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10 Important Reasons to Work Seriously On Your Small Business Blog

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

10 Important Reasons to Work Seriously On Your Small Business Blog

How the heck do they do it?

You know who I’m talking about. I’m talking about those successful small business entrepreneurs who get tons of business and engagement online.

Sure, they hustle just as much as you do. They attend the same networking events. But there’s a difference.

They seem to have much more business than you do. They’re closing more deals. They’re generating more leads through their website.

So what’s the difference between you and them?

They’re probably blogging. They’re probably using their small business blog to build an online audience that is engaged with their brand.

If you’re a small business entrepreneur or solopreneur, you have probably heard of content marketing, right? No doubt you’ve heard of the importance of creating valuable content for your website. But maybe you haven’t taken that first step yet.

A small business blog is one of the most-used and effective content marketing tools at your disposal. Simply put, if you’re not blogging, you’re leaving money on the table.

Here’s some stats for you:

  • Marketers that use blogs get 67 percent more leads than those who don’t.
  • 81 percent of U.S. online consumers trust information and advice from blogs.
  • Companies that blog have 97 percent more inbound links.
  • 61 percent of U.S. online consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations from a blog.
  • 60 percent of consumers feel more positive about a company after reading custom content on its site.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you need to consider how you’re connecting with your audience. Since you might not have the huge marketing budget of a mega-corporation, you will have to use other means to build and connect with your audience.

One of the best ways to do this is by blogging. It’s been shown to be highly effective at generating quality leads for your business.

Many business owners overlook the potential rewards that blogging can provide. But you’re a savvy entrepreneur, so you’re not going to make this mistake, are you?

This post is going to give you ten benefits that a small business blog can provide for your business. When you read through this post, you will learn various ways you can use your blog to generate more business, earn more credibility and make it easier for prospects to find you online.

Why You Should Have a Small Business Blog

1. Market Research

Having a blog with many articles allows you to more effectively understand what your audience really wants. From the back end of your site, you can spy on what pages people are viewing the most, and this gives you an idea of where their interest lies. When you know what types of content perform the best, you know what types of content to continue to create.

Also, you can use your blog to request feedback from your audience. If you have an engaged following, it’s very likely that they will be happy to answer the questions you have.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

As you probably know, there’s not much of a point to having a killer website if nobody can find it. One of the biggest keys to getting more traffic is making sure that people will find your site when they use search engines. As a  matter of fact, search engines are the no. 1 driver of traffic to content websites! SEO is something that you can’t ignore if you want to have a viable online presence.

The more relevant content you have on your website, the more likely it will be that you will rank for certain keywords. This is where a small business blog comes in. Consistently publishing high-quality content on your blog will do wonders for your search engine optimization efforts.

When you produce useful content, Google’s algorithms will rank your site higher. Over time, your site will make its way to the front page of search results. Not only that, but when people read high-quality content, they’re more likely to link back to it. Earning quality backlinks from other high-authority blogs will do wonders for your SEO efforts.

3. Customer Engagement

Engagement is immensely important for any online business. It’s not enough to just create great content. You also need to interact with your audience as much as you can. You can’t have any success by just talking at your audience. You need to have ongoing conversations with them. It will help you know your audience better. It will help your audience know you better.

That’s what you want.

If you enable comments on your small business blog, you can discuss topics and get feedback directly. This can tell you a lot about your customer base. Not only that. It shows your audience that you are interested in interacting with them. This will increase loyalty and help you form a deeper connection with your audience.

4. Communicating Your Mission

One of the most important components of effective branding is purpose. Connecting with your audience means embracing a unique brand perspective that can give your audience something they can connect with on an emotional level.

This is where blogging comes in.

Your blog is a place where you can communicate your brand purpose. This is important because establishing a strong brand is an important part of encouraging customer loyalty. When you communicate a brand purpose that goes beyond what you sell, it helps you stand out from your competition.

For example, if you are a business that sells vegan meat substitutes, you can express your brand’s purpose by posting animal welfare material on your site. This shows your audience that your company is focused on something more than just making money.

5. Communicating With Customers

If there’s something going on with your service — for example, there will be a planned outage or lack of availability — you don’t have to keep your clients in the dark. Having a centralized place to post announcements is extremely important because people don’t always read their email.

6. You Can Offer Promotional Material

A small business blog is also a great place to offer occasional promotions. If you already have an engaged audience that consumes your content, they will be able to see what discounts or promotions you are offering. It’s a great way to keep your customer base informed.

Sure, you can spread your coupons around Facebook, but it’s better to get into the habit of compelling your audience to visit you at your own site, especially if it’s an ecommerce site. Keep them coming back for more by posting your promotions on your blog.

Here’s a caveat: you don’t want to overdo this. While blogs can be great for offering promotions, it shouldn’t be used solely for this purpose. Most of your content should focus on offering informational value to your readers. If you only post promotional content, your audience will not continue to visit your blog.

7. Showing Your Human Side

People want to know that there are actual human beings behind the business that they buy from. Post some personal stories and talk to your customers through your blog.

