Even in the digital age, where technology has revolutionized how we communicate and consume information, the power of the written word remains! Indeed, the written word enables precise, clear and deliberate communication of ideas, allows diverse audiences to access and share information across different platforms, and encourages longevity and preservation. The written word also encourages deeper reflection and introspection, evokes powerful emotions and connections, establishes authority and credibility, and is versatile and adaptable for different formats and purposes. 

With that said, you must look into the wide range of benefits of blogging for business! Here, we will explore the impressive ways that blog articles contribute to business growth, how these are more powerful than videos, and how you can maximize their impact on your business. 

10 Standout Benefits of Blogging for Business

When you start a blog for business purposes, you’re taking the first steps toward enjoying these benefits! However, be sure to set realistic expectations as these benefits won’t come quickly and easily – it will take time, persistence and passion – but the rewards are well worth it.

Building Trust and Credibility

Establishing long-term relationships with your target audience, particularly customers starts with building sustainable trust and credibility. Blog articles are crucial since they can demonstrate your industry expertise, provide audiences with valuable insights, and address customer concerns. By offering practical solutions to common issues and addressing common challenges, you’re highlighting your position as a trustworthy and credible source of information. 

Blog articles can also humanize your brand – put a face to it, so to speak – that will result in more personal connections with your target audience. You can share personal experiences, success stories, and behind-the-scenes insights that will strengthen the sense of authenticity and transparency of your business and brand. You will find that emotional branding is among the most powerful forms of branding, particularly in volatile industries like fashion and beauty. 

Regular publication of informative blog articles is also a sign of consistency and reliability that, in turn, strengthens trust and credibility for your brand. With positive comments, feedback and social media shares, your brand’s credibility increases, a phenomenon known as social proof that can also be increased by sharing third-party articles (e.g., case studies, research findings and testimonials). Indeed, the give-and-take relationship is crucial to your business success, mainly because no business is an island!

Increasing Search Engine Visibility

Did you know there are more than 200 million active websites on the Internet today? In such a vast digital landscape, getting your small business blog noticed by your target audience seems impossible! But search engine visibility is crucial for small businesses to reach their target audience – and your small business blog is an excellent place to start. 

Keep in mind that search engines value fresh information and quality content – and the philosophy underlines the digital proverb, “Content is king.” With consistent updates on your blog, you’re increasing the chances of higher search engine results pages (SERPs) for your content. 

There are several effective and efficient ways of optimizing your blog articles for search engines, a process known as search engine optimization (SEO). These include incorporating relevant keywords, using proper headings, and optimizing meta tags that will contribute to your blog articles appearing on the first page of search engine results when Netizens search for relevant topics using keywords and phrases. 

Furthermore, blog articles are excellent for placing internal and external links that can boost your business page’s search engine visibility. With internal links, you can link related blog posts and create interconnected content that search engines can crawl and index. As for external links, your blog articles can be pushed higher in search engine rankings by linking them to reputable websites. 

Driving Traffic to Your Business Website 

Think of your small business blog as the doorway through which your target audience will enter your digital store, buy your products, or patronize your services! You must then drive traffic to your business blog through informative blog articles because it’s your first foothold into the mind – and pockets – of your target audience. 

But it must also be emphasized that organic traffic is the best way to go because it’s more effective and efficient in increasing your business website’s overall traffic. Again, search engine optimization techniques are a must in this regard, but ensuring that your blog articles can be shared across a wide range of channels is crucial. 

Think of social media platforms, industry forums, and email newsletters – but not spam – that can be achieved by including sharing buttons on your blog articles. The more organic shares from your readers, the more traffic are directed to your website. 

Generating Leads and Conversions

The most successful business blogs for entrepreneurs create leads and result in conversions, meaning customers buy the products and patronize the services regularly (i.e., repeat sales). Blog articles achieve these sales-related goals by addressing the pain points, understanding the needs, and satisfying the target audience’s interests. Again, emotional branding and connections are at work here! 

