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Our business is blog marketing, which is big business. It is utilized by numerous brands to promote themselves and expand their online presence, but exactly what are they doing? We’ll talk about what blog marketing is, how it works, and the advantages and disadvantages of business blogging today…
Contents
What Is Blog Marketing?
Blog marketing is all about using a blog to reach your target audience, and hopefully direct attention to your business. In order to attract more customers, business owners who use blogs to promote their brands will post a variety of content, including written posts, images, videos, and even audio recordings. Most of the time, these posts are meant to educate the readers about a certain aspect of an industry or reveal some ‘behind the scenes’ information about the business, all while subtly promoting the products and services being offered. Some business owners even use their blogs as a source of feedback, asking their customers to leave their opinions and suggestions in the comments!
Nowadays, most business blogs are linked to the online store of the brand, but some people choose to host their blogs on a different website. A business blog will always include backlinks to products and services and options to sign up for a newsletter or create an account to stay up to date, regardless of where you find it.
How Does It Work?
Blog marketing works by showing potential customers that a brand is run by real people who care about their customers’ opinions and are trying to connect with those who support them. A brand appears more trustworthy when it posts educational and helpful content on a business blog. Instead of just pushing a promotion at customers, the brand is trying to help them understand the industry and answer their questions. It also shows that the people running the business actually have experience in their industry and are willing to pass on their knowledge to others.
Likewise, posting more personal content like “Meet The Owners!” makes the brand seem more trustworthy as it shows a more genuine and laidback side to the brand. Businesses that are transparent about who they are and what they stand for get a lot of support, so a business blog is a great place to talk about those things without looking too unprofessional.
Pros Of Business Blogging
There are a lot of benefits to business blogging and blog marketing, but here are just a few of them:
1. It is extremely affordable
One of the main pros of using a blog to promote your business is how inexpensive this sort of marketing is. You’ll only really be paying for the domain name and web hosting, which costs very little compared to other marketing options like posting ads. The blog itself can be run by almost anyone who knows how to write, and if done correctly, getting your blog to the top of search results doesn’t cost anything. This makes having a business blog an amazing option for small businesses that may not have a huge marketing budget just yet.
2. It’s easy to do
Blog marketing is also quite easy to master, especially with the various blogging platforms that are widely available to use these days – you can create a professional looking blog and get it published in a matter of minutes. If you’re more of a “do it yourself” kind of person, there are also a lot of guides and courses online that can teach you everything there is to know about blog marketing strategies. You can also hire professionals who are skilled and experienced to do the work for you!
3. You’ll boost traffic to your website
Hosting your blog on the same server as your main business website can help increase traffic significantly. Consistently publishing new content will give people a reason to keep returning to your site, and chances are they’ll stop by to check out your products or services while they’re at it. Also, increased traffic and regularly returning readers will alert search engine algorithms that your site is worth boosting, and you’ll end up near the top of search results in no time!
4. It opens up more revenue opportunities
Once your blog gains some exposure, you may suddenly find other brands contacting you to sponsor a post, send you affiliate products and links, or to purchase an advertising spot on your site. In addition to providing you with an additional source of income, all of these will demonstrate to your customers that other brands have sufficient faith in you to collaborate with them. You can even get your products advertised on another blog in exchange for a sponsored post, which will increase the chances of you gaining more customers as you’ll be exposed to a wider audience.
5. Customers will become more entwined in your life
As we’ve mentioned before, people like supporting brands that they trust, and running a business blog gives you the perfect opportunity to develop a closer relationship with your customers. Because it encourages customers to interact with the people running the business, a business blog is much more intimate than a newsletter or paid advertisement. Using a relatively laidback yet still professional writing tone will show your customers that you’re an approachable person, and not just a money-hungry brand looking to make as much profit as possible.
6. It’s a modern solution
Millions of people use the Internet on a regular basis or have some kind of online presence. As a result, they are much more likely to see and be interested in a brand that promotes itself online rather than through traditional television and poster advertisements. With a business blog, you can demonstrate your overall competency as a brand by demonstrating that you have at least a basic understanding of the online world. You will not only be advertising your goods or services, but you will also be demonstrating that you can adapt to changing times.
A successful business blog can really help solidify your position as an authority figure in your brand’s industry. Having a blog full of up-to-date, relevant, and well-researched information about your industry and topics surrounding it will demonstrate your competency to both potential customers and existing competitors. If done right, your blog will have the chance to become the main source of information about similar products and services, and the industry you’re a part of.
Cons Of Business Blogging
While business blogging is an effective marketing strategy overall, you should be aware of a few drawbacks before beginning. Here are the most significant ones:
1. It can take a long time
Even though starting and maintaining a business blog are relatively easy, consistently producing high-quality content for your blog can take a lot of time. This is especially true if you’re working on your own, as you’ll find yourself having to divide your time between blogging, stock management, answering questions, and many other responsibilities.
Depending on exactly what you post, it can take up multiple hours of your day, and you won’t always be seeing the benefits either. Even though promoting your business is the main goal, it can be very discouraging to put in five extra hours of work each day for no apparent gain.
2. An oversaturated market will kill your blog
Again, a lot will depend on your brand and what you write on your blog, but the business blogging market is already overcrowded in many industries. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to stand out from the competition when using blog marketing as a lot of the best techniques are already common knowledge and are severely overused.
If your blog begins to lack quality, you may find that this oversaturated market will soon result in decreased site traffic, decreased sales, and even a negative online reputation, despite the effort you must put into each post. It is essential to keep in mind that starting a business blog is not a means of “getting rich quick” and that your brand should ideally already have a competitive advantage in the form of better or cheaper products; otherwise, you run the risk of wasting a lot of time and resources on something that might not succeed.
3. Accessibility may hinder your blog
A lack of accessibility for your target audience may cause your business blog to fail completely, just like an oversaturated market. This means that you probably won’t get much traffic to your website if your target audience doesn’t usually have access to the internet or doesn’t use it very often. Suddenly expecting someone who only uses the Internet to check the weather to suddenly become an avid blog reader is quite unrealistic and will definitely not reap any benefits.
That’s why you’ll need to carefully consider whether a business blog is the best marketing strategy for your specific target audience. Chances are, if the demographic is mainly customers over 40 or those who live in more deprived areas, you’ll be wasting your time promoting a business on a platform that your target audience won’t have access to. Instead of networking with potential clients, invest in a different strategy and use your blog to network with other brands. 4. Demand rises with increased exposure. If your blog does succeed, you might find that the sudden demand for more high-quality content and products overwhelms you. If, up until that point, you had been the sole person working on the blog and you suddenly have an audience of 10,000 readers to please, it can be pretty daunting.