This is an opportunity for you to let your personality shine through. When you’re writing blog posts, don’t smack your reader in the head with a bunch of “corporatespeak.” Nobody wants to read that. No really, they don’t!

It’s much better to write in an informal style that people can relate to. When it comes to blogging, it’s not just about what you say, it’s about how you say it.

8. You Can Become a Source of Value

The key to effective blogging is providing value. Nobody is going to read your content unless they get something out of it, right?

If you want to build influence, you have to be valuable. You can do this by providing helpful information to your readers through your blog.

Arjun Reddy, the founder of Super Baby, builds credibility with his website’s “resources” section by giving actionable tips to his visitors.

“Our visitors are parents who are looking for fun ways to help their children become smarter. The advice we give in our resources section is designed to provide helpful parenting tips for our readers.”

The reason Reddy is enjoying success is because he’s providing value up front. When you do this, you show your potential clients that you are valuable to them. That’s why content marketing works. When you’re creating content, you should be asking yourself what your reader is going to get out of that particular piece of content. Each piece of content should be designed to inform, educate, or entertain. If possible, you should do all three!

9. Networking!

When you have built an audience and gained some notoriety, it can attract other entrepreneurs to you. For an entrepreneur, networking is important, isn’t it?

If you’re able to grow your readership effectively, you will gain more credibility. This will attract other influencers in your niche. You never know who might be paying attention right?

This could lead to other opportunities for your business. You might be able to take advantage of the key relationships that you form through your small business blog.

10. Building Credibility

Having a small business blog gives you a presence in your niche. A blog is a record of quality value and experience that you are bringing to your audience. This will give you instant “street cred” when someone finds your content.

Lissette Palencia, CEO of Sleeping Angels has built a steady stream of clientele by using her blog to provide valuable information to her website’s visitors.

“As you can guess, when you run a nanny agency, your clients are parents who are concerned about the safety of their children. They want to do the research first. When they visit our website, they find tons of valuable information that helps them make the right decision for their family. Not only does it inform them, it makes them more comfortable with doing business us.”

This is essential for your business. Your blog is a tool that you can use to establish credibility in the minds of your potential clients. Prospects will read your content and gain value from it. Then, they will become far more willing to buy from you because you have already given them a significant benefit through your blog.

Conclusion

Here’s the thing. If you’re looking to expand your online presence, you need to be creating high-quality content on a consistent basis. A blog is one of the best ways to do this.

These are just a few reasons to keep a blog if you’re an entrepreneur, but there are much more. Just remember that anything that can bring value to your audience is something that you should consider adding to your business.

Blogging Photo via Shutterstock

[“source-smallbiztrends”]

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Blogging

10 Important Reasons to Work Seriously On Your Small Business Blog

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

10 Important Reasons to Work Seriously On Your Small Business Blog

How the heck do they do it?

You know who I’m talking about. I’m talking about those successful small business entrepreneurs who get tons of business and engagement online.

Sure, they hustle just as much as you do. They attend the same networking events. But there’s a difference.

They seem to have much more business than you do. They’re closing more deals. They’re generating more leads through their website.

So what’s the difference between you and them?

They’re probably blogging. They’re probably using their small business blog to build an online audience that is engaged with their brand.

If you’re a small business entrepreneur or solopreneur, you have probably heard of content marketing, right? No doubt you’ve heard of the importance of creating valuable content for your website. But maybe you haven’t taken that first step yet.

A small business blog is one of the most-used and effective content marketing tools at your disposal. Simply put, if you’re not blogging, you’re leaving money on the table.

Here’s some stats for you:

  • Marketers that use blogs get 67 percent more leads than those who don’t.
  • 81 percent of U.S. online consumers trust information and advice from blogs.
  • Companies that blog have 97 percent more inbound links.
  • 61 percent of U.S. online consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations from a blog.
  • 60 percent of consumers feel more positive about a company after reading custom content on its site.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you need to consider how you’re connecting with your audience. Since you might not have the huge marketing budget of a mega-corporation, you will have to use other means to build and connect with your audience.

One of the best ways to do this is by blogging. It’s been shown to be highly effective at generating quality leads for your business.

Many business owners overlook the potential rewards that blogging can provide. But you’re a savvy entrepreneur, so you’re not going to make this mistake, are you?

This post is going to give you ten benefits that a small business blog can provide for your business. When you read through this post, you will learn various ways you can use your blog to generate more business, earn more credibility and make it easier for prospects to find you online.

Why You Should Have a Small Business Blog

1. Market Research

Having a blog with many articles allows you to more effectively understand what your audience really wants. From the back end of your site, you can spy on what pages people are viewing the most, and this gives you an idea of where their interest lies. When you know what types of content perform the best, you know what types of content to continue to create.

