As a business owner, having a fresh, mobile-friendly website means you’re on the right track. It means you recognize the value of having an easily-accessible piece of internet real estate that serves as your business’ home base. It means that customers don’t need to have any kind of social account in order to see your information, and you can be easily contacted for questions and hiring. By having a professionally-built website, you are showing people you care about the promotion of your business, and you care about having a simple connection to potential and current customers through a business blog.
These are all very good things. I’d absolutely high-five you right now if we were in the same room together. After I high-fived you, though, I’d tell you that there’s even more you can do with your website that would not only bring in more business, but also further solidify the relationship you have with your current customers. Some of you might already know what I’m alluding to, but I’ll say it anyway:
Start a business blog
There are a whole bunch of reasons to do this… but I know that, when you’re not even sure if you want to start a blog, it can be pretty overwhelming. What I’m going to do is give you three. Three big, non-complicated reasons your business needs a blog.
#1. Customer Trust and Visibility
When a potential customer visits a website and sees an actively-maintained blog, they realize a few very important things.
First, they’ll see that you’re confident enough in your industry knowledge to publish helpful information on a regular basis. Secondly, your blog will demonstrate your willingness to communicate with current and potential customers, and will help you seem open and relatable. And, finally, they’ll see an active business owner. Someone with drive, passion, and who prioritizes the link between themselves and their customers.
What this all ultimately leads to is trust. Trust is what brings customers (and their friends) back to you, time and time again.
#2. SEO and All that Jazz
You’ve heard of Google, right? See, the thing about Google is that we want to make Google happy. The thing about making Google happy is that Google wants to make customers happy. This means that Google sends out things called “spiders” that pore over gazillions of different websites, doing their best to find original content that is useful to users.
Keeping a thoughtful, original, and regularly-maintained blog keeps Google happy in a number of ways, but we’re keeping it simple, right? Let’s go with two big ones:
- Fresh Content: Google uses algorithms to search for certain indicators of a quality website. One of these indicators is fresh, updated content. Basically, if you can post regularly on your blog, you’ll be generating fresh, new spider food for Google’s creepy crawlies.
- Useful Content: That being said, you can’t just throw up a bunch of random rambling every two or three days for the sake of keeping it fresh. Look for problems in your industry that commonly need solving and address them. Be a helpful authority in your field. This will encourage engagement and visits from customers, which will, in turn, bump you up in the Google ranks.
#3. Content Sharing
So, at this point we’ve tackled trust… which helps you get found via word of mouth. We’ve touched on SEO, which helps you get found via Google. Now, we’re going to move into that quickly-evolving world of content sharing.
People are using social media and even email like crazy to share information. You’ve got plenty of knowledge about your field, right? If people trust you for accurate, current, and helpful information in person, they’re going to be thrilled to be able to share that information quickly and easily from the comfort of their own home (or phone). By putting your knowledge and know-how into a blog post, you’re creating a small nugget of marketable gold. There’s no searching through a website or scanning an “about our business” page to find a specific piece of information… there is only clicking, reading, and then sharing again… with all those delicious little bread crumbs trailing back to you and your website.
Get your thoughts & expertise out there
You do what you do because you’re good at it. Because you’re passionate about it and you know your stuff… so why not show the world what you know? If the writing itself is intimidating, you’ve got options. You can go all-out and hire a copywriter who can turn your original thoughts into a presentable piece of writing, you can do your best and then hire an editor… or you can even send posts off to your spelling bee champion niece in Montana. The point is to get your thoughts, expertise, and your business out there… and one of the easiest ways to do that is to take the leap and start a blog.