Are you an international spy? 

Does your life / job / safety depend on people NOT knowing what you do? 

If you answered NO to those questions, then my friend, your business website definitely needs a blog.

I don’t care what business you have, you absolutely need to have a blog – and update it often! There’s been some talk recently that blogging is dead in 2021, and that social media is where it’s at, but honestly, I don’t buy it.

Yes, maybe the days of making bank with a personal blog are gone, but honestly – if you have a business, you NEED a blog (or long-form content on your website, whatever you call it).

In this blog (see, I take my own advice), I’m gonna give you my top three reasons why you need a blog for your business plus tips on how to get started!

Blogs – An Essential Component of Your Marketing Strategy

I admit, as a busy business owner, the last thing you want is yet another thing on your to-do list. And yes, writing a blog can feel like a massive undertaking compared to writing a caption for Instagram or Facebook (but I swear, less time-consuming than making Reels ugh).

But it is (or should be) a critical part of every small biz marketing strategy!

While social media is great and we all love Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and the 24 other social media platforms we’re trying to juggle, when it comes to clout and impact you can make with the same piece of content – blogging wins.

Check out these stats. The time taken for a post on each social media platform to gather 50% of its total engagement is…

Twitter: 20 mins
Facebook: 5 hrs
Instagram: 20 hrs
LinkedIn: 24 hrs
YouTube: 20 days
Pinterest: 4 mos
Blog post: 2 yrs

TWO WHOLE FREAKING YEARS for a blog post!! Post something today and people will still be discovering it in 2023!! Tell me you haven’t gone to search for something on Google and the first hit is an article from 2018. Hmm? 

Compare this to Instagram, where your hard work is gone by tomorrow, and Facebook where it’s gone before you’ve even digested your lunch.

Still need more convincing that your business really needs a blog? Keep reading!

1. Blogs Help Your Website Show Up in Search Results

Imagine this. Your kitchen sink sprouts a leak, and you urgently need a plumber. What’s the first thing you do? Whip out your phone, open Google, and type in ‘plumber near me’. And you pick a plumber from the first page of search results and give them a call to fix your problem.

There could be a plumber three doors down from you, but you wouldn’t know that because they don’t have a significant online presence. Instead, you contacted the plumber located 30min away because they’re who showed up online.

It’s the same in your business. You could be offering the best dang yoga classes, or massage therapy, or spinal adjustments within a 500km radius, but if you don’t have an online presence, NOBODY’S GONNA KNOW.

Having a blog that you regularly publish useful and valuable content on helps your website show up in search results. When you consistently publish new information on your website, search engines make a note of it, and “understand” your area of expertise – that’s what Search Engine Optimization is all about. Then, when someone is looking for what you offer, the search engines automatically know to show your website to them, because it is likely that you have the solution to their problem.

TL;DR: Blogs help people find what you’re offering!

2. Blogs Drive Traffic to Your Website

Having a blog that you update regularly helps drive traffic to your website. But how does this work?

Most business owners have a pretty basic website, with a home page, an about page, a page of their services, and a contact form. How many words do you think are there on these four pages? 1,000 words? 2,000 words? Point is, it’s not that many.

Do you think that these few words are enough to accurately capture ALL the services you provide and the benefits your clients reap from working with you?

I’d guess not.

That’s where blogs come in handy. Put out 10 blog posts of 500 words each, and that’s an additional 5,000 words that search engines have to tap into to figure out what your website is about, and who it’s relevant to. And when that happens, your website shows up more often in search results.

From there, it’s simple math to see the benefit of blogging for your business. The more often your website shows up in search results, the more likely people are to visit your website. The more people visit your website (this is what we call traffic), the more likely one of them is to buy what you offer!

TL;DR: More blogs  = More traffic = More clients!

3. Blogs Allow You to Build Trust with Potential Clients

If you’re not a complete psychopath, chances are you like to get to know people before you work with them. So what do you do? Maybe you stalk them a little on social media, or you sign up for their email newsletter. You listen to their podcast and check out their videos on YouTube. Then when it feels like you really know them, and you like them a lot (dang, why aren’t we friends IRL?), and you trust them – that’s when you jump in are say “take my money!”

Right?
Right!

A blog is another avenue for you to build that know-like-trust factor with your audience and potential clients. Blogs showcase your personality (can you almost hear my voice in the words I write?) and help people get to know you. It gives people a sense of comfort and assurance that you’re not a complete whackjob, and that you’re someone who knows what they’re talking about.

And because people almost always buy from brands they know, like, and trust, blogs are a great way to create that with your audience!

TL;DR: Blogs give people a chance to get to know you, and people buy from people they know!

Bonus: Blogs Exist on a Platform You Control

If you own your own website, you own the platform your blog exists on. Unlike Facebook and Instagram, which you have no control over – they could ban you for weeks or months or forever, or just stop working for hours or forever without a moment’s notice (I’m sure we all freaked out about that recently) – your blog lives on your platform and nobody else has a say in what you post or when you post it! Your hard work is yours, forever!

And besides, your blog is free – so there’s really no reason for you not to be taking advantage of this amazing marketing tool to grow your audience, capture new leads, and land new clients!

So. My final verdict is that blogs are great and you should definitely have one for your business!

Tips for Getting Started with Blogging

Now that I’ve convinced you to blog more regularly for your business, you may be wondering how to get started. Easy – take a leaf out of Nike’s playbook and JUST DO IT.

Think of a topic (answering a question you often get asked by clients is a good place to start!) and just start writing. Don’t worry about keywords or SEO or meta descriptions or any of those other things yet.

Pick a topic, write 500 words, click publish and you’re done.
Repeat next week (or next month).
And the week (or month) after that.
And…

Don’t get in the way of your own success. Just start doing it, and you’ll get better at it, and it WILL become easier. I promise.

I’ll have more tips for you on how to write blog posts, what to write about, and more in the next posts, but for now, this is it.

Go write a blog post, and then drop your link in the comments. I’d love to read it.

Still feeling stuck and need help getting started with blogging? Book a complimentary consultation call and we can chat about how to get you started creating content regularly for your business!

P.S. Since you’re here, won’t you do me a favor and sign up for my email newsletter? Drop your email below to get regular-ish updates and my eternal love!