Also, you can use your blog to request feedback from your audience. If you have an engaged following, it’s very likely that they will be happy to answer the questions you have.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

As you probably know, there’s not much of a point to having a killer website if nobody can find it. One of the biggest keys to getting more traffic is making sure that people will find your site when they use search engines. As a  matter of fact, search engines are the no. 1 driver of traffic to content websites! SEO is something that you can’t ignore if you want to have a viable online presence.

The more relevant content you have on your website, the more likely it will be that you will rank for certain keywords. This is where a small business blog comes in. Consistently publishing high-quality content on your blog will do wonders for your search engine optimization efforts.

When you produce useful content, Google’s algorithms will rank your site higher. Over time, your site will make its way to the front page of search results. Not only that, but when people read high-quality content, they’re more likely to link back to it. Earning quality backlinks from other high-authority blogs will do wonders for your SEO efforts.

3. Customer Engagement

Engagement is immensely important for any online business. It’s not enough to just create great content. You also need to interact with your audience as much as you can. You can’t have any success by just talking at your audience. You need to have ongoing conversations with them. It will help you know your audience better. It will help your audience know you better.

That’s what you want.

If you enable comments on your small business blog, you can discuss topics and get feedback directly. This can tell you a lot about your customer base. Not only that. It shows your audience that you are interested in interacting with them. This will increase loyalty and help you form a deeper connection with your audience.

4. Communicating Your Mission

One of the most important components of effective branding is purpose. Connecting with your audience means embracing a unique brand perspective that can give your audience something they can connect with on an emotional level.

This is where blogging comes in.

Your blog is a place where you can communicate your brand purpose. This is important because establishing a strong brand is an important part of encouraging customer loyalty. When you communicate a brand purpose that goes beyond what you sell, it helps you stand out from your competition.

For example, if you are a business that sells vegan meat substitutes, you can express your brand’s purpose by posting animal welfare material on your site. This shows your audience that your company is focused on something more than just making money.

5. Communicating With Customers

If there’s something going on with your service — for example, there will be a planned outage or lack of availability — you don’t have to keep your clients in the dark. Having a centralized place to post announcements is extremely important because people don’t always read their email.

6. You Can Offer Promotional Material

A small business blog is also a great place to offer occasional promotions. If you already have an engaged audience that consumes your content, they will be able to see what discounts or promotions you are offering. It’s a great way to keep your customer base informed.

Sure, you can spread your coupons around Facebook, but it’s better to get into the habit of compelling your audience to visit you at your own site, especially if it’s an ecommerce site. Keep them coming back for more by posting your promotions on your blog.

Here’s a caveat: you don’t want to overdo this. While blogs can be great for offering promotions, it shouldn’t be used solely for this purpose. Most of your content should focus on offering informational value to your readers. If you only post promotional content, your audience will not continue to visit your blog.

7. Showing Your Human Side

People want to know that there are actual human beings behind the business that they buy from. Post some personal stories and talk to your customers through your blog.

This is an opportunity for you to let your personality shine through. When you’re writing blog posts, don’t smack your reader in the head with a bunch of “corporatespeak.” Nobody wants to read that. No really, they don’t!

It’s much better to write in an informal style that people can relate to. When it comes to blogging, it’s not just about what you say, it’s about how you say it.

8. You Can Become a Source of Value

The key to effective blogging is providing value. Nobody is going to read your content unless they get something out of it, right?

If you want to build influence, you have to be valuable. You can do this by providing helpful information to your readers through your blog.

Arjun Reddy, the founder of Super Baby, builds credibility with his website’s “resources” section by giving actionable tips to his visitors.

“Our visitors are parents who are looking for fun ways to help their children become smarter. The advice we give in our resources section is designed to provide helpful parenting tips for our readers.”

The reason Reddy is enjoying success is because he’s providing value up front. When you do this, you show your potential clients that you are valuable to them. That’s why content marketing works. When you’re creating content, you should be asking yourself what your reader is going to get out of that particular piece of content. Each piece of content should be designed to inform, educate, or entertain. If possible, you should do all three!

9. Networking!

When you have built an audience and gained some notoriety, it can attract other entrepreneurs to you. For an entrepreneur, networking is important, isn’t it?

If you’re able to grow your readership effectively, you will gain more credibility. This will attract other influencers in your niche. You never know who might be paying attention right?

This could lead to other opportunities for your business. You might be able to take advantage of the key relationships that you form through your small business blog.

10. Building Credibility

Having a small business blog gives you a presence in your niche. A blog is a record of quality value and experience that you are bringing to your audience. This will give you instant “street cred” when someone finds your content.

Lissette Palencia, CEO of Sleeping Angels has built a steady stream of clientele by using her blog to provide valuable information to her website’s visitors.

“As you can guess, when you run a nanny agency, your clients are parents who are concerned about the safety of their children. They want to do the research first. When they visit our website, they find tons of valuable information that helps them make the right decision for their family. Not only does it inform them, it makes them more comfortable with doing business us.”

This is essential for your business. Your blog is a tool that you can use to establish credibility in the minds of your potential clients. Prospects will read your content and gain value from it. Then, they will become far more willing to buy from you because you have already given them a significant benefit through your blog.

