As a marketing trainer, I am used to discussing blogs with workshop attendees. “What is the point of blogging, for a business,” someone is bound to ask.
There are many reasons why you should have a business blog. Here are seven of them:
1. Google loves a blogger. The search engines send out software ‘crawlers’. When they visit your website, the crawlers look at your site’s log files.
If they notice that something has changed (i.e. that you have uploaded a new blog entry), it makes them happy. Imagine being a crawler and visiting a website that never changes. You would probably think “how boring.” You can keep their interest by blogging frequently.
2. Writing makes you think. Talking about your area of expertise is fine. Writing about it is another thing entirely. In order to write something which is worth reading, you really have to think about it. I know, as I have written books, manuals, guides, articles and blogs.
3. Your blog feeds your newsletter. I have lost count of the number of business people who have said to me: “What can I put in my newsletter?” My answer is to use their blog content as this gives you a double benefit: SEO from your blog and happy newsletter subscribers. However, I know what you are thinking: where do the ideas come from in the first place: click here to read about blog ideas.
4. Regular blogging improves your writing skills. Talk to a novelist. They will tell you that you they write regularly (quite often, every day.) Writing is a learned skill. You can improve your writing skills by frequent blogging.
5. The more you write, the more you sell. Customers like to read blogs about your products / services. When a customer enters the marketplace, they are hungry for information. If you blog frequently, it is more likely that they will find you in the first place.
Having found you, your blog will give them more material to read which in turn makes it more likely that they will buy from you.
6. A creative, researched and thought provoking blog can differentiate your business. Anything that you can do to stand out from the crowd is a good thing. Here is a blog about: Creative thinking skills
7. A blog can turn into a book. An Amazon Kindle book can be as short as 5000 words. If each blog entry that you write is 250 words, it only takes 20 blog entries and Voila, you have your book. Here is a blog entitled: How to get the copywriting done ..which may help.
If you have questions about blogging / social media, you can ask them via The Marketing Compass website.
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Nigel Temple is a marketing consultant, trainer and speaker. To find out more about his services email joanna@nigeltemple.com or call Joanna on +44 (0)1628 773128.
He welcomes media enquiries about 21st century marketing, social media and digital marketing. He has appeared within the national, international and broadcast media.
Nigel is the founder of The Marketing Compass – join thousands of business owners, tell us about your business and ask some marketing questions!
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