4 Reasons Why You Need to Start a Blog Today

If you have taken steps to start a blog, kudos to you! Don’t stop reading, though, because I’ll give you some tips to make sure you are using it well. 

If you don’t have a blog, you probably fall into one of two camps. Either you’ve heard or read somewhere that you should start a blog but didn’t grab your laptop or pen and notebook to start outlining it immediately, or you simply have no idea why a blog would benefit you. 

Start today. Blogging is a boat you’ll want to jump in. Trust me!

When clients ask me to blog for them, I do an internal happy dance. Why? Your blog is the living breathing space of your website, and it deserves your attention for so many reasons.

1. Blogging helps you build your online brand. You have to be known by your customers in a way that your brand becomes their friend. As is the foundation for any relationship, you must be communicating with your customers- past, present, and future. Your blog allows you to share your brand voice, values, and services. The more you write about industry topics, the more your audience will view you as the go-to expert for what you sell. Blogging helps you rise above the competition as an expert, and any leg-up you can get is a good one!

2. A blog increases your searchability as the perfect platform to naturally drive SEO strategy. A well-constructed blog is more than creative writing. It is crafted around key search terms that you have researched ahead of writing. Think like your ideal customer. When they land on the Google search bar, what are the actual words coming off their fingers? What terms are common in your industry for which people frequently seek more information? I want you to put your heart into your writing, but there’s a big but- let logical planning inclusive of keywords drive the outline first. The more frequently you show up talking about what matters to your customers, the more Google will love you, and you’ll pull up in searches. Also, Google will also want to give your website a big hug for keeping fresh content on your site (it’s a huge deal for ranking). You build your website to be more than a pretty online storefront. It has to work, and blogging is one of the keys that unlock the doors for traffic to flow into it. 

3. Blogs give you opportunities to teach more about how your products and services can impact your customers’ lives. There’s only so much you can put in a social media post or even in a brochure. A blog gives you endless opportunities to provide long-form answers to FAQs, tell success stories, and reiterate that you know a thing or two about what you do. A bank of knowledge shared could be just the thing that converts a curious person into a customer. 

4. A blog can fuel your social media content and your email touchpoints. When you have a large piece of blog content, you can use it in different ways across your outlets. Got LinkedIn? Share a blog excerpt and a link back. Also on Facebook? Do what you did for LinkedIn and break the blog into smaller posts for cohesion in your posts. Active on Instagram? Break the blog into smaller posts and direct the audience to your blog URL in your profile. Your blog also gives a good reason to create a touchpoint with your email list by offering up valuable content.

Blog content is a highly sharable marketing tool that helps you connect with your audience and bubble up over your competition. So whether you feel like taking your own time to write, or if the thought makes you want to take a stiff drink and you’d rather hire a content writer to expertly take on this piece of your marketing (like yours truly), I hope you’ll start or using your blog to inspire your customers and move your ideas intelligently and effectively.