Conclusion

Here’s the thing. If you’re looking to expand your online presence, you need to be creating high-quality content on a consistent basis. A blog is one of the best ways to do this.

These are just a few reasons to keep a blog if you’re an entrepreneur, but there are much more. Just remember that anything that can bring value to your audience is something that you should consider adding to your business.

Blogging Photo via Shutterstock

[“source-smallbiztrends”]

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Education

Apprentice levy ‘will harm small council schools’

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Child using abacus

Plans to boost apprenticeship funding in England will hit school budgets, with small council schools unfairly affected, say town hall bosses.

From May, all employers with wage bills over £3m a year must pay 0.5% of that into the new apprenticeship levy.

But council schools below that threshold must still pay as they come under the overall local authority wage bill, while small academies are exempt.

The LGA wants the rules changed to put all schools on an equal footing.

Ministers say local authorities, rather than the schools themselves, will be responsible for paying the levy.

But the LGA says advice agreed with the government is that schools should adjust their spending plans for next year to account for the extra cost of the levy.

‘Discriminatory’

The LGA says the levy will unfairly hit the finances of about 9,000 small community schools, usually primaries, with a total of 2.8 million pupils.

This is because where a school is maintained by the council, its staff are employed by the local authority, and those staff contribute to the overall wage bill of the council rather than being counted separately.

This means that the apprenticeship levy is applied to them, and will need to be accounted for in school budgets from April 2017, according to the LGA.

But free standing academies, where the academy trust is the employer, will be exempt.

The same is true of some faith and foundation schools, where the governing body is the employer.

“It is discriminatory,” said Richard Watts, chairman of the LGA’s Children and Young People Board.

“It is no secret that many schools are struggling with their funding, yet once again, council-maintained schools are being dealt a poor hand compared to academies.”

“Clearly what really matters is making sure that all children get the education they deserve, regardless of school structures, so applying initiatives like the levy equally across all schools is only right.

“The government therefore needs to urgently revise the apprenticeship levy to make sure that all schools are on an equal footing.”

‘Breaking point’

The National Association of Head Teachers warned that while 0.5% might not sound like much, “it comes in the context of school budgets being at breaking point already”.

“It’s another example of government policies hurting schools,” said NAHT Head of Policy Valentine Mulholland.

“We would definitely support the LGA’s call for small local authority schools to be treated in the same way as stand-alone academies.”

Once the levy is paid, employers will be able to access funding for apprenticeships, but Ms Mulholland said smaller schools would struggle to do this.

“There are hardly any apprenticeships that are suitable for schools,” she said.

Ms Mulholland said large secondaries could develop master’s level apprenticeships to help staff teach outside their main subject areas or move into leadership.

But smaller schools, which are often primaries, lacked the flexibility and the resources to be able to do this, she said, so the levy would become “just another tax”.

Apprenticeship and Skills Minister Robert Halfon said: “We expect these schools to have full access to funding for apprenticeship training and will support all employers, including schools and local authorities, in using levy funds to invest in quality apprenticeships,” said Apprenticeship and Skills Minister Robert Halfon.

[Source:- BBC]

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Education

Free school meals: Report on struggling small schools ‘not published’

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

School children eating a roast dinner

The Department for Education has refused to publish a report which said England’s smallest schools cannot afford to provide free school meals, according to a former policy adviser.

Restaurateur John Vincent, former adviser on school food, told BBC’s Radio 4 the move was “undemocratic”.

It comes after the government scrapped extra funding to help small schools with food costs earlier this year.

The department told the BBC it had taken the report’s advice “on board”.

The government introduced free hot lunches in September 2014 for all pupils in the first three years of school in England.

Under the policy, every primary school received a flat rate of £2.30 per child, per meal, with extra money made available for schools with fewer than 150 pupils.

However, in January the Department for Education announced on its website that the grant for small schools would not be continued.

‘Chose not to report’

Mr Vincent and Henry Dimbleby, who co-founded the Leon restaurant chain, led a government-commissioned independent review of school food and recommended the free school meal policy in their School Food Plan in 2013.

Last year the pair were made MBEs in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for their work in improving school lunches.

In an interview for BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme on Sunday, Mr Vincent said his taskforce reported to the government that there was an “ongoing structural issue” with having a small school.

They recommended that “probably around £2,000 to £2,300 per year should be provided to these small schools to make the whole provision of their school meals solvent”.

However he said: “The government chose not to publish that report. And that, to me, seems strange.”

Mr Vincent said the authors of the School Food Plan have asked the government to publish the report and even considered publishing it themselves.

He added: “The government have made it very clear that they don’t want us publishing it.”

The Department for Education told the BBC: “We are not going to publish the Small Schools Taskforce report.

“It wasn’t published last year because of the Spending Review and by the time that was complete, the report was out of date and much of it was already in existence.”

‘Massive amount of money’

Executive head teacher Karen Holmes, of Saints Way Church of England Multi Academy Trust, said she was “furious” when she discovered the funding for her schools had come to an end.