But it can be a real challenge to generate leads and conversions, so strategic use of blog articles must be done. Here are a few effective strategies for this purpose. 

• Offer your target audience access to additional content, such as e-books, guides and exclusive resources, in exchange for their contact information. You can generate and capture leads while building your email list in this manner. 
• Include call-to-action buttons on your blog articles that will lead readers to your product/service pages, lead capture forms, and landing pages. Persuasive language is a must! 
• Use lead magnets and pop-ups, such as cheat sheets, webinars and checklists, on your blog articles where they can provide their contact information. 
• Incorporate social sharing buttons that will expand the reach of your blog articles and, thus, attract new leads.  
• Use analytic tools and conversion tracking techniques, such as page views, click-through rates, and time on page, in identifying the topics and articles that generated the highest number of leads and conversions. Then, tap into these specific topics to generate more leads and conversions!
• Build a sales funnel that will transform leads into conversions, and these can include free trials, discounts and other promos.  

If you want to expand your reach and create more leads, you should also consider writing guest posts on other blogs and websites. You may also consider collaborations with industry influencers. Include an author section with an active link to your business’s landing page in both cases. 

Engaging with Your Audience

When you start a blog for business purposes, you want to engage with your target audience – no audience, no sense and value in your blog! Audience engagement is crucial in establishing strong connections with your customers and encouraging customer loyalty through active participation in your content. 

Be sure to create content that resonates on a personal level with your readers. This way, they are more likely to read the entirety of your blog articles as well as comment and share them. You must also respond to their comments, encourage discussions, and create a sense of community among your readers. In turn, you’re not just strengthening customer loyalty but also attracting new prospects – and with new prospects comes the opportunity to build new relationships (i.e., leads and conversions). 

Building sustainable audience engagement is a challenge, too, but it’s possible by creating blog articles with relevant, informative, and even thought-provoking content. You can ask questions, seek feedback and criticisms, and invite readers to share their experiences with your blog articles, which will encourage more engagement.

Showcasing Products and Services

There are several ways blog articles are useful in highlighting your products and services and, thus, encouraging customers to buy and patronize them consistently. These also encourage your customers to spread the word and encourage their family and friends to do the same (i.e., word-of-mouth advertising). 

Blog articles are useful for creating informative descriptions of products and services, usually in greater detail. You can highlight their useful features and unique selling points that will meet your customers’ needs or solve their specific issues. You can also demonstrate how your products or services can be used, particularly by providing real-life examples, success stories, and case studies. 

By providing detailed descriptions of your products and services, you can highlight their advantages and provide potential customers with first-hand information to make informed decisions. You can also address their concerns about your products/services and provide answers to frequently asked questions, which can increase customer confidence. 

Blog articles are also great platforms for highlighting product comparisons and reviews of your products and services. Your customers will better understand 

Be sure to use blog articles to announce new features and other updates to your products and services, such as promotions and discounts. Your current customers will be informed about these new improvements, while your potential customers will likely be interested. Your regular updates will also demonstrate the proactive nature of your business – and in a fast-changing digital environment, being proactive is a virtue. 

But it’s also important to create relevant, reliable, informative blog articles instead of overly promotional! With Netizens being a smart bunch, they can sense overkill, and it doesn’t bode well for your business.

Encouraging Social Media Sharing

The use of social media among Americans has risen from just 5% in 2005 to 72% today, meaning around seven in 10 Americans use social media for communication and connection, as well as for information and entertainment. With such widespread use, small businesses must leverage the power of social media to expand their reach! This can be achieved by encouraging social media sharing that, in turn, will amplify your message across a wider audience. 

Again, the key here is blog articles with engaging content that will persuade readers to share them on their social media networks! The exponential benefits of entertaining, informative and thought-provoking content cannot be overemphasized. Blog articles that are shared repeatedly also build brand awareness, which can result in increased brand recognition and recall. 

If your blog articles are compelling – think well-crafted – you may have a viral sensation on your hands, too! By evoking strong interest, even strong emotions, among audiences, your blog articles can quickly gain traction, boost your blog’s visibility, and increase traffic to your business website. 

