Small Business Tips: Why Should a Business Blog?

Maybe you don’t have a blog yet, and you’re  feeling left out.  It seems to be generally accepted as fact that a business should have a blog. But really, why should a business blog?

Honestly, it depends on the industry. Is your business one that routinely needs to provide technical know-how to your customers? Or, is this something your customers are asking about or could use and you don’t yet provide?

Or, maybe your customer base values ideas, conversation, and insights. This brings us to reason number one.

Why Should a Business Blog? Community.

A blog is a very easy way to create a sense of community between your customers and your business. Static web sites grow stale quickly and as a result, feel cold and transactional. Certain industries are better for creating community than others, of course. A blog geared toward expectant mothers will grow a meaningful – and larger – community faster than one focused on exploring the thread diameter and pitch of different nuts and bolts.

However, a manufacturer of nuts and bolts would have good reason to build such a blog – what a dry topic to manage! But, that would also suggest that a blog on the topic could do wonders to humanize the brand and its business. In the end, a blog can help humanize a business and its brand more effectively than even social media.

Why Should a Business Blog? Belonging.

In our nuts and bolts blog example, the customer base would be more effectively engaged by having this resource – and its accompanying network of readers – available to it. Community naturally results. This also means that the customer can have a sense of belonging with the business and its brand. This has obvious advantages in terms of top of mind awareness.

But, there’s another aspect of belonging at play here: That’s the connection between the business and its product or industry. Having a blog and being identified as an authority on a topic or in an industry is critical to most businesses now.

Let’s say you have an ice cream shop in Normalville. You might want to be identified as an authority on ice cream – or, you may want to be an authority on events in Normalville. Both options have their advantages in bringing you new ice cream lovers.

Why Should a Business Blog? Fresh Content and SEO.

As mentioned earlier, a static web site grows stale and can feel cold and too transactional. Now, the search engines are feeling the same way too. Fresh content – exemplified by routine addition of useful, meaningful content – is now playing a role in search engine rankings. In fact, it can help boost sites that wouldn’t otherwise rank well for certain search phrases or keywords.

So, if the softer reasons of building community and belonging among your customers aren’t enough, the potential for new web traffic – or the fear of negatively effecting your site’s rank – might be all it takes to get that blog started. What’s your first topic?

Is your business looking at getting a blog up and running? Do you need help? We’re here – reach out. Meanwhile, what do you think – why should a business blog? Or, not?