How Blogging Helps in Marketingby Gary Messinger

Many business owners don’t realize this but a blog can actually do so much for one’s marketing plan. A business blog has all the right tools to accomplish business marketing goals including building of brand, driving traffic to main website, attracting more potential customers, spreading the word about products and services, and many more. Here are some specific ways on how blogging can help in marketing.

SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the strategic use of keywords within a body of content to achieve higher rankings in the search engine. A high ranking is very important because as you know, most users only check out the first page of the search results. Customers don’t even bother to see what’s on the second or third page. If your business is on the 100th page, it’s practically invisible. Business marketers turn to SEO to drive more potential customers to the company’s main website. Getting links to the main website improves SEO and ranking in the search engines. And an effective way to do that is to have a blog where you can post SEO articles with links back to the main website.

Lead generation

A blog can be an excellent source of high-quality leads. The technique is to post relevant, updated and highly useful content on your blog pertaining to products and services that you sell. Doing this would result into more readers, which in turn would become your potential customers.

Customer education

A common marketing goal is to let people know about the products and services that you sell. But smart business owners don’t stop at that. They seek to educate customers on how to use what they offer in a more efficient manner. By doing so, they ensure that customers get maximum satisfaction from the product or service.

And one excellent way to educate customers is through a blog. For example, if you sell wooden furniture pieces, you can share tips on how to make these items last a long time. Customers will appreciate the handy information that you provide.

Brand building

Another way blogging helps in marketing is through brand building. A blog says a lot about what a business is and what it stands for. Showing people not only your products and services but also your mission, vision and advocacy on a blog will make it easier for you to build a recognizable brand that sticks to the minds (and hearts) of potential customers.

Internal communication

Communication inside a company especially for a big one can be a challenge. A blog can help in this matter. Blogging about the company’s latest events, happenings, offerings, and so on will keep all the employees updated. It’s a cost-effective way of sharing information within the company.

Indeed, blogging can help in marketing in more ways than one. Just see to it that you put up an excellent blog that people would want to read about.