Five Reasons You Should Blog in 2019

Sara Bussandri, Digital Content Writer

Is blogging still relevant? It’s 2019, and online marketing trends seem to be all over video. So is writing blog posts for your business website still a good use of your time? Maybe you like writing. Or maybe you don’t. Perhaps you fall into the camp of people who either completely hate it or think they’re no good at it. So why should you even bother? It’s a fair question to ask. And one that a lot of business owners do indeed ask. So here they are – five reasons why you should blog in 2019.

1. You want to be found online

If you want to get to a point where prospective customers and clients you’ve never heard of before find your website online and buy from you without even getting in touch, you need to publish regular content on your business blog. And like it or not, if you’re not blogging with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) in mind, you may indeed be better off investing in other marketing activities.

Right now, publishing regular, good-quality, in-depth written content on your website is one of the best ways to help your prospective customers and clients find you online. This means being intentional and strategic about your blogging. Include keywords that your ideal customers and clients are likely to type into Google, and you’re giving yourself a huge chance to be found by people who’ve never come across you before.

If just the term SEO makes you want to run the other way, just know it doesn’t need to be complicated. Get help, find out what you need to do, and give yourself a chance to be found online. But if you take away one thing from this post, let it be this – if you don’t blog regularly, you won’t have enough content that you optimise for the keywords that are relevant to your business. Not if some of your competitors blog (and optimise their content) regularly. So if you want in on the chance to be found online, you need to blog.

2. You want raise your authority and credibility in your industry

Having a business blog where you share valuable content on a regular basis helps to give your business authority and credibility. In marketing terms, having a blog gives you a huge opportunity to get your message out there and position your business. You can use your blog to answer some of these questions:

• What do you stand for?
• What can people expect when working with you?
• Are you an expert in your field or niche? (This is your chance to show off your experience and knowledge!)

Imagine a prospective customer or client landing on a competitor’s website and finding a couple of pages that describe, at a high level, what their business is all about. But when they come to you, your website has loads of blog posts that give them detailed information about your processes, answer their burning questions about working with you, or simply help them find out more about the benefits of the solution you offer. Who do you think that prospective clients would be more likely to spend their money with?

Use your blog to stand out – share your expertise and show your prospective clients that you’re a safe pair of hands.

3. You want to build relationships with your audience

Posting regular content on your blog can help you build relationships and make strong connections with your audience. How?

• Share content that matters to your audience – write about topics they can relate to.
• Answer their questions.
• Tune into their problems and their struggles.
• And don’t forget to acknowledge and address their needs and desires.

When you write with your ideal clients in mind (and not yourself!), you’ll be able to create content that ‘speaks to them’. Content that strikes a chord and that will prompt people in your audience to send you personal messages on social media or even email you – thanking you for sharing your knowledge or expertise. For giving them value, or transforming their perspective on something. Or simply, for solving a problem or easing a struggle.

And this is where the magic happens. It’s how you build rapport. Sure, you can always do this on social media, to an extent. But your website is your online home – bring people to you, show them you can relate to the situation they’re in right now, and start building strong relationships from there.

4.  You want to save yourself time

Do you find yourself answering the same questions again and again? Maybe prospective clients ask questions about working with you all the time. Or about the best ways to use your products. Look through your email enquiries and make a note of the things that come up time and time again during your sales calls, your sessions, or your classes, for example.

If you’re ever in doubt as to whether having a blog can add value to your business, this is it. Take the time to write blog posts around your most-frequently-asked questions, and you’ll save yourself hours in your day-to-day activities. Do the work once. Be smart about it. Once you’ve created and published this content, you can direct people to your website. Instead of repeating yourself and talking about the same topics in every discovery call, for example, you can send any prospective clients to your website, so you can use your time together in a more productive and efficient way.

Plus, this gives you extra brownie points on the credibility scale – it shows you’re experienced and organised. You’ve planned ahead – you knew these questions were coming, and you were ready for them. The simple fact you have blog posts of this type in your library oozes professionalism!

5. You want to make more sales

At the end of the day, you’re in business to make money. And what you really want to know is this: will blogging make you money? Do it right, and yes, it will. When you’re crystal clear on who your ideal clients are and focus on creating content that reflects their needs and the way that your products or services solve problems for them, you’ll stand out as an authority over your competitors. Over time, through your blog, you’ll be able to develop that know, like, and trust factor that’s important to convert website visitors and fans into paying customers and clients. You’ll become the obvious choice and add money to the bottom line. Trust me when I say that you’ll have clients saying things like “I bought your product because I read your blog post about x”.

It really does happen.

And wouldn’t you like it if it happened to you?

Because this is what blogging can do for you in 2019 and beyond.

This post was contributed by Sara Bussandri, Digital Content Writer and member of the Chiswick group.