Michael Epps Utley 
Small businesses must differentiate themselves from their peers and larger competitors. It’s the only way to make the case for consumers to buy goods and services from them and not another provider.
Blogging is one of the best ways for small businesses to introduce themselves to prospective customers and stay connected with current clients in their own voices, allowing them to explain why they’re unique in their own words.
Starting a blog is a quick, easy, and cost-effective way to raise your brand profile and engage with prospective buyers in meaningful and memorable ways. It can also significantly benefit search engine optimization (SEO) by sending positive signals to Google about content currency, business expertise, and authority.
This guide explains the benefits of business blogging and what you must do to launch and manage a blog effectively.
Business Benefits of Blogging
Here are the top benefits your business will enjoy when you launch a blog and post regularly.
Increase Conversions and Profits
Your primary business goal is to sell goods and services. Every visitor to your website, including those reading blog posts, could become a potential sale. Fresh posts present additional opportunities to get people to your site, and the information in them could result in a purchase.
Become an Industry Leader
People prefer to work with companies that are experts in their fields. A blog provides opportunities to prove your knowledge to consumers by sharing insights, opinions, testimonials, case studies, experiences, and results. You can increase conversions by building trust with customers who want to do business with the best.
Increase Website Traffic
Blogging helps you improve website traffic by raising search engine rankings and delivering more visitors. Website visitors typically engage with blog posts for longer than other types of content. All of this increases the potential for conversion.
Create Link-Building and SEO Opportunities
Hyperlinking from your blog posts to authoritative sources, such as manufacturers of the products you sell or respected experts in your industry, helps improve your search engine ranking. It enhances your brand’s and site’s authority and helps build consumer trust.
Educate Consumers
Business blogging allows you to educate consumers about your company (how it's run and what makes it special) and industry (how it works and what to know). It provides a less formal way to differentiate your brand than a traditional home or landing page. It’s an excellent way to go beyond pitching goods and services and demonstrating what you and your employees value, answering any and all questions they may have at different stages of their journeys.
Hone and Promote Your Brand
Blogging and promoting content through email and organic social media is essentially a free way to promote your business and stay connected with customers. The only cost is the time it takes to produce and publish content. When you consider how many ways you can repurpose your content, the ROI only grows.
Enhance Customer Relationships
Blogging and distributing content to current customers via email and social media keeps your brand at the forefront of customer’s minds when they need to purchase your goods and services again.
Leverage Blogs for Social Media Marketing
It takes time to write a blog. However, you can repurpose it for social media (sometimes multiple times.) You can link to the blog post from social media or feature snippets, statistics, and other elements on posts to entice people to read more.
Boost Brand Loyalty
Creating highly engaging, informative, and entertaining blog posts will connect your customers more closely to your business because you’re providing added value and delighting them. This often results in greater customer loyalty. People who feel connected with a company are less likely to seek out alternatives.
Partner With Influencers
Partnering with influencers and industry experts to develop blog content can help increase brand awareness and convey authority to your site and business. A blog post created in partnership with someone respected by an audience could move them to consider your business when they otherwise wouldn’t have been aware of it.
Now that you understand the value of business blogging let’s explain how to get started.
How to Start a Business Blog
Launching a business blog doesn't have to be complex. Developing a content strategy will help keep you focused and organized. A content strategy should include:
Topics and “pillars” to cover
Subjects you want to avoid
How frequently you plan to post blogs
Types of blog posts (articles versus lists versus videos)
Keyword priorities
Guest blogging opportunities
Include everything needed to plan out your content so you can publish quality material on a timely basis. Nothing disappoints people more than looking forward to favorite blog content, only to have it trail off over time (or end abruptly).
Best Practices for Business Blogging
Here are some things to address when you produce and publish blog content:
Create original, high-quality material. You want your blog to represent your brand well. That requires creating original content that delivers value to readers, listeners, and viewers.
Optimize blog content for search. Doing so will get more eyes on it when Google recommends it, which could lead to more business opportunities. Carefully target keywords throughout your piece, naturally including them when it makes sense. Add descriptive headings that include keywords along with backlinks to increase authority. Use clean and scannable formatting to improve readability and searchability.
Share blog content on social media. Post your latest blogs on social media to increase visibility and attract viewers. Customers may not be in the habit of visiting your blog regularly. Posting on social media reminds them to check things out.
Answer frequently asked questions (FAQs). Create stand-alone blog posts featuring FAQs. If many prospective buyers and customers ask the same questions repeatedly, it’s likely others are, too. They’ll likely want to read the answers on your blog.
Write for your audience. Make your blog content accessible and relatable to them. Use language and a tone they understand, and cover subjects they care about.
Business Blogging: The Final Word
Start enjoying the benefits of blogging for business today so you can experience how it can improve your conversion rate and more. A good, consistent blog can help make your brand more relatable and bring your business to life.
Creating a blog can be challenging, but following the tips in this guide will help make the start-up process more manageable and keep you on track.
