Your customers are already searching for the answers you have. Blogging is the best way to deliver it to them.
Business owners are constantly facing tough choices when it comes to the cost and benefits of their marketing campaigns. Budgets have limits and there’s only so many hours in the day.
It’s natural to be skeptical when you hear the suggestion that your business could really benefit from maintaining a blog.
Your first question undoubtedly is, “How would putting time and resources into a blog pay off?”
You probably already invest in more traditional methods of advertising. You may even be running a PPC campaign already. What could a content strategy bring to the table that more direct methods of marketing can’t?
It turns out quite a bit.
Content marketing is recognized as a measurably successful strategy that creates relationships with customers and lets you connect on a deeper level without blowing through your budget. Content marketing, however, is a multi-faceted strategy.
A big component of that strategy is your blog. If you’ve never engaged in serious business-related blogging before, you may feel hesitant to get the ball rolling because you don’t consider yourself a “professional writer.”
There are two things you should consider here.
The first point is, don’t feel like you need to be Hemingway in order to launch and maintain a blog. While there are certain standards that need to be met, no one knows your business better than you and that will come through in the writing.
The second point is you can also partner with an agency to produce your blog content. Your knowledge is valuable, but you may not have the time to dedicate to actually fleshing your ideas out.
That’s where Steady Demand can help. Regularly scheduled, quality long form content is one of the services that we specialize in.
But if you’re sill not sure whether or not a blog is worth it, here are five reasons why you should invest in a blog for your business.
Customers are Searching for Answers
Raise your hand if Google is your go-to source when you’re looking for information.
Now put it down because people are going to start wondering why you’re raising your hand to your computer.
But seriously, check out the live statistics to see just how many people are like you.
Google processes about 40,000 inquiries every second. Don’t you want to be where Google sends the traffic related to your niche? Well, to appear high enough in the SERPs to lay claim to significant traffic, you need to produce high-quality content on a regular basis to satisfy Google’s algorithm.
A blog is an excellent way to accomplish that. Which brings us to the next point.
Google is Crawling for Content
Your business and Google have kind of a “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” relationship, right? If that’s never been your mindset, consider this reason for why you should invest in a blog.
Google’s business model depends upon user satisfaction. If they don’t point users to relevant and useful information, people will stop using the service. Therefore, Google is relying on you, business blogger, to create content that will satisfy their users’ inquiries.
As a reward for helping Google maintain its position as the leader of the search engine pack, you get many more eyeballs on your business’ website.
Customers Want to Trust You
You know this from personal experience as a consumer in your daily life. There are many businesses out there vying for your dollars.
How do you determine who you want to give your business to? Most likely it comes down to trust. A blog is a great way to start establishing that trust with your customer base.
Make no mistake; don’t think of a blog as a direct sales tool. That’s not what they’re for. The sales will come, but the blog is the entry point for building rapport.
Consider how Mike Kappel describes the usefulness of blogging in his piece for Entrepreneur.
“You shouldn’t start a blog simply to try to generate sales. It’s a place where you find your customers, feed them information, and position your value — the equivalent of a digital salt lick. Believe it or not, users don’t hop on the internet for the sole purpose of buying your stuff. They go because they want information. A lot of advertising dollars are thrown away when blogs simply push a product, but offer no information.”
The digital salt lick analogy is interesting because, for one thing, it’s not every day you see a digital marketing and animal husbandry connection. But also, because it succinctly demonstrates what you should be really looking to accomplish with your blog.
Your blog should keep your customers coming back for more regularly. They should be eager to learn the latest goings on within your industry.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Your #business blog should keep your customers coming back for more on a regular basis. #marketing” quote=”Your blog should keep your customers coming back for more on a regular basis. “]
It’s Less Costly Than Traditional Advertising
While we’re discussing creating relationships and driving traffic, it’s also important to focus on the practicality of reducing the overhead expenses of your marketing efforts.
Hubspot conducted a study to determine whether inbound or outbound marketing ended up having a lower cost per lead. If you guessed inbound marketing cost less, you would be right. But, you may not have guessed just how much cheaper it is per lead.
Inbound leads cost a whopping 61% less than their outbound counterparts. Hubspot averaged it as an investment of $346 per outbound lead and $135 per inbound lead.
Lowered costs and an increase in leads? Sounds like blogging is a smart investment.
Don’t miss this: Blogging can also save money in the long run by offering evergreen content that answers frequently asked questions.
If you asked your sales team how often they answer the same questions about the same topics, you would probably find it happens frequently. Imagine the time saved by being able to point customers to the answers they’re looking for, freeing up your team to tackle other issues.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Lowered costs and an increase in leads? Sounds like #blogging is a smart #business investment.” quote=”Lowered costs and an increase in leads? Sounds like blogging is a smart investment.”]
Expand Your Reach
Obviously, the goal of any marketing campaign is to expand your customer base beyond its current limits. Recurring business is great, but new business is what keeps you afloat.
Blog posts are the perfect medium for crafting shareable content. In a world where social media is so important, creating content that people will be willing to share is an essential part of marketing your business.
After all, if people can’t find you on the internet, your business might as well not exist. That’s how critical it is.
Many people focus on the phenomenon of going “viral.” While going viral is, of course, great, simply getting people talking about your business, getting the opportunity to guest blog on bigger sites, or acting as an expert in your field for media inquiries can all mean a big spike in leads that you would never have reached before.
Conclusion
Operating a blog in 2017 is a must for the modern business owner. As you can see there are a wide variety of reasons why you want to make an investment in your content.
At the end of the day, making deeper connections with your customers is essential in an environment where competition for visibility has never been fiercer.
The team at Steady Demand has years of experience helping businesses just like yours develop and maintain robust content marketing strategies. If you’re looking to give your blog a shot in the arm, contact us today and learn more about how we can help you reach your goals.
