Why You Shouldn’t Neglect Your Blog – Especially Now

Business, in its many wonderful forms, is always a balance between challenges and the feelings of satisfaction that come from providing a great product or service to clients and customers. And in recent times, the ‘challenges’ column has definitely had a few extra items in it!

Some of the ‘business as usual’ things that we used to do have fallen by the wayside over the last few months and years. That’s an entirely understandable thing when additional ‘spot fires’ demand our time and attention.

Your blog is probably somewhere where there are some metaphorical ‘weeds’ growing right now! It might have been some time since anyone gave it any time and attention. But spending some time and effort getting that corner of your website can be worth its weight in gold, and we’re going to go through exactly why.

8 Billion Eyes

There are currently four billion people who use the internet (meaning eight billion eyeballs). Of course, most businesses don’t try and serve ‘the world at large’. In Australia, statistics suggest that just under 90% of people are active internet users as of 2021. 

The country (and increasingly the world) is online. And if you’re not having a conversation with them, you’re probably missing out on potential customers.

Conversations with Prospects

Your website is a little like the sign or billboard on the side of the road that people might ‘drive by’ as they are researching and browsing. But your blog is where you can take it one level deeper and actually have a conversation with a prospect. 

That doesn’t mean that you need to be present on a one-to-one basis. But well-written blog content serves the purpose of establishing this conversational rapport with a prospect that might become a customer or client. 

There are some clear ways to optimise your blog content to ensure that it performs this function well:

• Tailor your content – don’t write generic, one size fits all content that could appear on any website. If you are a home renovation specialist serving the southern suburbs of Brisbane, don’t talk about renovations generally. Include details about the summer humidity and storms, mention the suburbs you’ve worked in recently and include photos and videos of local sights and sounds. Personalisation drives results, and you can make it work for you.
• Speak to existing clients and customers – find out what questions they want answered or what they’ve found valuable from you. Make those topics the focus of your blog topics, and you’ll have a higher chance of connecting with prospects better.
• Update and refine – once you hit ‘publish’ that shouldn’t be the end of that blog. Regularly updated content and additional detail builds your expertise and is simpler than starting from scratch.

The Tangible Benefits of Business Blogging 

So, what are the measurable benefits of a regularly updated, packed full of useful information business blog? A quick summary is below:

• Write once, use twice (or more) – creating blog content has multiple benefits. You can repurpose and re-cut content from your blog for social media. A post with a lot of statistics can be turned into a slide or infographic for social media. Or it can be repurposed for LinkedIn. 
• Conversion – it goes without saying that this is probably the main benefit of any blog. Ultimately, a blog should be a strong pillar of any marketing strategy, and used well, is a magnet for new leads that can convert to new customers.
• Ongoing authority – there’s a saying that ‘it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it’. A reputation is hard to earn and is the sum of many actions. But an ongoing, regular commitment to helping people answer their queries through your blog and putting useful content into the world can help with building that reputation. Of course, your products, services and commitments to your clients will matter a lot too, but consistently blogging can be another tool in your reputation building toolbox.

Ready to Start?

Of course, you may not have the time or writing skills to put together a really high-quality series of blog posts. Or maybe you’re just stuck on ideas for topics, how to start or some other part of the process. Either way, we’re here to help with that. If you have any questions about business blogging or how Kerry Finch Writing can help you build a really strong content and blog presence, please don’t hesitate to get in touch using this form, or emailing me at [email protected].