By sharing your blog articles, your readers can also generate their content around your blog articles. The user-generated content becomes part of your social proof that acts as part of your word-of-mouth advertising – and in the digital world where going viral is valuable, it’s arguably the best type of advertising. Social validation also builds your brand’s trustworthiness and credibility, boosting conversions. 

Aside from creating quality content, your blog articles should be visually appealing and instantly shareable (i.e., use social media sharing buttons and widgets). You must also monitor social media metrics to evaluate your blog articles’ quality and make adjustments as necessary. 

Increasing Brand Awareness

Essentially pertaining to the level of familiarity, particularly recognition and recall, of brand and business, brand awareness anchors on how well your products and services are known and remembered. It has to do with the associations made with specific values and attributes. For example, your brand and its products/services are associated with usefulness in everyday life (i.e., household goods) or glitz and glamor (e.g., made-to-order gowns). 

Such is the importance of brand awareness that it’s influential in shaping consumer perceptions and purchasing decisions! Brand awareness is also crucial in establishing a sense of trust, credibility and familiarity with your business and its brand, which can stimulate customer loyalty and advocacy. 

Blog articles can increase your business’ brand awareness by highlighting your products and services unique selling propositions and differentiating your brand from its competitors. You can position your brand as a unique choice that will give your target audience the best value through informative content! 

But it’s important to publish blog articles that align with your brand’s voice and values. You want to create positive recognition and recall within the industry and among your target audience through consistent tone, style and messaging. Your target audience becomes more likely to connect with your brand in this manner.

Establishing Thought Leadership

Thought leadership is the positioning of individuals, groups and organizations – or in the case of businesses, their brands – as authoritative, informative and influential voices within their industries. Becoming a thought leader means being recognized for your expertise and knowledge, innovative ideas, and unique viewpoints – that is why business blogs for entrepreneurs are strongly recommended! 

Your business blog lets you share your expertise and insights, give your opinions about industry trends, and inspire others. You can also challenge orthodox ideas, drive discussions in new directions, and propose novel solutions for complex issues. 

Why the need for establishing thought leadership in your industry even if you’re a fledgling small business? You’re building trust and credibility among your target audience – and we know that these values are the foundation upon which your small business can succeed in your niche. Better yet, these values are vital in scaling your business.

Creating Cost-effectiveness and Long-term Value

The beauty of blog articles is their long-term value and cost-effectiveness because their content continues to create value and deliver effective results after publication! Think of them as evergreen assets that attract organic traffic, encourage sharing, and establish a community with well-crafted and updated content for months or even years. 

Unlike paid advertising, blog articles don’t require continuing monetary investments to maintain visibility. Blog articles that have been well-crafted and well-optimized will likely continue driving traffic and promoting conversations without added monetary investments. 

With more quality blog articles in your business blog, you’re creating a library of content that can be shared across several channels. You can also repurpose blog articles for specific channels, leverage snippets from them for short social media posts, and use them in email newsletters, which will expand your business reach without additional costs. Your ability to provide tailored content from existing blog articles will boost the results of your targeted marketing plan. 

As you will agree, the benefits of blogging for business are interrelated – if you can achieve one benefit, many others are likely to follow. 

Reasons Why Blog Articles Can Be Better Than Vlogs

Both blog articles and vlogs are powerful forms of content that should be included in your business blog. But there are several reasons for the higher effectiveness of blogs versus vlogs in certain situations. 

Netizens can more easily access and consume blog articles while allowing them to engage with your content at their own pace. This isn’t always possible with vlogs since the content requires time and attention to watch, not to mention a stable Internet connection. 

Blogs are more search-friendly, provided that effective SEO techniques are used, which can increase organic traffic to your business website. Vlogs are also search-friendly but aren’t as easily discoverable, not to mention that well-optimized vlogs require more time, effort and money to create. 

