I was browsing the interwebs today to do some research, and came across a local real estate website that caught my attention.
It wasn’t the bad design or even the non-existent SEO, although those definitely come close. What caught my attention is that the website had no blog on it.
C’mon, it’s 2012. All businesses should be online with a website and blog.
I realize that, for some, a blog can be a lot of work. Some people aren’t very good at writing, they’re not sure where to start or they’re just too busy running their company.
Understandable.
But if you’re a business that has a website, but no blog, wouldn’t you agree that overcoming these kinds of obstacles would be worth your time if your blog could produce some kind of positive return?
5 Reasons Why Your Business Website Needs a Regularly Updated Blog
A blog doesn’t have to soak up all of your time. You can update it in 30 minutes or less a couple times per week and still be effective, especially in the local business arena. If you don’t write well, or truly don’t have the time, there are tons of freelancers out there that can knock out a few posts per week for less than $75.
I mean, after looking at all of these benefits, there’s just no reason not to have a blog on your business’ website.
#1. Increase Traffic to Your Website
A blog gives you the opportunity to increase the traffic to your website — even the pages that generate leads or sales for you.
See, each page is like another doorway to your website that people can enter through via search engines, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and all kinds of other places. The more blog posts that you have, the more “doors” to your site that are out there.
This isn’t to suggest that you just create tons of blog posts with no real rhyme or reason. Your blog posts still need to be inline with what your company offers, and provide some real value to your customers. But the more (high quality posts) that you write, the more potential business you’ll send your way.
#2. Generate More Leads and/or Sales
This goes hand in hand with #1. It’s a numbers game. The more people that are coming to your site, the more people you can get into your sales funnel. Obviously, not every single person will turn into a paying customer. But many of them will, and if you can get them onto your newsletter (another must have) then you can market your services down the line and convert them later. Remember, it takes 7-12 impressions before anyone will actually buy from you.
And even the people that you don’t convert to leads or sales can still tell their friends and family about you.
#3. Increase Your Social Presence
In addition to traffic to your site and newsletter, you can also funnel users to social media platforms.
For one thing, this gives you the opportunity to get on a personal level with your (potential) customers. Hear their problems, listen to their success stories and just connect. You’ll build rapport by coming across as a real person that treats their customers as real people and not just numbers.
Having your customers connect with you on other platforms in addition to your site and offline place of business also diversifies your traffic sources, instead of just relying on Google or Bing for new visitors.
#4. A Blog Can Position You as an Expert
When someone visits your website and sees the product or service you’re offering, what’s one of the questions they’re going to ask?
Why should I buy from this person?
Use your blog to show them why. Write a blog post about the most common problem your market faces, and then give them an actionable tip on how to fix it. Provide them with tips on how to shop for service providers or products in your particular market (and then explain why/how your company fits that).
Using that real estate site as an example, they could provide tips on how to move, the most common mistakes that new home buyers make, 10 things that home buyers need to have inspected before buying, etc. All of these things show that this company would know what they’re talking about, and if the information is good, that they are worth listening to further on a business to customer relationship.
#5. Promote Your Services & Products
Because we’re clearly not running a charity here, right?!? The point of our website is to help us to make sales. Your blog can help with this too.
But you don’t want to wait until you launch your new service or product to let everyone know about it. Instead, start weeks, even months ahead, posting hints or inside looks. You don’t need (or shouldn’t) hype it up, but you can create awareness and excitement before your product is all ready to go. In turn, you should see a better response when you do finally launch it.
In addition to new services and products, use your blog to promote current services you offer and any deals that you might be running.
Does a Blog Seem Worth Your Time and Resources Now?
The bottom line is that a blog can be leveraged to provide you with new customers, leads and sales. Whether you decide to update the blog yourself, or have an employee or freelancer handle it, one thing is for certain; if done right, what you stand to gain from having a blog will far outweigh the time and effort it takes to start a business blog and keep it going.
I do blog — I have three blogs — but my main focus has to be on bringing in revenue. It’s hard for some people to shift gears and regularly devote time to a non-revenue activity.
The kinds of posts you recommend are pretty generic and would lend themselves well to outsourcing on the site like Fiverr.com. For $5, you can commission a 500 word article on moving tips or sprucing up your home. Add a few personal touches of your own, and voila, you’ve got blog content.
Understandable, and everyone’s business will be different. So for some people they may no choice but to outsource.
The posts I mentioned were just off the top of my head, and certainly no unique by any means. In fact, using a real estate website as an example, it would be much better to blog about things about that area specifically — what the schools are like, upcoming events or entertainment, what types of things people can do in the area, jobs, etc. Anything someone might want to know about moving there, in addition to generic house buying tips/ideas.
I’m not 100% sure I’d go to Fiverr personally for my content, though. Not to say you can’t find good content there, but I think there would have to be some weeding out in order to find a good one. And I wonder how much time someone could devote to that when they didn’t have any time to write their own blog posts to begin with?
Blogging is a useful tool to bridge the gap between customers but with limited time, I’m not sure how to include blogging in the business segment and I don’t like the feeling of having someone to write my content.. So maybe when I have time I’ll blog. Thanks for sharing.