How Just One Blog a Month Can Transform Your Business Marketing

As you know, having a mobile-friendly website is basically a requirement to running a successful business. Since the Yellow Pages are dead, your business needs a presence online that customers can visit before calling you or making a purchase.

A few years ago, you might have been going back and forth trying to decide whether your business should have a website or not. Today, the choice has been made for you. Instead, the question on most small business owners’ minds is, “Should I have a blog?”

What It Means to Blog

In order for a blog to be useful and effective, it must be regularly updated and offer compelling content. Small business owners go about doing this in various ways. They make lists of blog post ideas that are relevant to their industry or hire a copywriter to create the content for them.

However, the way a business owner decides to populate her blog with content doesn’t matter as much as whether it’s consistent and adds value. If you want to use blogging as a tool in your business marketing, you must commit to uploading a new blog post at least every month. And when you do, you’ll reap the following benefits and transform your business marketing.

Better Search Rankings

When you share a blog on your site, you gain the opportunity to infuse it with keywords that your prospects will use to search. Keywords should play a vital role in choosing your blog topics and reflect what customers actually type into Google. Since blogs become static pages when posted, they offer a perfect opportunity for your business to create a specific page that targets a compelling customer need.

A great way to get better search rankings for your blog is to answer questions or provide information on a niche topic.  For example, say you want to write a blog post for your dog grooming business. The obvious keyword, “dog grooming,” will have way more competition than a more specific keyword phrase.

Since large businesses invest lots of time and money to rank highly for these competitive, high-frequency keywords, you can find opportunity by getting more specific. Perhaps “dog grooming tips at home” would offer you more search traffic. And if your blog provides the best information, it can become the authority on the topic.

Build Authority

As you continue to upload valuable content to your website and share it on the web, your business naturally gains authority in your industry. You become a source of pertinent information. Simply by sharing your insights consistently, you’ve demonstrated that you are knowledgeable and reliable.

Customers will turn to your blog as a resource before making a purchase. Your content can answer their questions and demonstrate your ability to solve their problems. Because the internet offers customers so many options, when a business can’t offer a clear solution, they quickly look elsewhere. Your blog becomes a marketing tool that brings people to your site and keeps them engaged.

Become a Thought Leader in Your Industry

In a marketplace saturated with competing businesses with similar offerings, customers look for what sets us apart. They have questions that need solutions. If your blog can answer their questions, you will win more business than those that cannot.

But what if businesses can look at the marketplace and share original insights into trends or predict where the industry is headed? These thought leaders begin to gain increased authority and respect. As a thought leader, your time becomes more valuable and more customers will seek out your service. Plus, other providers may turn to you for guidance.

Blogging is one of the best ways to become a thought leader. It’s an open forum that gives you the opportunity to publish your valuable insights into the field. When you can influence the way people see the future of your industry or help them identify the trends that are forming, you have launched your business marketing to the next level.

The Bottom Line

While most businesses have accepted the need for a website, some are still asking if they should blog. If you are at this crossroads, know that the value of a blog comes with consistency and valuable content. “Fluff” will not help you reap the benefits. But with at least one consistent, quality blog post every month, you can start to transform your business marketing with better search traffic and increased industry recognition.