She said: “We had already had massive discussions with our directors about where we needed to save money, what we needed to do. And I knew then that was £10,000 wiped from my combined four small schools budget. Well £10,000, that’s the equivalent of a teaching assistant.”

“It’s a massive amount of money. So the curriculum budgets for all of these small schools, they’re not even £10,000.”

“The next step is losing staff, cutting hours. We’re already at a minimum because of the cuts we’ve taken anyway, with cuts in funding over the last couple of years.”

Jeanette Orrey, who co-founded of the Food For Life partnership and has received an MBE for her campaigning work on school food, said the impact of the funding cut had been felt across the country.

She said: “If you’ve got 150 pupils taking lunch great. But if you’ve only got 50 or 60 taking lunch then the actual economics, the finances of this don’t add up.

“How are we going to continue to feed the children on £2.30? It can’t be done.”

‘Structural disadvantage’

Mr Vincent said there should be a reallocation of the flat £2.30 rate, as some larger schools may be running a surplus.

He said: “If 20p were to be taken off the per-head cost at larger schools and given to the smaller schools, the funding mechanism would work.”

In its statement, the Department for Education said it took spending advice from the report “on board” and this was why the transitional funding was made available to small schools.

It has said previously that the funding “was always intended to be temporary to help small schools to put their meals service on a more sustainable footing”.

The department told the BBC: “Small schools received an additional £32.5m over two years – a significant contribution.”

Though there was no ongoing commitment to provide extra funding, Mr Vincent said: “The fact is there should have been. Because it’s an every year cost, it’s not just a one-off cost for extra ovens.”

He added: “It’s an every year, every month, every day additional cost that small schools need because they’re at a structural disadvantage.”

[Source:- BBC]

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Online Marketing

Why Digital Marketing is Important for Small Business

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Why Digital Marketing is Important for Small Business

When small businesses get started, their focus is often on how to get the first customers through the door. They may rely on traditional forms of advertising, such as print ads, coupon mailers or even outdoor advertising. Businesses may believe that since they offer a good product or service, it’s just a matter of time until customers find their way to them.

While this strategy may bring in a trickle of business, there is a better and easier way. Small businesses should consider the global marketplace of prospects online and benefit from converging their traditional and digital marketing. No small business, no matter how new, should overlook digital channels as a way to generate leads and convert interest into customers.

Let’s look at the benefits of digital marketing and the ways online platforms can be used to help grow your business.

Benefits of Online Marketing

The potential customers you can find online is a much larger group than you’ll ever be able to attract only locally. Using digital marketing techniques, you can reach a global audience in a way that’s cost-effective, scalable and measurable.

Some of the key benefits of digital marketing include:

  • The ability to interact with your prospects and learn exactly what they are looking for i.e. get to know your customers better!
  • The ability to reach out to anyone and anywhere as there are no geographical boundaries with digital
  • Target the right audience at the right time – personalization is simpler with digital marketing
  • Communicate with your prospects at every stage of the buying process
  • Save money and reach more customers for less
  • Get to know your audience and drive engagement to create brand loyalty. Get some inspiration from the power of customer loyalty schemes.
  • Track and monitor responses to your marketing efforts easily and instantly

Getting started on digital marketing for small businesses

With endless opportunities, digital marketing can seem intimidating if you’ve never used it for a business before. There are a variety of platforms and digital marketing terms that may make it seem like a bigger project than it is.

Small businesses can believe they don’t have the time or money to compete online. As a result, many prefer to take things slowly and stick with one or two forms of traditional advertising, assuming that their business will evolve as time passes.

The fact is the marketplace is competitive and while word of mouth and customer recommendations can help drive traffic, customers will struggle to find your business unless you show up in the places they spend time. After all, 4.6 billion people use the internet for many reasons. That’s 60% global internet penetration according to Digital 2021: Global Overview Report.

So delaying building a presence online is not an effective approach. The best way to ensure success is to promote your business on a global scale and use targeting to attract customers that are interested in your service or product.

Realize Your Customers Are Online

When someone is interested in your business, whether it’s in your niche or they are curious about your brand, the first thing they will do is research online and see what they can find out about you.

In today’s digital age, customers expect to find a website and social media presence. They may be looking for reviews so they can learn what other people are saying about your company and whether it is a good place to do business. For local businesses, 87% of consumers read online reviews – a growth of 6% from 2019 to 2020.

So if a potential customer can’t find you online, they may conclude that your business doesn’t appear to be legitimate. There is a very good chance that a lot of these prospects may decide not to take your business seriously and they will quickly head somewhere else.

Tip: Find out 10 Ways Small Businesses Can Improve Their Social Media Presence. 

Find Out What Your Competitors Are Doing Online

For your business to be successful, you need to pay attention to what your competitors are doing and learn from it. Don’t think of your competitors as someone to beat, but as people who have something to teach you.

When you look at what your competitors are doing online, you will get some idea of what is and isn’t working. Most likely, whatever type of business you are in, your competitors have established a web presence. What kind of content do they use, is there a blog, or do they promote visual content such as videos?

