The Value of Business Blogging

A business blog is one of the simplest ways to add value to your business

In today’s world, you could be forgiven for underestimating the value of a business blog. As this modern era seems to emphasise visual platforms such as Instagram and Tik Tok, it is easy to question the validity of investing vital resources in written pieces for your business website. The fact is, however, a well-crafted business blog serves a very different purpose to social media content.

What is a business blog?

Throughout the 1990s, ‘blogs’ came to be known as diary-style pieces of personal writing posted on the internet, often focused on specific subject matter. This form of writing became increasingly popular over the years that followed, with many bloggers finding themselves able to monetise their output and create new careers. The world of politics began to fully embrace the art of blogging in the early 2000s, and the business world quickly followed. Large organisations found the medium useful for internal cohesion and communication, while businesses of all sizes began to add blogs to external commercial webpages.

Business blogging has evolved to be quite different to personal or political blogging. For commercial enterprise, blogging is an additional marketing or publicity tool that can add value to customer experiences and, as a result, to your bottom line.

1. Showcasing your brand – A business blog allows you to showcase your company voice and style, forming an integral part of your overall branding mechanism. It can provide a gateway into your commercial space for new customers, introducing them to your products or services in a way that is accessible and immersive.
2. Highlighting your business journey – Regular blog posts that are well-crafted and engaging build audiences, which means that your business blog can help create and maintain brand loyalty through highlighting the journey of your business. Sharing snippets of the story of growth that lies behind your organisation can lead to a greater sense of connection for your customers, who become invested in your success.
3. Marketing of products or services – When your business launches a new product or service, your blog is a great place to introduce it to the world. The format allows for a higher level of detail to be given, including benefits, market insights, and future plans.
4. Boosting your sales funnel – Both your business and your website have sales funnels. These are specific decision-points to which customers can be directed using a variety of SEO and marketing strategies. A well-planned business blog can be an important part of that sales funnel by providing scope for optimised keyword usage and the strategic deployment of internal weblinks. The regular updating of blog content means these techniques can be designed to achieve specific goals as needed, as well as increasing website traffic overall.
5. Enhancing credibility – A business blog can help to establish your company as a thought leader within its industry, building an informative and useful resource for a growing audience. This, combined with consistency in brand voice and style, enhances credibility. Customers will trust your business more quickly and in the longer term, helping to ensure repeat trade and positive word-of mouth.

How is it done?

Your business blog should be available on your company website and it is crucial that new posts are uploaded regularly to build a stable, core audience. Variety of content is also important, along with overall style.

1. Post length – Your blog post length should be tailored to your audience. Who is going to be reading your blog, and for what purpose? If you are planning a comprehensive ‘How To’ guide post aimed at Executives and Managers, a length of between 1500 and 2000 words may be warranted. For most other posts – covering product launches or industry developments, for example – a word count of around 1000 words should be sufficient.
2. Visual presentation – Text on a blog post should be clear and images should be eye-catching but relevant. You should consider the circumstances in which someone may be trying to read your post. They may be skimming through it on their mobile phone screen during their commute, or scrolling past on their PC while eating their lunch. Your post needs to draw their attention and ensure its central points are identifiable and compelling.
3. Content – You should use a variety of stand-alone posts and short series, all focused on useful information.
   • Stand-alone posts can cover industry-wide, company-level, or product developments, and can even be tied in with national or international current events or dates. This enables the blog to harness popular search terms to increase website traffic. For example, a private security company could publish a blog post focused on event security to tie in with the opening of the World Cup.
   • Short blog series are a good opportunity to take a deeper dive into more complex issues or subject matter in a way that is both useful to readers and relevant to the business. For example, a debt management company could publish a 6-part series of connected blog posts examining the causes and consequences of personal or corporate debt, and the solutions available.
   • Seasonal blog posts can allow your business to occasionally take a step back and look at the bigger picture – examining current trends and making predictions and estimations about the coming season. For example, a flooring company could publish a seasonal post about the current most popular carpet colour trends, framed against movements in the interior design market.
4. Post sharing – You should identify the most appropriate social media platforms on which to share your business blog. The platforms you choose may reflect the way in which your customer base engages with your website most often. For example, if your company has a Facebook page with a large number of followers, you may find that this audience is more likely to share your blog onwardly, boosting website traffic. Alternatively, if your products or services are better served by business-to-business marketing, then platforms such as LinkedIn may be more productive.

Blogging with SMWS

Sarah Myles Writing Services can ghostwrite your business blog. Getting to know your business, its voice, and its goals, Sarah Myles can work with you to plan the way your blog will develop, either in the short or long term. To find out more, contact sjmyles79@gmail.com.