The Power of Blogging in 2023

Blogging isn't just affordable and flexible in different formats; numbers show that small businesses benefit a lot when they focus on straightforward blogs, unlike those that ignore them in their online marketing plans.  

So, why should you include blogging in your online marketing strategy? Apart from the fact that nearly 4 billion people are connected to the internet worldwide and waiting to hear from you; there are plenty of other reasons why you should be blogging. 

 

Every small business wants more visitors to their website and if they know your name, know your location or the nature of your business, they can type it straight into Google. But what about the rest of your potential audience who don’t know you, yet? Yes, you could spend money on pay-per-click (PPC) ads or run email campaigns; or you could focus on blogging.  

 

Combined with optimising your website to rank on search engines, you could be reaching thousands of new potential customers. When you publish a blog on your website that includes relevant keywords and a call-to-action (CTA), you are creating an indexed page on your website. That’s another page of valuable content that search engines will use to rank your business against search terms, thereby driving traffic to your website. 

The beauty of a blog is that just because it’s been published on your website, it doesn’t mean it can’t be used elsewhere; it can. Blogs can be repurposed for your social media channels, significantly enhancing not only your social media content but also reaching a wider audience and increasing brand awareness. It can be tough creating brand new content all the time so why not repurpose blogs – they are your digital library of useful content. 

 

Small businesses need leads but don’t have the resources to hire sales teams. Blogging is one of the best digital marketing tools to generate new leads organically. Every blog you publish, on your website and social media platforms, presents a new opportunity to generate leads but only if you include a CTA, which could be anything from downloading a free ebook or signing up for a webinar, to linking to a fact sheet or infographic.  

 

Your CTA should lead the visitor to a page on your website that encourages them to view your products or services, or to a form to complete to receive an ebook or webinar registration, or a free offer by email or a link. 

The latest Google search engine algorithm uses backlinks (inbound links) in the criteria they consider for ranking search engine results. Whilst many marketing experts, and small business owners, think link building is a crucial factor when it comes to search engine optimisation (SEO), 41% of SEO experts believe it is one of the most challenging areas of optimisation. Using relevant links in your blogs, i.e. linking back to authoritative websites, demonstrates to search engines, like Google, that your business is an expert in your field and can be trusted. This improves your domain authority and helps visibility online. 

 

One of the primary reasons why a small business should blog, and the most significant benefit, is for search engine optimisation. SEO is the top activity that any business owner or marketer must prioritise in their online marketing strategy. It makes your business discoverable in organic search engine results when consumers, business or otherwise, search for a specific product, service or term. The search engine platform, such as Google, analyses your SEO metadata to see how much of your online content matches the search term, as well as its relevancy, and ranks your business accordingly. Blogging regularly constantly updates your online content, without having to change your actual website page content, and increases your social media activity; all of which boosts your search engine optimisation. 

 

Can a blog really do all three? Absolutely! By regularly blogging and sharing those posts on social media, you're letting your audience know that you're well-informed, reliable, trustworthy, genuine, and a reliable source of valuable information. By blogging, you are building user content that is useful and adding value to their lives. As we said at the beginning, blogging is no longer purely selling a product or service, it is telling a story, such as a case study or news update, providing great tips to solve a reader’s pain point and being helpful in a friendly, personal way. 

Where once blogging was seen as ‘old hat’ – tired and dated – in today’s online digital marketing age, and where budgets have had their wings seriously clipped, blogging has seen a new lease of life and become a vital part of any small business’s content marketing tools and must be included in your online marketing strategy. The more informative, creative, useful and personalised your ‘story’ is, the more it will resonate with your audience, not only setting you apart from your competitors but also driving traffic to your website. 

 

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