I’m a big fan of having a blog as part of your content marketing strategy. Why? The return is BIG, and your reader will benefit too. Think about it… how many times a day or a week do you read or scan a blog? Are you taking at least something away? Inspiring others, impacting the world, and serving more customers – that’s the ultimate dream. Right? So, yes, most small businesses should blog.

Many distractions exist for people in today’s world. Blogs are shorter, more digestible, usually very focused pieces of content. Besides, who has time to read a novel? Not me! Blogs help educate and inform people of something they want to know about quickly and efficiently.

Here are seven reasons why a small business should blog:

1. Increase your SEO Results

Search engine optimization and driving more traffic to your website is the number one reason to have a blog. Google crawlers are searching and indexing your website.  They’re looking to see if your website has relevant, up-to-date content. Blogs are an excellent way to keep things current.

A blog with keywords strategically placed has a higher chance of showing up in searches. But, of course, you must optimize your blog for SEO. And, it’s impossible to have all the keywords you need on your main pages, such as your Homepage, Products/Services page, About page, Contact page, and other pages. These pages need to help your customer with their problem or pain point, focus on them, and be concise.

Finally, the more relevant content on your site, the more you have an opportunity to create inbound links, add more keywords, and further optimize your website. It’s a perfect storm of SEO you want to generate!

2. Connect with Clients or Customers

HubSpot reports, “Blogging businesses experience a 126% lead growth, a much larger increase than that of non-blogging businesses.” Your ideal client is out there, and they will search for something related to what you have to offer. Relevant content on your site that supports the core of your brand and business gives them more opportunities to find you.

Getting beyond the basic website pages helps them fall in love with you and what you’re offering. It’s like speed dating for websites! I know you’ve done this too. First, you check out the primary pages. Then, if you like what you see, you dive into the blog to learn more. You have to like a brand and the person or people behind the brand before doing business together. You can quickly move a warm lead to a hot one with a blog.

3. Keep in Touch and Keep Sharing

Blog articles can serve as the foundation of what you’re sharing in social media posts, emails, newsletters, and other communications. For example, you can share one blog on LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter, feature it in your client newsletter, and send it an e-blast. That’s a LOT of traction!

Evergreen articles feature content that very rarely goes out of date. So they can be shared or referenced, again and again, keeping you top of mind with your audience.  Besides, only about 5% of your audience sees your blog post the first time.

If you wrote 52 blog articles or one per week, and at least half of them are evergreen, think of all the additional content you would be able to repurpose the following 52 weeks in the second year. This is especially helpful if you’re launching a new business.

4. Support your Content Strategy

Blogs, checklists, infographics, whitepapers, and other resources are key to your content curation and strategy. People find these resources when they’re searching for help or more information. Blogs can be easier and quicker to keep up-to-date since most become designed as part of your overall website, and there’s a designated location for the post. In addition, their flexibility in length, visuals, and topic make them very appealing.

5. Connect with New People

There are other new people besides your ideal client you can impact. It could be an opportunity to mentor someone, join a new community, meet a vendor, partner, friend, or champion for your world. You could meet other entrepreneurs to share best practices, similar interests, or resources. Either way, it will only have a positive influence on you and your business.

6. Tell your Story

Your blog is sometimes the most authentic way to share a story. It’s a place where you can be more personal, real, and genuine. Here, you don’t feel the pressure to be as “professional” as you think you should be on your main website pages. That witty, corny, funny side can come through.

7. Establish Yourself as a Thought Leader

Most of us spend so much time working for our customers we don’t work on our business as much as we should. So don’t forget to share your knowledge with the rest of the world. It will help continue to attract ideal customers and open the doors for you to showcase what you have to offer. You never know what could come next.  

Leave a comment and let me know which reason inspires you the most.

Ready, set, grow!

All my best,