How do they communicate their brand and what makes them unique? How well do they engage with the audience? Can you do better?

A great way to find out what your competitors are doing is to conduct research. Find out what platforms they use, do they focus on keywords, are there influencers they use to drive traffic? Luckily there are some great online tools that can help you do this:

  • Semrush – great for keyword ranking and keyword traffic
  • Ahrefs – useful for discovering competitors’ most linked content
  • Moz – another platform for keyword ranking
  • BuzzSumo – track popular content types and influencers
  • Google Alerts – a tool for tracking mentions of any competitor your choose to track
  • Ontolo – a great tool for backlinks and content marketing

There are also some awesome tools for customer insights to feed into your persona development and content marketing.

Be Accessible to Your Customers

As we already discussed, your business needs to be present where your customers and that’s online. Whatever product or service a person looks for, they will most likely start their search with Google. If you have no online presence, then you won’t be found, and you can’t compete.

If you have an online presence but your competitors are easier to find as they rank higher in search, you still might not be found. Along with creating a website, learning what Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is and why it’s important will help you outrank competitors by being the first name that a prospect finds on a Google search.

Keywords are crucial in making this happen so make sure you understand the best keywords (long-tail and short-tail) for your business. Use this simple infographic to guide you through the five steps of keyword research.

You should also include simple questions prospects may want quick answers to, such as where you are located, your opening hours, and details of your product or service. By looking at your website and competitors’ websites side by side, your prospects should be able to compare hours, prices, special offers and more to make the best decision for them.

We’ve developed this handy guide to SEO for small businesses if you need help getting started.

Let Customers Come to You

Think of digital marketing as a way to make yourself accessible to the people you’re trying to target. The reach of your business can reach well beyond your locality and scalability becomes a reality.

Through a web presence, your business is open for business even when you’re not! You can create an environment where your customers can contact you day or night.

This means that customers and prospects can send you emails with questions, make purchases and browse your inventory in a few simple clicks. In addition, potential customers who have no way of physically coming to you can still do business with you through an e-commerce function or simply by using social media.

Get to Know Your Target Audience

The beauty of digital marketing is that it allows you to engage with prospects. You can get to know them and their pain points to provide a solution. On social media or through a blog you can start a conversation or run a survey to gain insights. Pay attention to any comments or survey responses.

By interacting with people online, you can start to get to know what they’re looking for. What are their pain points of issues? What keeps them up at night? Use this information to offer solutions through your product or service. Using digital marketing helps you take the guessing out of who your customers are so you can personalize communications and refine targeting.

By doing this, you will build a relationship with your customers. You become much more than a business, you become a trusted partner. Remember, people are also more likely to buy from businesses that they have already bought from and had a good experience with.

Do more marketing for less money!

Few forms of advertising are as cost-effective as digital marketing. Small businesses and start-ups are always trying to achieve as much as possible through their marketing on a budget.

Advertising online can stretch your budget further and will allow you to refine your target audience. Social media is particularly good for this as it enables you to set a daily budget for a discrete audience that has an interest in your brand or ethos. Most importantly, it allows your business to exclude the people that would never buy from you – saving you time and money!

The key with advertising on social media is to select the platform that will work best for you and your brand. Don’t pick TikTok just because it’s trending or advertise on LinkedIn when you’re not trying to generate B2B interest. Research social channels, check out a guide on social media demographics to find one that matches what you’re looking for and run some simple tests to see what messaging and content works.

If you need help with budgets, check out this great digital marketing budget toolkit.

Transform the marketing capabilities of your small business

Are you looking to develop a website that can generate leads? Or maybe you want to set up a Facebook campaign to see the results. The first step to achieving these goals is to develop an understanding of digital marketing and how it can have a positive impact on your business. DMI’s Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing will teach you the most relevant and up-to-date digital marketing skills. From social media to SEO and paid search, you will have the tools to ensure your business succeeds online.

[“source=digitalmarketinginstitute”]

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Online Marketing

Digital Marketing 101: What Small Businesses Need to Know

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Digital Marketing 101: What Small Businesses Need to Know

Small business owners know digital marketing is no longer secondary to traditional print marketing and advertising and is a great way for them to get more bang for their marketing bucks. (In fact, 95% of small businesses plan to increase spending on digital marketing this year.) But to get the best results, it’s important to understand digital marketing and keep up with digital marketing trends.

Digital Marketing 101

What is digital marketing? It’s often thought of as “online marketing,” but it goes far beyond internet marketing. Digital marketing refers to any marketing that uses digital channels to reach prospective customers. This includes mobile phone messaging (both SMS and MMS), email marketing, social media marketing, display advertising, search engine marketing and apps.

10 Basic Digital Marketing Strategies to Use

1. Your business website

No matter how active you are on social media, it can’t replace a business website. Your website is the digital “home” of your business and it’s the one place online where you are completely in control of your message. Your website doesn’t have to be fancy, but it does need to be mobile-friendly. that’s non-negotiable in 2019.

