Small Business Blogging: 6 Reasons It Works and Tips for Execution

What is blogging?

There are many ways to describe blogging but, in general, it’s the sharing of insight and information on a consistent basis through your own designated online portal, according to James Parsons, founder and CEO of Content Powered.

“Blogging can be done in many different ways and can serve a number of purposes, but blogging is the sharing of information that can be helpful to others,” Parsons told us. “Businesses do it as a way to show their expertise and win over potential customers and people become bloggers as a way to share their own insight and cement their place in the industry.”

Blogs typically are hosted on a company’s official business website. The best website builders and design services often have built-in tools for blogging on your site.

What are the benefits of blogging for small businesses?

Blogging has many benefits for businesses. The results highlighted below demonstrate the reasons blogging works.

1. Higher SEO rankings

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the method often used to get your company’s website to rank well in search results when potential customers search for the product or service you offer. To rank highly, your site needs recent, relevant blog posts featuring popular keywords and search terms.

Traffic to your blog — and other pages on your website — is indexed by search engines. Think of blog posts as seeds you throw out for hungry birds via search results. The more appetizing seeds you throw, the more birds will come. Every post you publish is another handful of seeds for birds to find.

The more birds that come, the more birds there are to share what you’ve written. The more often others share your content and links back to your blog, the more chances there are for your site to rank for keyword searches your ideal customers conduct. In other words, blogging has a chain reaction that ultimately leads to higher SEO rankings that, in turn, can improve your revenue by bringing more people to your business.

The whole point of having a business is to add customers to your clientele and increase profits. A study from Orbit Media shows that the majority of bloggers find that blogging drives effective results.

“If you correctly evaluate your market, analyze specific keywords and implement them in your blog content, then you should be able to eventually rank high for the keywords that benefit you the most,” Parsons said.

2. Company humanization

A huge part of business success depends on growing customer relationships. People want to know who you are, how you operate your business, what your values are and what your business adds to the industry.

It’s difficult to explain all of that on a website landing page, but a blog allows you the space and provides an opportunity to develop a personality for your brand to help, entertain and inspire others and to put relationships before sales. A blog familiarizes people with your business and humanizes your organization and people trust companies they get to know well. Additionally, a blog can shine a spotlight on your customers.

“While blogging is vital for businesses to share their story, it’s also an excellent community-building tool, turning your readers into internet neighbors,” said Maria Shriver, TV journalist, New York Times bestselling author and co-founder of MOSH. “As people relate with people, it’s essential to include blog posts that are not only for your audience but about them too.”

Shriver recommended using case studies as a way to detail genuine, real-world customer challenges and to show how your product solves them. “You can then paint a complete picture of the scenario for your audience by including images or videos of customers using your products, quotes from them describing how they use [it] and the benefits they receive.” 

Then, add some clever captions that tie the story elements together. “Spotlighting your loyal fans encourages them to share your post with their friends and family,” Shriver said. “It’s a customer-centric content strategy that will expand your audience and grow your business.”

3. Easier cross-promotion

When you have a blog with great content, you can promote it all over social media with compelling and intriguing teasers, images and catchy headlines. Think of your blog as the hub and your social media channels as the outposts. Find out where your target audience hangs out online and use those platforms to build followings and relationships. Post intriguing snippets with links back to specific blog posts.

Every click on your blog is important for improving SEO and building brand awareness. When you add share buttons to blog posts and those buttons are placed correctly, you increase the opportunity for readers to share your posts with their communities, thus creating more brand promotion and opportunities for SEO indexing. That’s why it’s important to use your social media accounts every day to share the content on your blog — it’s an easy way to advertise your business and gain social currency.

