confidence in current and potential clients is another big reason you need a blog.

Sharing knowledge and experience

Hmm! I have to confess that I think a lot of people (and I mean my fellow Nigerians) are reluctant about doing this. There is this mindset that telling everyone how you do your job is like teaching them how to fish for themselves and renders you jobless as a fisherman. This is far from the truth.

Even if you are a magician telling your audience how you perform your tricks, what makes you different from them is that you have more years of experience in deception. Even if they know your secrets, your fans will still call on you to continue to amaze them. And they will appreciate your brilliance even more.

You also need a blog to share knowledge with fellow professionals who you can also gain knowledge and experience from. Life is so much sweeter for a programmer who gets the solution to a programming dilemma from another programmer’s blog.

Make money online with traffic-attracting content

Not all bloggers are business owners. Some bloggers just entertain visitors with content meant to attract as much traffic as possible. This content could be in the form of comedy, fictional stories, scandalous news, and more. It’s advisable to keep your content unique.

Having a large flow of traffic through your site is useful to advertisers who would want to place ads on your website and pay you for diverting traffic to their services of products. You can either keep a record of your traffic and show to potential advertisers or you can sign up with ad agencies like Google Ads to display automated ads on your website.

Using your small business’ blog for this purpose can also serve as an alternate source of income. If you will be writing about news that is already in circulation though, then write about it from a fresh angle and in your own words. Refrain from the popular “copy and paste”. Search engines don’t like that.

Improve your writing skills

If you are like me, then you do some (or most) of your blogging yourself. Blogging consistently helps to refine your writing skills. After all, there’s no better way to master a skill than to practice it often.

This reason to need a blog is more essential if your profession requires you to be adept at communication and writing. Authors of short stories, journalists, scholars, and other writers can testify to always getting better at their profession with every new post.

Make a difference

Some bloggers use their blogs to initiate discussion on topics they are passionate about. This could be about the environment, politics, charity, and so many other causes. By sharing their thoughts on whatever the matter, there is a chance they might just make a difference in society.

If your small business is into recycling or healthy living, for example, blogging about such topics could change the mindset of society and boost awareness of your topic.

Express yourself and share your passion

This applies to bloggers who are passionate about a role they play or a hobby of theirs. They just want to tell the world how much they love their hobby, or role as parents, artists, musicians, etc.

This kind of content can attract relevant traffic that could also attract advertisers. It also serves to enlighten your audience and simultaneously achieve some of the aforementioned points.

Expressing your passion on your blog or sharing annoyances experienced in your profession also serves to help clients see you as a human being they can relate with.

Conclusion

This is a digital age where everyone is getting provisions, resources, services, entertainment, and more online. Considering the amount of trade, interaction, and even learning, taking place online (especially via mobile devices), it is shocking to see how many small businesses in Nigeria still neglect the fact that they need a blog.

You can start growing your business’ online presence one article at a time and gradually building up from there. There are free online platforms for blogging like WordPress.com or Blogger that you can start with. If you would rather blog on your own dot com website, Imageazy Designs can help you start the process of building a website.

What other reasons apart from these would you like to blog about? What challenges have you faced in the past or present while trying your hands at blogging? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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