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Blogs are powerful marketing tools. But, once upon a time, small business owners had good excuses for not starting them—lack of time and energy, or the price of hiring freelance writers.
But with the advent of tools like Durable’s AI blog builder, those excuses are going the way of MySpace.
Now any small business owner can create high quality blog content. Here are seven good reasons to start a blog now.
- Blogs work well on a small and local scale
There are over six million blog posts being published every day.
To stand out on a global scale, you need highly polished, totally unique content, backed up by huge amounts of SEO and market research.
To stand out on a local scale, you don’t.
If your business is location-based and only serves locals—whether you’re doing construction, cleaning houses, detailing cars, landscaping—you’ve already narrowed down your audience. Your business blog about landscaping doesn’t need to appeal to everyone in the world who has a yard. It just needs to be useful to the people in your own community.
For instance, suppose you own a landscaping company specializing in water features. There are literally thousands of blog posts out there about how to prepare an outdoor koi pond for winter.
Good news if you’re a fish. Bad news if you’re competing for readers.
There are far fewer written about how to prepare an outdoor koi pond for winter in Toledo, Ohio.
By explicitly addressing a local audience with your business blogging, you can:
- Attract qualified leads on social media by sharing your posts in local groups
- Improve search rankings for prospects using Google to search for businesses in your area
- Build trust within your local customer community
Keeping it local, you have the edge over international chains and giant corporations.
- Niche businesses have the advantage over big companies
The more niche your business is, the greater the benefits of blogging.
For example, people who want to buy clothing for their dogs have no shortage of international brands and stores to turn to. Those brands and stores have the resources to create and optimize tons of broad-ranging content about clothing a canine companion.
On the other hand, people who train chihuahuas to compete in agility contests have far fewer resources to turn to.
Make your content marketing strategy as nimble as Sophie the chihuahua.
Rather than general questions about pet garments, they have niche questions about chihuahua sizing, high tech athletic fabrics, and custom clothing designs featuring sponsor badges.
If your business caters to that niche, you can use your highly specific knowledge to create a small business blog that turns leads into customers.
- A blog is a must-have for Google rankings
A small business blog with interlinked articles has the potential to drastically improve how your website ranks in Google search results.
The Google algorithm is looking for large clusters of relevant information on particular topics. Not only that, the cluster of information needs to be dynamic, with new pages being added and updated on a regular basis.
A well-maintained, well-managed blog fits the bill, and having one as part of your website could mean the difference between appearing at the top of Google’s search results and appearing buried on page three.
Illustration of where you don’t want your site to rank. Only .63% of users scroll past the first 10 results.
One of the most important factors affecting your blog’s ranking is how frequently you add new content. Websites that post a steady stream of new content tend to rank highest. That’s where tools like our AI blog builder come in handy.
- You can test run new markets and products
Monitoring how your business blog performs can tell you the most pressing questions leads are asking. Your posts can serve as dry runs for new ideas you want to try out.
For instance, if “how to choose the right koi for your pond” is your most-read blog post six months in a row, but “how to add a tiny underwater disco ball to your koi pond” only gets two visitors, then you know where your customers’ priorities are.
In that case, you might nix your idea to order 10,000 tiny disco balls from China, and instead pivot to partnering with a local koi breeder on a referral program.
Do not spend $2,500 on miniature disco balls until you have researched the market.
Using a less silly example, if more visitors to your website read “How to Prepare a Koi Pond for Winter in Toledo, OH” versus “How to Prepare a Koi Pond for Winter in Columbus, OH”, you might decide to focus future marketing efforts on customers based in Toledo.
- Regular blog posts give your social media a boost
In January, your car detailing business announces its “New Year, New Car Smell” sale on Facebook. Six months later, you post about the “Summer Brazilian Wax” package deal. And then silence until December (“The Holiday Up-ho-ho-holstery Extravaganza.”)
A lot of small business owners—especially ones serving local markets—use social media intermittently. And it does them no favors.
If your social media account is half-dead, you’re telling the world business isn’t exactly bustling. Interested prospects may end up choosing a competitor with a more lively online presence.
Maintaining a small business blog and posting regularly helps solve that problem. A new post every week means new social media content every week, and the chance for followers to like, share, or comment.
Not only does it put your articles in front of more readers, it helps to keep you top-of-mind. So, next time someone is looking to get their collector Corvette ready for car show season, it’s your business they think of first.
- It gives you, the business owner, a platform
You know your line of business well. Does everyone else know that? Your business’s blog is a place for you to demonstrate expertise in your industry.
Sometimes it’s easy to take for granted the knowledge you use at work day to day to get the job done. But to those outside your industry, who aren’t professionals—including many potential customers—the tips and not-so-secret trade secrets you’ve collected over the years could be a huge asset.
That applies whether you’re a personal stylist posting your thoughts on formal evening wear, or whether you run a septic tank business and you’re explaining to readers how they can keep their systems running smoothly. Your inside knowledge has the power to attract new customers and prove to them you know what you’re doing.
- Your blog could become a secondary revenue stream
Referral programs like Amazon Affiliates pay you based on how many visitors to your blog follow links to products and then purchase them. But that’s not the only way to make extra money from your business’s blog.
Sponsorship deals, influencer marketing, paid referrals to local businesses—they all offer opportunities to earn extra cash. And who knows? If you build enough of a reputation posting about your area of expertise, other businesses may hire you to write for them.
In all likelihood, the greatest benefit you’ll see from starting a blog is the ability to market your business; your blog is a tool, not an end in itself. But if you’re creative enough, you may be able to earn extra cash at the same time you’re nurturing leads.
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Launch a blog for your business and generate dozens of articles—it takes just minutes. Try out Durable’s AI blog builder for free.