The scannability and skimmability of blog articles make it fast, easy and convenient for readers to get the specific information they need – readers can quickly skim through the content, scan its subheadings, and read the sections that answer their questions. Vlogs, in contrast, aren’t so easy to scan – either the viewers watch the entire video or manually skip parts of the video, meaning more time will be consumed going back and forth. 

Blog articles cater to individuals who prefer reading written text over watching videos. As previously mentioned, the written word had longevity because it lends itself well to preservation – and that’s why traditional and digital media like newspapers, magazines, and brochures are still popular. 

Blogs are also more flexible because their content can be quickly updated, revised and even changed with new information, usually with little to no disruptions and additional cost. In contrast, updating vlogs demands more time and resources for editing and re-recording.  

Due to Google translation, blog articles can be translated into different languages from their original language. Your blog can then be read to a wider audience with no added cost. Vlogs aren’t as easily translatable since these require dubbing and subtitling, which translates to more time and resources needed. 

The accessibility of blog articles also extends to deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals who rely on assistive technologies like screen readers for content consumption. Without transcripts and closed captions, vlogs exclude this market. 

This doesn’t mean, however, that blog articles should be used over vlogs all the time! Instead, you can maximize their power by combining your blog articles’ written text and videos. You can then provide more inclusive content and user experiences than ever before. 

Here are a few tips on incorporating videos into your blog articles to promote your business and its products/services. 

• Select videos relevant to the specific topic discussed in each blog article so that it amplifies your overall message. 
• Embed the videos in your blog articles instead of providing external links to videos. 
• Determine the best placement of videos within blog articles, such as at the start to grab the readers’ attention or as part of a step-by-step tutorial. 
• Provide context for the videos, such as a brief introduction, which will stimulate engagement among readers. 
• Optimize the videos’ load times (i.e., quick loading combined with high quality) as well as its SEO features (e.g., title, tags and description) 
• Place clear calls-to-action in the videos 
• Ensure that both videos and blog articles are mobile-friendly 

Of course, monitoring and testing the performance of your blog articles with their embedded videos are a must to ensure optimized content.

Maximize Your Blogs for Business Purposes

The abovementioned benefits of blogging for business don’t just fall from the sky, either! You must adopt effective blogging strategies that will maximize your blogging articles. 

• Setting clear goals is the first step in writing a successful blog for business purposes since it’s crucial in creating focused and targeted content. While not every blog article must have a specific goal, you must remember that the main goals of blog articles are engaging with your audience, increasing website traffic, and generating and converting leads.
• Understanding your target audience lets you craft effective blogs, too! You must perform market research to understand your target audience and their interests, preferences and pain points. You will then have information useful in your content creation process resulting in blog articles that resonate more with your target audience.
• Writing a successful blog for business means providing your target audience with informative, engaging and relevant content, such as solutions, practical advice, and insights. Avoid putting AI-generated content on your blogs, much less rehashed and rewritten content with little relevance to your business. Hire professionals, if necessary, but check their work against your parameters and business goals.
• Optimizing content for search engines is just as important! And it starts with performing keyword research, using proper headings, and optimizing meta tags, as previously mentioned. White hat techniques are strongly recommended over black hat techniques, too.
• Promoting your blog articles across multiple channels, from social media sites to industry forums, email newsletters, and guest blogging, effectively reaches a wider audience. 

Of course, it’s crucial to continuously improve your blog articles and evolve with your target audience’s changing needs and wants in mind!! You should experiment with novel techniques and tools, listen to customer feedback, and keep up with the trends in your industry are recommended steps.

What Next?

As your small business navigates the ever-changing and competitive digital landscape, your ability to use blog articles as part of your strategic marketing plan will influence your business success! You must invest time, energy and effort into creating focused and targeted content, optimizing them for search engines, and providing long-term value for your business. Depending on your skill level and available resources, you may undertake these activities independently or hire professionals to do the job. 

But regardless of whether you choose the DIY or the professional path, you must take ultimate responsibility for the success or failure of your business blog. But don’t worry if your first steps at a business blog aren’t as successful as you hoped – the beauty of a business blog is that you can always start over and do better moving forward.