Should My Business Have a Company Blog?

Wondering whether or not your company should blog? I know, a blog about a blog. Catchy, right? But you’ve seen the competition with an attention-grabbing blog and now you are wondering if you should get on their level. The truth is that each blog that is written is a window of opportunity to land new eyes on your website. Blogging is a valuable tool because it allows you to have a sense of interaction with your customers, but it can also attract potential clients to your website based on what they are searching online. If you do not have a blog, now is the time to start! Here are reasons why your company should have a blog along with a couple of blogging tips.

Why have a blog?

A recent survey conducted by HubSpot.com, a marketing software company, noted that businesses with blogs are now in the 65% range. This means that the majority of companies engage with their customers through blogs. Furthermore, Rocketmedia.com noted a very important study done by Ignite. They state, “61% of consumers say they’ve made a purchase after reading a blog post and businesses with blogs generate 126% more leads than those without a blog.” Additionally, more than half of businesses with an active blog account gaining leads from specific blog posts.

How are business & blogs related?

The following facts are noted by Dexmedia.com and are compelling statistics from IgniteSpot.

• 77% of internet users read blogs

• 81% of U.S. consumers trust advice and information from blogs
• Interesting content is one of the top 3 reasons people follow brands on social media

Tip #1: Treat your blog as a product

Leo Widrich with Socialmediaexaminer.com suggests treating each article as a product. When you attach value and worth to your post like you would with your product, customers notice the detail and care that goes into your posts. He states, “A product is something that people would potentially pay for. Would they also pay for your articles? Simply starting to think, ‘Would anyone pay for reading this?’ Immediately changed the quality. We started to add research on topics instead of just opinions, many more examples of in-depth coverage.”

Tip #2: Have a publishing schedule

One of the biggest questions when starting a blog is knowing how many times to post. For some, weekly posting works better or bimonthly, but by no means do you have to blog every day. You are probably not going to ever want to write a sentence again. Find a schedule that works for you and stick to it. It is about being consistent. For example, I post this blog each Wednesday morning. This way I have planned towards getting it done prior to Wednesday’s date and those reading know to expect my blog each Wednesday morning.

Tip #3: Know what your customers want

Before establishing your blog, it should have a purpose and an audience. For example, are you targeting toward small business owners, hr managers, etc.? Once you’ve established who you are writing for, figure out what they are interested in. You can simply tweet a question or post on your social media asking them what they’d like to know more about. This will get them involved in the brainstorming process and increase the chance of them coming back to read it each week or so.

Tip 4: Don’t make it directly about yourself

By visiting other websites, you have probably noticed that many blogs are written as another source of marketing for their company. Plenty of bloggers write about their product, services, etc., but it does not do much benefit to your customers. Customers read what is beneficial to them or intrigue them. That’s simply how it works. Eugen Oprea weighs in, “Start writing articles that are not directly related to your product, that provide real value for your readers and help them take action. This will help you be seen as an expert in your industry, and it’s a really simple way to attract traffic through social medial and SEO.”

At the end of the day, you benefit when your customers benefit, so be mindful of what they want to read and stay consistent.