Blogging has become very popular nowadays and is often considered the key to success of an online business. Talk of business blogs and you have everyone present out there- the salesperson, the social commentator, the fashion blogger, the web developer, the critical problem solver- and whoever you can think about! Almost every online business owner is becoming a published author. Is it just a hype or there is some substantial reason behind the popularity of blogs? Blogging for business is a great online platform and here is how it makes a difference to your business:
1) Gets you Branded as a Professional
If you have a blog, you can conveniently position yourself and your organization in the marketplace as a professional with respect to a specific domain. Loading your web pages with excessive content describing your services and products make them bulky. You should focus on precise and relevant information to trigger the desired action as soon as possible, through a purchase or a contact form. The desired action here is to turn your visitor into a customer.
Given this, a blog comes in as a handy platform to cover detailed information regarding your business. You may go for long posts or share images or videos, which would draw the prospect to learn more about you and get engaged. Your blog may also cover up to date information about your industry in general on a consistent basis, which brands you as a reliable information source in that particular field.
Stonyfield Farms, a company dealing in organic dairy products focuses its branding on farming, family and organic lifestyle. The same theme is represented in the blog wherein images of healthy families and healthy living articles are shared. The videos included in the blog also project real people leading an organic lifestyle.
2) Boosts Your Income
Now who would like to say no to some extra bucks? Having a regularly updated blog gives you a brilliant platform to earn some additional money. In fact there are three ways to leverage your blog for making money- publication of sponsored blog posts, selling products and advertising.
Sponsored blog posts can be used as a source of additional income once your blog becomes popular. Other businesses would utilize your blog by paying you either to write regarding their company and post it with a link to their website or to publish some of their written materials. For using your blog as an advertising platform, all you need to do is incorporate a banner or an advertising sidebar to your blog and then reach out to other businesses through creation of widgets with the help of Google Adsense. To have their advertisements displayed, the businesses would be paying you a fee.
Selling products is perhaps one of the easiest ways to make money through blogs. Once you discuss various aspects of your products or services through blogging and allow your customers to make direct purchases through the blog, you will definitely witness an increase in your sales. And there’s more! Your blog can act as a counter, selling products of other businesses through pop-up windows and affiliate relationships.
For instance, affiliate links and advertisements in the blog are the main source of income for Freshome, an architecture and interior design company.
3) Invites Customers to Your Site
A blog is a very effective way to pull more visitors to your site. The blog might be on-site or off-site, but you can always have links directing visitors to your main website wherein they can browse for services, products, promotions, contact forms and so on.
A blog is also helpful in bringing in different kinds of customers. Continuous addition of new content to the blog attracts new visitors who might even become your potential customers. Moreover, long-term website visitors are drawn in to check for new content, and in thisway, a community is gradually developed around your brand. For people looking for specific information using search engines, blogs are a great and reliable way of engaging the viewers.
Nuts About Southwest, the blog of Southwest Airline, capitalizes on the interests and needs of the loyal flyers. A mix of photos, videos, articles, surveys and polls are used to draw in the readers. There is also a feature wherein returning readers can create their account for customizing their profile as well as for engaging with other Southwest readers.
4) Gathers Testimonials, Reviews and Feedback
How often do you check out the comments section whenever you post something new in your blog? Well, reader comments in blogs are perhaps one of the most vital sources of information for your business as well as for other customers and readers. Comments of readers, especially those who happen to be your customers, can provide immediate and detailed feedback related to your products, services and business activities.
If you get positive feedback through your blog, your potential customers would become increasingly confident about you products. Again, a negative feedback will give you the opportunity to respond to reader or customer concerns,enhance your business processes and defend your services and products.
For example, The Disney Parks blog site incorporates a comment policy informing the readers that all comments are monitored.
5) Showcases Company Highlights
Whether it’s a special promotion or a product you would like to highlight, your website might not be always the perfect place to do so, given its fairly static status. Blog is a great spot to draw attention to such temporary, time-sensitive bits of information. The important thing is that search engines do index these things which come in results as people look for information. Moreover, you have the scope to highlight the blog story on top of the blog home page, or link to the story from different sources such as email campaigns, social media and the like.
Procter and Gamble has a blog exclusively dedicated to men and their interests. This blog covers a range of areas like fitness, family, technology, career, money and subtly builds in the marketing messages with engaging features.
A properly maintained and utilized blog can go a long way in reaching out to your target audience. Online businesses must consider leveraging their blogs to the maximum extent to create a visible difference for their business, in line with the organizational goals. To achieve this, there is nothing more important than to contact a web designing & development company.
