You’ve probably noticed that the vast majority of websites have a blog section. But why should you add a blog to your website? There are many benefits of blogging as a small business owner; no matter what your business is, a blog could help elevate your website to the next level. Perhaps the most important thing about creating a blog is making sure you have great content!

Content is King

Creating content should be your most paramount concern when writing a blog. It doesn’t matter how professional and fancy your blog pages look; if the content you’ve created isn’t strong, a blog probably won’t be too big of a help to your business. Blogs have become an extension of content marketing. This means that you have the opportunity and ability to promote your products, services, and everything else your business offers through different blog posts. The best first step in getting started with your blog is to come up with a content list. Think of some of the most common questions you’re asked by your customers. Try to frame content around those questions. Again, remember to make sure your blog posts are of the best possible quality!

Answer Your Customer’s Questions Before They Asked

Adding a blog to your website gives you the opportunity to interact directly with your customers. You can write individual blog posts that can answer your customer’s questions before they even ask them. When customers are scrolling through your website, land on your company’s blog, and see the huge quantity of in-depth articles, they’ll view you as a more authoritative source. Your blog is your chance to stand out from your competition. You want to show that your business should be the reader’s go-to source for information. The more quality blogs you publish, the more likely this is to happen.

Shareable Content for Social Media

Chances are your business already has some sort of social media profile. Whether it’s a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat, you may sometimes have difficulty figuring out what to post. With a frequently updated blog, you can share each new piece of content as it’s published. Sharing your published blogs on your social media accounts will not only get more eyeballs on your written work, but can also help in making your business the reader’s go-to source. The more social media channels on which you’re promoting your blogs, the more readers you’ll have, and the more readers you have, the higher your chances are of converting readers into leads.

Drive Traffic

One of the main reasons you want to make sure your content is as strong as possible is because blogs are a great way to drive more traffic to your website. If your blog post shows up in a SERP (search engine results page) for a Googled question, someone might read your post and decide to use your company, since you answered their question. An important element of your blog should be the implementation of CTAs (Calls to Action). These are inciting sentences that link to specific pages, usually the site’s contact page. An example of a strong CTA would be “Click here to learn more about how 9Sail can help you create and execute a successful SEO strategy.”

Convert Traffic into Leads

As you get better at writing CTAs and your blog quality increases, you’ll likely start noticing an increase in leads coming in through your website. Leads are potential customers who, in this case, clicked on one of your blog post’s CTAs and filled out the contact form. If your CTAs are actionable, you also have the opportunity to collect the reader’s contact information for future outreach. Maybe they’re not looking for your services right now, but it’s a great opportunity to keep them listed as potential future customers since, again, if they liked your blog posts there’s a higher chance that they will come back to your site in the future. The process of converting traffic to leads and converting leads to customers is the chief goal of your blog. However, this is not practical if you are not regularly publishing high quality posts. At 9Sail, we can help you come up with a comprehensive strategy to set up your blog, including an in-depth content calendar! If you’re interested in learning more, get in contact with the team at 9Sail!