Blogging is one of the most clever ways of marketing your product or services. While you will find arguments galore on why blogs are dead, I will tell you one reason why a blog can never die – that website belongs to you and only you can stop it from existing.

I have a content-related business and this is my business’ website that you are reading this post on. And this post was written purely to market my business, in case you haven’t guessed that yet? How? I will explain that at the end of the post.

Seriously? Blogging?

Remember how the yellow pages used to be for businesses till a few years ago? Gen Z readers, the yellow pages were like the telephone directory of all businesses that were owned by all telephone owners. Now, we have websites and social media presence.

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Today, a business blog does the same job differently. My business might have a website but how do prospective clients find that website? This is where content and SEO come into play. Imagine I am looking for humidifiers for my home. I will run a google search for the best models, and after the sponsored posts, what I will see are the top ranking posts. SEO helps the post rank on top, but just that much is not enough. Your prospective client needs to be wowed by some expert-level content once they click the link.

Yeah, right. I see you reading, though I also see you unconvinced. You have buyers. You post on social media every single day and you get enough queries and sales. That’s good. But tell me, for how long do you want to labour over establishing your brand over social media every single day, and how great exactly is the return of the investment that you are putting in laboriously?

Business blogging, today, is an elite niche and an important part of brand building. I understand that there still exist many small and medium businesses that are hesitant towards accepting the benefits of business blogging. The fact remains that there exist people out there who understand marketing via blogging and can miracles for your business through your business blog. An investment towards this would be one of the best marketing expenditures you make.

In this post, let me share five ways by which blogging can benefit your business –

Grow Online Traffic

Gone are the days when people headed over to stores and depended on the sales person to explain the products to them before they made their purchase. Now, online shopping has increased manifolds, specially in the last two years. More Internet businesses have sprung up than ever before and what is fantastic is that most of them are working out.

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How? Firstly, buyer behaviour has changed. Secondly, the Internet has given the buyers great power – of doing thorough research before making a decision. So today, even people who are averse to online shopping, do spend some time researching the products they intend to buy.

Content consumption has changed. Reading articles, watching reels, sharing memes – are all part of the content industry and what our consumers consume before they make their purchases. In such a situation, it is only wise to make content favouring your brand available for them to consume.

If I google about PCOS acne, for instance, and an article talking about natural, sugarfree drinks I can consume to clear my skin will attract my attention and there one what will happen, I don’t even need to explain.

The wonderful thing about blogging for business is that it takes related content and unleashes it on the Internet for like-minded, prospective buyers to  find your business. Footfall on the website increases because over time, readers start identifying with the content shared and start depending on the website for information on that niche.

Brands with blogs are known to have significant benefits compared to brands with no blogs or infrequent posts.

Nurture & Convert Customers

When readers keep stopping by your website to read the blog posts, a lifelong relationship is forming. They are starting to trust what your brand has to say, they enjoy reading your content, and they share that content within their circles.

And trust must be cherished. Trust must never be broken. So the content you share now much be top-notch, topic-specific, and always to the point. By now you would have formed a brand language and your posts will stick to that.

This is where you have the opportunity to nurture and convert customers. Your posts will have CTAs at the end and they will lead to your products. People who have started to trust your brand and the information you share will convert into customers with a slight nudge.

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Reading this might seem like the process is easy, but it won’t be. The content you share will require elaborate planning, strategising, and implementationtion by someone who knows their task well.

Keep Customers Engaged

Why should I buy something from you when at least 10 sellers have the same or similar products at about the same price, sometimes cheaper? Blogging for business helps create loyalty amongst customers because, at the end of the day, nobody has said that effort sucks. The effort your brand puts into its blog will go a  long way in impressing your customers and keeping them engaged.

While it is the job of your product team to ensure that the best quality reaches your customer, it is the job of your content team to let your customer know that. Customers like to know what goes on behind the scene. They enjoy reading about or seeing snippets of the production process, or even how your team relaxes after a hard day. Customers today like to connect with brands and the humans behind the brands, and there is no reason not to give them that.

Get An Edge Over Customers

In a world where competition is cut-throat, and even the most offbeat industries have the same things sold by hundreds of sellers, what will give you the edge is how engaged you keep your customers.

Blogging for business not only establishes you as an industry expert but also creates a place on the Internet for your customers to stop by to consume content. Believe me, when I say this, my conversion rate through my blog is quite high, and who knows, one day you could be one such converted customer!

Increase The Interest In Your Product

It is no secret that every product has variations and multiple sellers out there on the Internet. The more we write about ours, and that it is what buyers should buy – the more interest it will garner from the prospective customers.

Words have the power to change buying preferences and a large chunk of the buyer demography resides on the Internet at any given point of time. While targeted ads have the potential to turn them off, blogging for businesses has an increased potential of catching their interest and converting them into customers.

If you are a small/medium business owner looking to create written word content in the form of a blog, drop me an email at editor@samarpita.in to begin a conversation. I also create website content, social media strategies + content, and content for marketing materials.

If you are looking for an excellent manuscript editor, someone to create content for your business, or an expert to help build your personal or professional brand on social media, then look no further and connect with me at editor@samarpita.in I can be followed on instagram at @samarpita and on twitter at @samarpitadotin.

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Read my ebook WRITE. EDIT. PROMOTE. to learn the basics about becoming an author – from writing your own book, to editing your first draft, and to promoting your book yourself! You can also read my ebook How To Write A Story Effectively and learn some valuable lessons about how a story can go from average to extraordinary. This book is part 1 of the series.

In fiction, I have two short stories for children in an ebook called Bedtime Stories.