5 Reasons Every Small Business Owner Should Blog

By Black Bear Design on 04/17/2015

A recent study conducted by eMarketer concluded that more than 140 million people read blogs in the United States alone. For bloggers who are able to distinguish themselves as an authority on a particular subject matter have an ability to greatly influence purchase decisions. According to a study by Technorati, 31.1% of consumers claimed that reading a trusted blog influences their purchases. What an opportunity!

Now, while many business owners have blogs, you’d be surprised by how many of them are inactive. If you’re doing it right, blogging needs commitment in thought and time. Business owners who maintain blogs are fewer in number than they should be because of the many challenges associated with blogging, such as finding a good writer, deciding what to write, knowing how frequently to post, distributing content, etc. But when done correctly, blogging has numerous benefits to the small business owner.

1. Provides Cheap Customer Acquisition

Hubspot surveyed 644 business executives on the benefits of business blogging.  The results showed that:

1. Business owners using direct mail, pay-per-click advertising (PPC), telemarketing, and trade shows incur average lead costs of $373.
2. Business owners using blogs to generate their leads average a $143 cost per lead
3. Businesses are reducing their spend on direct mail and telemarketing.
4. More businesses are engaging in blogging and inbound marketing.

No matter how small your business is, you can build trust and clout within your industry by providing valuable, expert information in your blog posts. Over time, you become a “go to” resource for helpful, informative content, which can ultimately lead to higher customer conversion rates. This is especially important for small businesses looking to gain credibility to compete with larger companies.

2. Increases Website Traffic and Subscribers

Your blog gives you the opportunity to create relevant content for your customers. Use this as a marketing tactic to drive traffic back to your website. Make the blog on your website the foundation for all of your social media platforms. Your business might be on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, or anywhere else. Post links  – with relevant visuals – of your blog articles to your social sites. Give your social followers a reason to click through to your website. Additionally, post inbound links directly in your blog articles, to drive traffic to specific landing pages of your website.

Blogging consistently has the capacity to increase the traffic to your company website, thereby increasing page views and hits as your business get more exposure.

3. Increases Sales

Marcus Sheriden, a small business consultant and social media master, says, “If you hang around the barbershop long enough, you’re going to get your hair cut.” If people spend enough time on your site, they will become customers. You have got to put the content out there and make it valuable, and you’ve got to be a teacher. When you do, you’ll start to see amazing conversions from reader to customer.

4. Builds Brand Awareness

Blogging is a cheap way to get people to notice your brand online. When you create a company blog that provides value to other businesses in the same industry, other blogs and websites will link to you and share your content on social media networks, thereby creating massive exposure for your brand.

Blog posting allows you to show a personal side of your business that perspective and current customers won’t see through outbound marketing techniques. Blogging gives others a sense of the corporate standards, vision, and personality of your company.

5. Increase SEO

Blogs increase your SEO. Fresh content is still a key to beating out your competitors in the search engine results page. Use keywords in your articles. List out the keywords, topics, and categories you want your business to be found with. Use these words, and related expressions when writing your posts.  

Keywords and topics on your website are a significant way in which Google (and other search engines) find your site for these searched words.

Blogging is a cheap way to create brand awareness, customer acquisition, sales, and more. Why not include blogging in your marketing campaign this year and see how website traffic, customers, and sales increase for your business?

Featured image via nectarMEDIA
Featured image 2 via nectarMEDIA
Featured image 3 via Hubspot
Featured image 4 via Shivam Technologies

Tags: Atlanta Internet Marketing Firm, Atlanta SEO Company, inbound marketing, Internet Marketing, Local Online Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Online Marketing For Small Business, small business blogging