7 Reasons To Write A Business Blog – Pt 1

Unless you’ve been camped in a Himalayan mountain cave, chanting to heathen gods for the past five years, I’m sure you’ve heard of blogs and noticed how popular they’ve become.

And at this stage you may be wondering how running a blog has any relevance for a small business owner like yourself, operating out here in the real world as opposed to cyberspace.

After all, blogs are for kids and tech-geeks right?

Well…not really – not anymore.

Blogs have become one of the most powerful marketing tools used by businesses around the world, regardless of how much business they do online.

Blogs are being used be anyone from a small business owner such as myself (technically this website is a blog), all the way through to multinational giants such as Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Nike & Xerox.

Why Is That?

The reason is actually fairly simple – blogs are all about communication. And not just the one-way communication of the old style website – I’m talking interaction between business and consumer.

Prospects can have their questions answered and businesses can learn what their prospects want. It’s a two way street that benefits both parties.

I’ve listed below some reasons why blogging for business can be such a powerful tool. These aren’t the only reasons, but they are among the most powerful.

If you think any of these are relevant to your own business, than it might be worth thinking about installing a blog of your own

Building Relationships

I’m sure as a business owner you know all about the marketing funnel – you get people into your buying funnel when  they are in the research phase of the decision process, and you move them through to the point where they become a (hopefully) loyal customer.

Blogs are extremely effective at streamlining this process for your business. If the prospect isn’t ready to make a purchase yet, you direct them to your blog where they can find more information about your business and what you can offer.

This gives you a greater chance of convincing the prospect they should choose your business over your competitors

People Trust Blogs (For Now Anyway)

This is kind of a strange one – its almost an example of psychological conditioning.

At the moment people are less wary of blogs because of their origins as a means of communication. There is almost in innate sense of trust that if you visit someones blog they are not going to put the hard sell on you.

As an example, if you were to send out two emails to your list – one which said ‘go and check this out at our website’, and another which said ‘go and check this out at our blog’, I could almost guarantee that you would get a higher conversion rate from the second email than the first – even if they were pointed at the exact same content.

So while this situation holds true, you might as well take advantage of it – but make sure that your blog doesn’t become an extended advertorial for your business. Content is king in the blogosphere.

Turn Your Loyal Customers Into Advertisers

There is no more powerful form of advertising than word of mouth. A positive experience from one satisfied customer has the potential to generate large amounts of new business for years to come

Blogs allow you to turn your customers into spokespeople for your business. If they regularly read valuable information on your blog, they will be more than happy to pass the website on to their friends, creating streams of new prospects for your business that cost you nothing to acquire.

NB – this article stretched out a bit more than I thought it would so I split it into two parts

Click here to read the other 4 reasons for having a business blog.