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Blogging for Business 101

Most people have heard of- and are probably regular readers of- various types of blogs.  From entertainment to personal to industry-specific, there’s a blog out there for everyone.  But why is blogging so important for a business?  Why should companies worry about devoting time to creating content for a blog of their own?  And to that point, how should they go about doing so?

Let’s take a look at some of the best practices for creating a successful blog:

• The best business bloggers focus on adding value to their readers.  Think about the buyer personas  you’re trying to target and address their pain points.  Writing with empathy resonates with your readers; when they know you can solve a problem they may have, they’ll come back for more.  Don’t be afraid to add your personality to your posts, too.  Remember, people like people, so include personal elements in your content.
• Read content outside your own industry.   Checking out content sources like YouTube, magazines, websites, white papers, etc.  help add to your treasure chest of content in both quality and variety.  Find inspiration outside industry publications to help with your own storytelling.  That said, don’t worry about always creating long, meaty blog posts.  Short and sweet works fine too, especially when your time is better spent on something else.  Give yourself a break, or better yet, split up the blogging duties among coworkers to avoid blogging burnout.
• Start writing! And be ready to take, and embrace, criticism.  Don’t be scared to start writing.  Even if you don’t think you’re the best writer, practice makes perfect.  The more you blog, the easier it gets, I promise.  Also make sure to read and respond to comments.  If a reader tells you your post is missing information, or maybe the advice you gave didn’t quite work out for them, learn from this.  You can create future posts by addressing some of the comments.

Now that you know how to get started, what are some of the benefits of blogging for your business? To name a few:

1)      Blogging helps drive traffic to your website.  Including your blog as a page on your website is important, because blogging shows your website is active.  Every time you write a blog post, it’s a page indexed on your website.  This presents another opportunity to be found in search engine results.  Blogging also helps you get discovered via social media, because content can be shared across social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.  It keeps your social media presence going by serving as a repository of content.

2)      Blogging establishes authority.  Creating valuable content for your buyer personas proves you are an authority figure on the topic at hand.  If you can help clear confusion on a subject for your target customer, they’ll keep coming back for future posts and will start to value your credibility in the industry.

3)      Blogging helps convert traffic into leads. Each post is a lead-generating opportunity because you can add a call-to-action (CTA) on every post.  CTAs can be an offer like a free ebook, white paper, assessment, trial, etc.  The visitor clicks the CTA, fills out a submission form to receive said free offer, and thus a new lead is created.

Now that you know how to start blogging and what your business blog can do for you, start writing and get ready to utilize your blog as the great lead-nurturing tool it can be!

Happy Blogging!