Blogging is an often neglected marketing tool for far too many businesses. It may seem unimportant next to promoting your product, connecting with new customers, and building your brand but blogs achieve all of that and more. Here are four solid reasons why starting or maintaining a blog should be the top priority for your business:

Blogs can transform your brand from unknown to industry expert

Writing a blog is the perfect outlet to show off your knowledge of an industry. You can't possibly share all the expertise you've gained over the years on your Home or About page but you can share most of it, over time, on your blog. Your customers probably have questions that only you can answer. Even if the answer is on another blog, your perspective and way of explaining it is unique.

Blogs improve SEO and as a result, website traffic

The more content your website has, the more opportunities there are for search engines to find you and direct traffic to your site. Think about the many questions you've searched online just this week. Imagine all the questions potential customers might be searching that relate to your business. Don't you want to be the site they visit to get the answer?

Use a blog to provide a needed service to your customers and watch your website traffic steadily increase with every post.

The trick is to update your blog content consistently. Once a week is a good, realistic goal for most businesses especially if they hire a blogger or content strategist to ghost write and/or edit the posts.

Blogs are the perfect marketing tool

It's important for your business to have a strong social media presence but that requires engagement with your followers. Sometimes it's hard to figure out what to tweet about or post on Facebook. Your newest blog post is the perfect social media update. It links back to your site, is relevant, promotes your brand, shows you're actively involved with the industry, and positions you as an expert in the field.

A blog helps define your company's voice and reveal your unique perspective. It allows you to share this over time in a way that organically builds brand awareness and customer loyalty.

Blogs give you insight into your audience

Do you know your target audience? Blogs provide insight into what type of customer is engaging with your site through comments and what type of posts get the most click-throughs and social media engagement. Your blog might reveal some surprising insights into your actual target audience that will lead you to make smarter business decisions.

So don't put off your business blog any longer. Adding valuable content to your website will only bring positive results.

How does blogging factor into your business plan? Let me know in the comments or shoot me a private message if you need help with blog strategy and writing.

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