Before the days of online shopping, making a connection with customers was easy. Proprietors and customers met face-to-face and had all of their interactions through conversations on the phone or in person. Engaging them and establishing a long-term relationship was more straightforward.
Developing customer connections is more crucial now than ever. Now that many business owners may have many or all interactions with customers online, it takes more than online chat or emails to create a relationship. Customers tend to gravitate to businesses that provide valuable information that helps them feel informed and make better decisions. Blogs are an excellent way to provide a valuable service to your customers while establishing your business as an expert in your industry.
The Importance of Business Blogs
Blogs play an increasingly crucial role in marketing. Business blog content gives your company visibility. It lets you reach consumers who otherwise may not be familiar with you. Think of blogs as another marketing channel to add to your strategy.
So, how exactly can a business blog further your marketing goals?
Helps You Show Up in Searches
As any business with an online presence is aware, an SEO strategy is essential for helping to promote your brand by having it appear higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). Optimizing your blogs for SEO can help drive organic traffic to your site and foot traffic to your storefront, as the search engine algorithms recognize each blog post as an indexed page. It is also a cost-effective marketing channel that can complement your other efforts.
Establishes Your Expertise and Credibility
Customers want to be informed. Most perform research before deciding on a product or service provider. You provide value and establish your expertise and credibility by informing customers of industry trends, what to expect, how to use a product, or when you need service. Trustworthiness leads to long-term customer relationships.
Develops Customer Relations with Lead Generation
Customers, justifiably, have a right to limit who gets to contact them. No one wants to receive spam with irrelevant or unsolicited emails. Blogs are an excellent way to gain prospect contact information by encouraging email sign-ups. When you provide interesting, entertaining, or money-saving material, your potential customers will freely provide their information and welcome your contact.
Customers will provide email addresses to have access to valuable information, while blogs can help generate leads through SERPs. Remember we talked earlier about how Google recognizes blog posts as indexed pages? The more indexed pages Google recognizes, the more leads it generates.
Gives You Content to Share on Social Media
Your blogs can do double duty. Not only can you make them available on your website, but you can share them on social media. It is also a time and cost-saving move, as you don't have to create separate content for each social media account. Sharing your blog posts on social media helps you further your reach, strengthen your social following, drive more traffic to your website, and connect more with your target customers.
Provides Resources to Use in Sales
When your brand presents itself as a leading authority, it facilitates sales. Blogs not only help establish you as an industry expert but can help give more information to prospects, help with follow-up for subsequent contact, and make lasting connections. In short, blogs can help with the sales funnel.
Blogs expedite the sales process. Consider your customer journey: you are searching for a product or service, and the company that instantly comes to mind is the one that provides the newsletter you opted in to receive or blog posts you see on social media. You already perceive them as knowledgeable, trustworthy, and approachable, and they may even have provided discounts to their loyal followers. The brand already has an advantage over the others you will likely research.
Business Blogs Are an Important Tool for Growing Your Business
Blogging is a cost-efficient and highly effective method of expanding your reach, reinforcing brand recognition, and establishing your credibility as an industry expert. They inform customers, help websites appear more prominently in searches, and give you tools to use during the sales process. Even more importantly, they establish connections with your customers.
For those trying to expand their business, having a robust marketing strategy that encompasses multiple channels is critical. Most leaders want to see a healthy return on investment for their marketing spend, which requires employing a blend of cost-effective techniques with the more expensive paid ads. Blogs offer a unique value in that they can be reused on multiple channels and provide many advantages, making them an ideal addition to any marketing strategy. Consider working with an established digital media partner to utilize their guidance on creating the ideal marketing strategy for your goals.
Written by Karlie Mandigo
Karlie Mandigo is a Senior Digital Marketing consultant for Federated Digital Solutions. She has been leading the consulting team since 2017 and has developed a particular skillset that focuses on the automotive industry. Her passion for her career comes from the ability to cultivate trusting relationships with clients. She enjoys putting all the puzzle pieces together to create a strategy that will help achieve and exceed her client’s goals year over year. Karlie puts the work in with her clients and it shows as she knows and believes that true commitment starts AFTER the sale.
