While Blogs are mainly thought of as being associated to a particular individual, businesses can use them effectively too. As most know by now, a blog is an online journal where articles of a certain niche, interest or discipline are published on a regular basis – and so it is not necessary for it to be all written or associated with an individual – it can be moderated by a group and therefore a business.
A well written Blog has so many benefits. It’s a great way of building relationships. It increases readers, Twitter followers and Facebook fans, among others, which effectively creates an online community. It also improves online visibility and promotes the website the blog is housed in.
Branding the business
One of the major benefits is that Blogs are useful in branding one’s identity (if it’s an individual running it), or branding the business as a whole. Therefore it is very important that the individual or business’s personality come out in the blog depending on how they are trying to brand themselves.
For a business to do this effectively it’s especially important that the blog contains informative, useful and compelling articles that are related to the business’s target market.
Related: Business Blogs! What, When, Where, Why And How?
Many businesses fall into the trap of focusing on just what it does, on its products and operations – however most prospects and customers don’t care about that.
- They care about only those things that affect them in life. Therefore a business should always have that in mind when it determines its editorial policy, and the range of topics it will allow on its blog.
- The key is to create and build trust amongst its visitors, followers and clients, steadily creating a good reputation for the brand and company. This can be done if visitors feel like the company understands what’s important to them. Also by discussing topics of interest there is a higher chance of engagement with these customers.
- By building trust and authority in the eyes of their visitors, a business earns the right to do some self-promotion. This shouldn’t happen on every post, however its generally accepted that this is more than reasonable if the content provided by the business is valued.
This is really where blogging can pay off for a business. They can get their message directly to a captive audience that wants to read what it has to say.
So it does take quite a bit of care and work to build a blog that is valued by the Business’s target market, however the benefits can outweigh the effort. While I have touched on some of the benefits above, there are more if a blog is built correctly. Let’s go through them one by one..
The Benefits of Blogging for Business
# 1. Creates Good Reputation for the Company
Blogs help build the product, brand and company reputation positively. Informative entries in blogs help build credibility and class. It also helps establish the company as an authority, a cut above the rest and not just another service or product provider. It allows the company to showcase its knowledge and therefore gives its audience and prospects an opportunity to gain a greater appreciation of the company.
Related: Building Your Business Through Blogs: 4 Reasons Why It Is Getting More Important
# 2. Product and Brand Promotion
Blogs spread the word about the company and its products. As mentioned, if a company is able to build an audience that trusts them through its informative posts then its visitors will understand a little bit of self- promotion. This can help the company launch new products, get feedback on products to improve them and therefore help sales in all sorts of ways.
# 3. Increasing Web Visibility
By writing compelling articles for the target market, there’s a higher probability that the blog will also gain more traffic over time. This is because there will be more people who share and recommend articles on the blogs. This will naturally attract back links which ranks the blog high on the search results pages. As long as the Business has set up the blog to be
# 4. Sharing what the Business Believes In
Almost all businesses have mission and vision statements. Some also have their values publicly defined. Most of these are honestly very vague, and meaningless because the way most companies behave, are not in line with what they claim their mission is.
A blog provides an opportunity for the business to reveal its personality, what it really believes in, and what it stands for on more than a page. It gives the opportunity for businesses to tackle major issues with its target audience, allows it to set a tone for the communication between it and its target market. Essentially, it is an opportunity for the business to have its values and statements come to life in real life over time.
Related: Positioning v Niche: Which Blogs Get The Best Returns?
# 5. Providing Education and Information
Blogs are effective in educating the public about the impact the business is having in the community, and to its target market, through its products, services, sponsorships, community projects and so on. Again it is an avenue for its target market to gain a better appreciation for all the things the business is involved in.
# 6. Creating a Solid Client Base
Blogs have the power to create a large community of clients and like-minded people. They generate more members through referrals, word of mouth, and other forms of information dissemination and advertising.
# 7. Facilitate efficient communication in its community
As a community of a particular niche, blogs can help facilitate communications between clients, stakeholders, suppliers, and others concerned.
Creating and maintaining a business blog can take a lot of work because the success of it depends on how well the business is able to relate to its target market, engage it and build a community around it. To do this the business will have to go beyond focusing only on its own products and services, but rather be outward focused on how to enrich the lives of its visitors through its content. If it is able to do this, then it can enjoy the numerous benefits from having a successful blog.
Related: 6 Great Bloggers You Can Learn From In 2012
Therefore if you are currently running a blog for your business or considering starting one, think about your visitors, think about what’s most important to them, think about what problem they are trying to solve by searching for a company like yours, and you will start on the right track to building a blog that is seen as an authority in your industry.
Did you like this article? Sign up for our RSS, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter
Image: “On-line blog concept – keyboard with blog key“/Shutterstock“