2. Search engine optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the process of increasing website traffic using the organic (non-paid) search results on search engines. There are many moving parts to SEO, including using the right keywords in your website, your social media presence, references to your website from external sites and much more. The complexity of SEO is one reason only 44% of businesses are currently investing in SEO, according to Clutch. The good news: Being one of that 44% can put you ahead of your competition.

3. Local search engine optimization

Since 2o15, more searches have been conducted on mobile devices than on desktop computers, according to Google. Many of those searches are done while users are “on the go” looking for local businesses, so Google’s search results now favor websites that are optimized for local search by including location information and location-related keywords. In addition to optimizing your website for local search, claim your business location on local search directories such as Google My Business and make sure that your name, address and phone number (NAP) information is listed exactly the same way on all the local search directories. (No using “St.” in one listing and “Street” in another.) If your NAP varies from one listing to another, search engines may not recognize it as the same business, hurting your search results.

4. Email marketing

Nearly seven in 10 businesses use email marketing, making it the third most popular digital marketing method. Almost half (47%) of people across demographics check their email on a mobile device; 81% of those use their smartphones (as opposed to tablets). In addition, the majority (33%) of email opens occur on mobile devices. When you develop your email marketing messages, think “mobile-first.” Keep emails short; include a clear call to action; design in a single-column format; and use plenty of white space so it’s easy to click on buttons or links in the email.

5. Social media marketing

Social media is the number-one marketing channel used by businesses, according to Clutch: 83% of companies use it. There’s good reason for that: Statista reports 77% of Americans use social media. Be sure you’re keeping up to date on new social media channels, as well as where your target customers are spending time (for instance, are they leaving Facebook for Instagram)?

6. Content marketing

This practice refers to creating content (such as blog posts, ebooks, white papers, infographics, videos, etc.) that you share digitally. The goal is to attract users to view your content and take a desired action. For instance, you might write a blog post on How to Winterize Your House and Save Money and include a call-to-action such as “Contact us to get a free estimate on winterizing your home.”

7. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising

Pay-per-click digital ads appear when users do an internet search for the terms you use in the ad. The name comes from the fact that you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. The most common place for PPC ads is on Google (using Google AdWords) but ads on Facebook and other social media channels are also considered PPC.

8. Marketing automation

Marketing automation software can automate many repetitive aspects of marketing. For instance, it can send automated responses or start a “drip marketing” campaign when prospects fill out a leads form. It can schedule your social media posts, determine the best time to send email newsletters, and more.

9. Messaging

From SMS and MMS text messages to the use of messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Messenger, Viber or WeChat, you can market to customers using mobile messaging. Mobile messaging marketing applications can use location-based data to trigger messages at relevant moments, such as when a customer is near your store or restaurant.

10. Online ratings and reviews

You may not think of online review sites as digital marketing, but they’re a major factor in how prospects form an opinion of your business. Some 86% of consumers (and 95% of those age 18 to 34) read reviews for local businesses; 91% of 18-to-34-year-old consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Optimize your listings on review sites the same way you would on Google My Business: Keep them current and add photos, descriptions, directions and offers. Monitor your reviews regularly and respond to negative reviews quickly (and politely).

10 Digital Marketing Trends to Know

Now that you’ve got a handle on digital marketing, here are 10 digital marketing trends every small business should factor into their plans.

1. Email marketing personalization via marketing automation

Nearly six in 10 marketers say personalization is their most effective email marketing tactic; in fact, emails that have personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened. AI-powered automation tools can help you personalize email messaging by analyzing the data you capture about your email subscribers (such as what they open, click on and buy) and using it to deliver the right message at the right time.

2. Voice search

Voice search currently accounts for one third of all Google searches, and by 2020, is expected to account for one-half. Good general SEO will help you rank high in voice search, according to a recent study. But you can additionally optimize for voice search using keywords and phrases that sound the way people talk (“What bakeries are open right now?”) rather than the way they’d type into a search engine (“bakeries open now”). Creating an FAQ page on your website that answers questions people might ask about your product can also help optimize for voice search.

3. Content marketing overload

With so much content out there, are your prospects really paying attention? To keep driving customers to your website, make this the year you focus on creating less, but better, content. Instead of constantly churning out blog posts stuffed with SEO keywords, try crafting one or two really good, longer pieces of content a month. Content that answers prospects’ or customers’ questions in a way no one else is doing can really stand out.

4. Google My Business is more important than ever

Google search results prioritize Google My Business listings. As a result, many searchers don’t bother paging below these or clicking through to a website. they get all the info they need from GMB. Make sure your Google My Business page makes the cut by regularly adding new photos, posts, offers or videos and keeping your description current. You can now add Posts in Google My Business, too. Think of your GMB result as its own little website and add all the info you can to it.

5. PPC advertising comes of age

The Google search engine results page is getting crowded and fewer people are ignoring the ads at the top. Google’s algorithm is getting great at delivering relevant ads, and even being at the top of organic search results won’t get you the customer’s attention if that customer doesn’t scroll down. If you’re not already doing so, make this the year you incorporate PPC ads into your marketing plan.

