“This year I’m going to the gym every day.” A common New Year’s resolution we are all too familiar with. January is when gyms see memberships go up. Gym regulars get frustrated that they can’t use their favorite machines at their usual times. Many feel good that they are making their resolution a reality. And then February rolls around and it’s back to business as usual. The newcomers stop coming and the regulars get their favorite machines back. Think about your business site as a New Year’s resolution. Excited for this new venture you set up the site with an ‘About Me’ page, contact info, how to order, etc. You customize and personalize it until it’s perfect and then step back and wait for traffic. At first it will come and then it will dwindle down. Why is this? You’ve upheld your resolution to create a perfect site but after announcing the launch you stopped doing things to give people a reason to come back to your site. You’re not blogging.
Is blogging dead? No. Blogging is a way to bring fresh content to your site, it shows a personal side to your business, and it offers your target market a treasure trove of information that shows how you know better than anyone how to solve their problem.
Sharing information helps your audience
Blogging is a way to show you care. You enjoy your field and you want to help your customers. Like social media, blogging can show a personal side of your business. Often businesses can seem very corporate and anonymous, you don’t know who created the ads or who is writing product descriptions. However, with a blog post you can include your personality, in a professional manner, of course, while delivering information to your reader. When you are passionate about something it shows in your writing.
Thought leadership
Blogging also proves you are an authority in your field. By writing a well researched and written blog post you prove your credibility. To be a thought leader in your industry you need to prove yourself. Illustrate the depth of your knowledge in a blog post to prove that you’re worth your salt, as they say.
Building conversation
In addition to helping others with great information, blogging opens a dialogue between you and your reader. A well written post will have points that are open for discussion. You can use this to jump start a rapport with your readers to convert them from leads to customers.
SEO
Each blog post is based on one topic which means each page will have one main keyword. This is perfect for improving your Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In addition to looking for specific keywords, search engines also love new content. By blogging regularly you add to the likelihood that your recent post will come up first in search results. You can also add links to other posts on the one you landed on to drive more traffic to the rest of your site.
Clarifies your thoughts
Writing out your thoughts helps you clarify what you think, and it helps you think deeper about the subjects you and your readers care about.
Fun
Lastly, blogging can be a lot of fun. Writing broadens the mind and opens your eyes to the world around you. It requires creativity and a healthy dose of adjectives. So whether your market is jewelry, a new invention, or b2b, your content will be better because of it.
Bonus point
Blogs are immortal. And content builds – bringing you more potential results in search engines. Once something is on the internet it can always be found. So while you do need to keep updating your site so that your customers have a reason to come back, your content will always be out there for someone who is really searching.