4. Built-in email newsletter content

If you’re not working on building your email list, you should be. A blog post is a perfect place to ask for that conversion. At the bottom of each post, urge readers to subscribe to your email list and have all of your posts delivered to them automatically. [Related article: How to Get People to Subscribe to Your Blog]

If you’ve written a popular post, you may also want to send it out to your email list as part of your company’s email newsletter. In such a newsletter, it’s important to give just enough information to keep readers engaged but not so much that they have no reason to visit your blog to read more. The idea of a newsletter is to engage the reader and encourage them to click through links in the email content to take them to your blog.

5. Better conversion rates

You want visitors to your blog to do several things: sign up for your newsletter, share what you’ve written, like you enough to link to other pages on your site and, most crucially, make a purchase. The more you blog, the more chances you have for conversion.

“Every blog post provides an opportunity to convert readers into leads with a [call to action] that inspires them to take action now,” said Daniel Tejada, co-founder and chief learning officer of Straight Up Growth.

He continued, “Including a call to action at the bottom of your posts encourages site visitors to sign up, exchanging their contact information for a free offer, such as a downloadable e-book or trial. These allow consumers to understand the benefits of your products better so they can feel confident in their purchasing decisions.”

You can then add these prospects to your customer database so you can market directly to them via email and across social channels. “Once these leads are in your database,” Tejada said, “you can tailor the calls to action they see in the future.”

6. Improved authority

Blogging can help establish your expertise in your field. Posting valuable content consistently helps people identify your business as a useful resource, resulting in repeat viewership. This can send signals to search engines like Google that your site is a quality source. This is particularly beneficial for small businesses. Establishing yourself as a market authority can place you higher than competitors in search engine results, leading even more potential customers to your site.

Blogging is a cost-effective traffic driver. By producing valuable content that remains relevant, you’ll convert more customers and generate higher revenue. Plus, repeated demonstration of your expertise and authority will fuel customer trust, making them more likely to make a purchase.

Tips for running a successful blog

Now that you know why your business needs a blog, the benefits of blogging and why it works, it’s time to learn some best practices. Follow these tips for running a successful blog:

• Use a high-quality blogging platform and pay attention to SEO: Add a plugin for SEO guidance, such as Yoast for WordPress. When you complete a post, it will give you an SEO score and provide suggestions for improving your post’s optimization.
• Get a free keyword search tool: For example, you can use Google Trends to see the most popular search terms related to your audience and then write content focused on those keywords.
• Create engaging content: Publish posts that tell stories about you, your team, your company and your customers. Add photos, videos and other media to engage visitors.

• Highlight community contributions: If your company supports a charity or local initiatives, capture events with photos and write about them.
• Encourage interaction: Ask people to engage with your blog through comments and questions. Respond to each one to keep those personal connections going.
• Include a call to action: Include a specific ask at the end of each post. For example, request that readers subscribe to your emails or share the post with their communities.
• Add share buttons for social media platforms: Choose two to three you know are popular with your target market.
• Communicate frequently: Send emails promoting your blog regularly and write compelling subject lines so recipients will open the emails. 
• Try A/B testing: Test different email newsletter subjects to see what tone and voice your audience engages with more. [Learn how to use email marketing to grow your business.]
• Make it fun: Use your blog and email newsletter for more than just product promotion. In addition to writing about relevant topics, share fun stuff, such as polls, surveys and quizzes related to your industry.
• Keep a regular schedule: Establish a calendar for posting and stick to it. Readers will come to expect new blog posts on a regular basis. If you neglect your blog, they will stop coming to your site and you’ll lose chances to move them into your sales funnel.

Blogging allows you to spread your brand, either directly or indirectly. If visitors like what they read, they’ll share your content and help you demonstrate expertise in your niche and establish trustful relationships. Best of all, apart from any costs associated with hosting your website, a blog is free content marketing that levels the playing field a bit between large and small companies.

There is much to get used to when setting up a blog, including improving SEO, finding the right topics to discuss and measuring traffic and promoting your posts. Take it slowly as you don’t have to master everything before you start your blog. Get it up and running and then learn more along the way while you reap the many benefits of blogging.

Skye Schooley and Rick Riddle contributed to this article. Source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.