Yes, you absolutely need to blog for business. I know you’re busy with all that work stuff you’re doing, but take a minute and consider what’s bringing people in the door. Your blog brings people looking for your amazing expertise right to your website. Voilà! 

Essentially, your blog is an invaluable part of your marketing plan. And after your newspaper ad hits the recycle bin, your magazine ad gets turned into a collage at your kid’s school, and the rent from the billboard shows you a small return on investment, your blog will still keep churning out leads and bringing them to your website for years to come. 

So take a little time every day, or baby steps: every week, or still crawling: every month, to spend some time on your blog. Why, you ask? Here is a laundry list of reasons why and how might a business use a blog to generate qualified leads.

#1: Online Visibility.

Online Visibility happens when you share your expertise and business know-how on your business blog. For each blog post, you are providing concise informative and educational content for your readers. Those posts are then accessible by people looking for that type of information in search engines, on social media and on other people’s blogs, also called guest blogging.

#2: Your Expertise is Your Best Sales Pitch.

If your blog makes you money, great. However, chances are, you are reading this because you know blogging will help your business bring in new leads. You just need to wrap your head around how and why. So again you ask, why do I need to blog for my business? When it comes down to it, your blog is an outlet to let you speak about your expertise, increasing the chances that someone will type something (besides your URL) into a search, see you on social media or on someone else’s site and click through to your site.

#3: Size Matters.

Yup, despite what your high school boyfriend told you, the size of your website matters. And with each newly published blog post, your website gets bigger and stronger. With each blog, you create one new opportunity for your target audience to find your website via search engines (especially if your blog is SEO optimized).

#4: Engaging Educational Relevant.

Ok, they searched for you, they clicked through to your site and what did they find? Dull boring lifeless blog posts, blech. Bye bye sales lead. The key to inbound marketing is not just getting them to your site, but to provide them professional, polished content that wants to make them call, email, buy or business with you. Engage your visitors and give them a reason to keep coming back.

#5: Call to Action.

Number four brings up a good point. The blogs are educated, well-researched, interesting, now what? What do you want that hot lead to do? Click here, call now, fill out this form, go here, do this. Don’t be abrasive or forceful, but do guide your lead with a strong call to action.

#6: Check the numbers.

Your Google Analytics will tell you who’s coming to your site from where, and if you’ve got it set up, you can even measure goals of how many people clicked, purchased or performed a set action with each blog.

#7: Stop Micro-Managing.

Blogging makes you think about the big picture. You’ve got great insight and value for your industry and you want to share it with those that are looking for you. You also want your clients to know about your business’ personality. These are all shared as individual posts but collectively you need to take a look at the big picture of your blog and realize that this is what your clients see. Think big. Think about your target market. Blog about that.

#8: The Gift That Keeps On Giving.

Print, radio, television, and even billboards are paid space for a limited amount of time. Your business blog stays up, keeps driving traffic, and besides your hosting fees, you aren’t paying for that space! Take advantage of your blog and let it do the talking. If these aren’t great reasons for starting a business blog, I don’t know what are.

Content is king, and at Idea Marketing Group, we can help you stand out online and attract organic leads through customized content and SEO strategy services. Contact us today!