Blogging is a very important pursuit these days. From a practical perspective it ensures that your business is noticed online, especially by the search engines. This ensures higher ranking, increased visibility, and better saturation for your business and its products and services.

Creatively blogging performs another service for your business as the tone of voice and the type of content that you write further cements and sells your brand and its ethos. A business can use a blog for a number of reasons.

It can:

• Promote upcoming activities
• Share news regarding the business, products, and services
• Aid a business in reaching new audiences
• Develop sales
• Provide better service

The idea behind a blog is to write relevant posts that are relatable to your business and its services. The potential return can be huge, as if a blog post is marketed correctly via social media networks that post can be shared by audience members themselves further promoting your business.

In terms of marketing and promotion, a blog is valuable as it can be updated speedily and easily by the business itself. It provides a great opportunity for a business to engage with its audience and readers and start new online conversations surrounding its blog posts.

However managing a blog requires time and effort. When it comes to making money from a blog there’s potential for advertising space; however, the real value is the increased exposure for your business.

The benefits of blogging

Blogging provides a business with a number of benefits and advantages. It can greatly galvanise online promotion of a brand and it can benefit marketing efforts no end. A blog should be considered an extra tool that can be integrated within marketing efforts and shared on social platforms.

A blog provides a business with scope for reaching new customers and it can foster and develop a strong sense of community from its audience. Blogging is a valuable exchange of information and can cover subjects and writing forms from solutions, through reviews, to general opinions and articles. Remember though that whatever you post should be relatable and relevant to your business and its brand philosophy.

Reaching new customers and increasing your audience is a pursuit that every business should undertake. Blogging can be a key part of making that pursuit a success and it can increase the potential for reaching new customers. It also allows a business an opportunity to promote its brand identity through the type of articles being written.

Consider your tone of voice and what it says about you. When it comes to making money from a blog you’re really aiming to direct customers to your business website. You want to promote yourself and an ethos surrounding you and your business and its brands.

Use social channels

The way that social media networks function ensures that there is great scope for customers to share your content with a huge and untapped audience. A single customer can share a blog post with their entire list of friends and family.

There’s the other return in terms of higher search engine rankings. The better that your business website ranks the better potential ROI that you can experience. The constant updates on a blog and the speed that it can be refreshed ensures that you’re business remains fresh and relevant.

Blogging takes time and effort

Remember though that blogging takes time and increasing your Google ranking is something that doesn’t happen overnight. Instead it requires a consistent and relevant approach.

For businesses wanting to explore this pursuit further there’s a great article on Moz by Cyrus Shepard. He details a consistent approach and one that will have marked returns when it comes to building links, blogging and increasing your ranking in Google’s search results.

To summarise, the above article Shepard suggests that the first step in a successful blogging career is to write high quality in-depth articles. In an online environment where everyone can be a blogger it not only pays but also is absolutely necessary to stand out.

Then focus on improving user satisfaction as it will aid conversions and keep visitors coming back. Develop your content and ensure that it’s of a high quality, then make sure that your website is aesthetic and easy to navigate. Both of those tips will greatly aid your blogging endeavours.

Your brand, your blog

Blogs and the reader comments that they receive are a key source of information for online denizens. It’s an immediate form of feedback and customer comments can provide other potential customers with great and actionable information.

Use your blogging platform (and social networking channels) to reach and interact with your customers. Respond in a considered manner and you’ll increase your chances of developing a loyal customer base.

For your blogging efforts to be successful ensure that they’re integrated within your other marketing efforts. Focus on good social media strategies, develop high quality and relevant content, and update that content regularly to promote your business and its brands online.

Kerry Butters

THE word in professional, persuasive, digital writing. Specialists in writing, tweeting and social sharing for businesses across the globe.