Content is one of the most critical components of any Web marketing campaign because it can be leveraged across all mediums. A blog post isn’t limited to existing solely on that blog. It can be shared on social networking sites, submitted to social bookmarking sites, used to develop your company newsletter and more.
Still not convinced? Here are 7 reasons a business blog can be valuable:
1. Establish yourself as an industry authority
People want to purchase from/work with the best in the business. Routinely updating a business blog can help you build brand’s reputation as an industry expert and valuable resource.
2. Help educate your consumers
Having an educated target audience can make it much easier for you to promote your products and services. If potential clients and customers have a firm understanding of your industry, it is easier to position your brand as the solution to their problem. You don’t have to explain as much general information in your messaging and can focus on more important topics.
3. Build your online brand presence
Individual blog posts can rank in the search engines like any page on your Web site. When optimized to include the most appropriate keywords, your blog can help your increase your brand presence in related keywords searches.
4. Humanize your brand
People like to do business with other people, not faceless corporations. When you attach an actual name to your blog (whether it be your CEO, VP of Marketing, etc), you are giving your business (or organization) an actual persona. Having content written by a person means you can afford to throw a little style and personality into your posts.
5. Promote your products and services
A business blog should mainly be used to inform and educate, but a little self-promoting post every now and again is perfectly acceptable. Your business blog is the perfect place to announce new product launches, new service categories or let your readers know about an upcoming tradeshow or conference you’ll be appearing at. Someone who reads your blog has already self-identified themselves as your target audience.
6. Respond to a crisis
When bad news breaks, companies don’t have the luxury of hiding out until it blows over or holding a press conference next week. The public expects a response and they expect it now. Silence is almost never the best option. A business blog is a good place to issue public statements and updates as a situation develops. You want to keep the lines of communication open and transparent.
7. Build links
A company blog can become part of your internal linking structure. Not only should you link relevant posts to each other, but you can also link different blog posts to pages of your Web site and vice-versa. This kind of horizontal linking can help spread link juice and increase the trust factor of some of your internal pages.