3 Ways a Blog Can Benefit Your Business
Whether you're a service provider or own a product-based business, a blog is a great way to interact generate sales or new clients in a way that really serves them and meets them where they're at. It shows your expertise in your niche and offers free education or insights into your industry, and makes your audience feel more personally connected with your brand.
Here are three ways having a blog for your brand can help you grow:
1. Blogs Build Trust
A blog is a great way to show your audience how knowledgeable you are. Customers want to know your products are well-researched and created by someone who is legitimately an expert, not just someone experimenting in their kitchen and hoping it all works out. This is your chance to show off a little! Help your audience get to know the person (or people) behind the brand so they can trust that you're not scamming them - show them you're real.
Blog Ideas for Building Trust:
For Product-based Businesses
Story behind your brand
Tutorials for using your products
Favorites within your niche (i.e. "Top 5 Hair Trends of 2020" for a hair accessory brand)
For Service-based Businesses
Story behind your brand
Tips or guides based on your area of expertise (i.e. "How to Take Beautiful iPhone Selfies" for a photographer)
Testimonials/case studies of successes using your service (i.e. a wedding photographer could share about a recent wedding - shows off photography and gives a taste of what it's like working with them)
2. Blogs Grow an Audience
Now here is why I really love blogs for small businesses: it's a great way to grow a social media audience! Blogs give you unique URLs to direct your audience to across several social media channels. Here's a quick breakdown of how it benefits the Big 3 social media platforms:
No more rewording and revamping the same call-to-action over and over again. Having a blog gives you a new way to encourage your audience to interact with you. It makes following you worth it, because now your audience knows they can expect ongoing value from seeing you in their feed beyond the initial follow or purchase.
Unlike Instagram, Facebook allows you to include clickable links in your posts. It also auto-generates a preview of the link with an image from the link, so creating a visually appealing post is super easy. Although Facebook isn't as popular as it once was, it's still a valuable place to share your new blog posts and get more people clicking over.
This is my favorite social media platform for blogs, because it really caters to blogging! Pinterest specifically likes unique URLs, which means you need constant fresh content to link to. If you're just linking to your landing page, packages, or product pages with every pin, you're not going to get much reach. But if you're constantly able to create pins for brand new blog posts, you'll find it a lot easier to grow your reach on Pinterest!
3. Blogs Generate Leads
Although growing on social media is nice, the ultimate goal is to get your audience off of social media and on your website. When you have a blog, all of your social media posts relating to it can include calls to action inviting your audience to come read your latest blog
Once your audience is on your blog, they're in your domain! Literally! You've got them one step closer to buying into your product or service, so now it's time to close the sale. End the blog post with a relevant call to action, whether that's encouraging them to buy your course if they want more in-depth information on social media strategies, recommending skincare products from your shop that would work great in the morning routine you're suggesting, or invite them to take a look at your photography packages and decide which one is right for them. You also can conclude with an invitation to your email list, which will then help you connect with them on an even deeper level for potential sales later on. Funnels, baby, funnels!
This also goes back to building trust, because it shows your audience that you know what you're talking about and genuinely care about your community and their success, not just about making a buck (although that's nice too, no need to beat around the bush here). Your returning customers will have something new and exciting to look at, which will get them back on your website. Your potential customers will have a fresh new way to encounter your brand and you get another window into the possibility of converting them to real customers.
Too Long, Didn't Read?
If you own any kind of business, service or product-based, you need a blog. If writing isn't your thing, join my email list for content creation tips right in your inbox. If writing really isn't your thing, message me and let's chat about how I can help you start your own blog!
