Why have a business blog?

Here at Dakota Digital we often get asked by clients why they should spend precious time and resources either a/ on internal staff training or b/ on a PR or marketing agency to maintain their business blog. For some a blog is a vanity or puff piece, a section of the site that isn’t as important as the pages that convert, right? Wrong!  A business blog is a key element of any online marketing strategy. It’s owned media. Which means you control the message. One of the biggest mistakes we see is businesses using their blog to sell, sell, sell.

If you want to be savvy about your online sales, use your powers for good, not evil. A great business blog should inform, engage and educate. It should entertain and captivate. Here’s why:

1. Think about links

As an internet user, what do you link to? What do you bookmark to read again? Or share on social media? Or send to friends? The answer to those questions is almost never a blatent sales pitch. If you think of your blog as a mere extension of your sales process, you’re ironically going to miss out on a lot of sales.

A blog is your own in-house magazine. It’s your chance to show your readers (your customers and potential customers) you know your stuff. Where you likely won’t generate many links from product pages, you will from good articles. This spreads the digital word. Which brings more traffic to your site. Which can result in sales. If you don’t have a business blog, you miss this opportunity to build links and raise your profile.

2. Establish authority

Your blog should never be a sales pitch (see point 1). But it can be used to establish your authority and credibility. Use this space to share your opinions on key legislation, share current industry trends, set the trends and showcase your expertise in key areas. This establishes you as a thought leader in your field – a business on top of its game and the go-to source for anything in that industry.

3. Engage and Retain

It’s a lot easier to sell to existing customers than it is to win new ones. Cheaper too. A business blog gives you a space to engage with your customers and re-iterate your value to them. Use it to cut the cost of new client acquisition and increase the value of your existing relationships. Again, you can’t do this from a mere product page. You need a blog or other dedicated space on your site to host this conversation.