6. Omnichannel marketing

Prospects use more than one digital channel to investigate your business. They might do an online search and see your Google My Business listing, click through to your website and read your reviews. That’s why all of your digital marketing efforts need to work together to promote a consistent branding message.

7. Chatbots

You can use conversational AI software (that is, chatbots) to engage with prospects in a variety of ways, from helping them navigate your website or answering common questions to suggesting additional products or even engaging on social media. For instance, you can program Facebook Messenger bots to answer your Facebook messages, saving you time and giving your followers quick responses.

8. Online video

By 2020, video will account for more than 85% of all consumer internet traffic in the U.S. (Already, YouTube is the second most popular website, surpassed only by Google.) Today’s up and coming Gen Z, in particular, has grown up watching YouTube videos and it’s the place they turn to for the answers to everything. Videos that show viewers how to do something, help solve their problems, interview industry experts or provide an insider’s look into your business are all popular ways to attract attention. Creating a YouTube channel is free and exposes your videos to a wider audience. Also look into getting online influencers to review your products. it can make a huge difference to your business.

9. Tell your story

Consumers crave authentic interaction with businesses. They want to know your story. Be transparent about your business, your staff and your values. In the digital world, live-action or short-term video content such as Stories on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube creates a feeling of immediacy and intimacy that can help build a bond with your target market.

10. Social media backlash

Facebook privacy problems such as the Cambridge Analytica data-sharing scandal have driven some users from the platform, and if you’re targeting millennial and younger users, Instagram is the place to be, with the vast majority of its users aged 18 to 34. But Instagram isn’t immune from backlash either, as the platform recently took steps to remove inauthentic likes and fake followers from influencers’ accounts. Remember, honest interaction is more important than numbers.

[“source=smallbiztrends”]

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Online Marketing

Google My Business App Redesigned, Brings New Features for Small and Medium Businesses

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Google My Business App Redesigned, Brings New Features for Small and Medium Businesses

Google on Wednesday released a revamped version of an app – Google My Business – meant to help small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) manage profile on-the-go and boost customer engagement.

The Google My Business app is a simple and free tool for SMBs to start their digital journey through listings on Google and keep their business presence up-to-date on Google Search and Google Maps, the company said. The new app allows businesses to update their profile, converse with customers on-the-go. It is now available for Android and iOS.

New features such as the new post button, a customer tab and the bottom navigation bar, allow businesses to follow and message customers directly from the app, enhancing engagement between both the parties.

“The new Google My Business app deepens our commitment to help businesses grow online. The new app will encourage businesses to manage their presence on Google in real time, make their profiles more appealing and interact with customers,” Shalini Girish, Director, Marketing Solutions, Google India, said in a statement.

“For instance, if you’re a restaurant owner and have a packed house on a Friday night, the app allows you to create a post with a picture of the restaurant to engage with prospective customers on Maps and Search,” Girish said.

“It’s this real-time presence that we hope will go a long way in helping businesses attract new customers and bring back existing ones,” Girish added.

[“source=ndtv”]

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Online Marketing

HOW SOCIAL MEDIA HAS MADE E-MARKETING EASY AND AFFORDABLE FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Written by Sujain Thomas

Online marketing can sometimes appear confusing for marketers who have to choose between several marketing channels to decide which would be most effective. There used to be a time when SEO was the dominant online marketing platform along with email marketing. Gradually things started changing, and the advent of the social media platform completely changed the perception of online marketing. From the beginning of online marketing, visibility remained the most crucial criterion for marketing success. Social media networks boosted the visibility aspect many more times and proved its enormous abilities in creating wide outreach.  Businesses of all sizes capitalized on the easy access to social media networks and built aggressive marketing strategies around it. However, the biggest beneficiary of social media marketing is the small business segment with local interests. Small businesses that rely on local markets found a robust platform for marketing on social media.

The need for social media marketing

Online marketing that revolves around San Antonio SEO is all about earning high ranks in search results for which it is essential to maintain high visibility of websites. Visibility has a link to search rankings because it facilitates search engines to pick sites against search queries. Since social media is the most frequented place on the internet, the target audience would be comfortable in accessing the business on social media. Moreover, almost 80% consumers depend on online research before making purchases, which makes it imperative for hosting your business on social media.

Social media is especially attractive for small businesses because the majority of searches lead to conversions as buyers search only when they have decided to purchase. Social media has enormous capabilities of driving traffic to websites and is the most prominent reason for attracting marketers. Local businesses simply cannot do without using social media that gives it the most economical option for online marketing.  Why you should use social media for business would become clear upon reading this article.

Generate business familiarity

Social media creates high engagement and provides the opportunity for two-way communication that facilitates close interaction with the audience. You can post all types of content on social media. From images to text, videos, blogs, tweets, and infographics, every piece of content generates viewer engagement, elicits their response and can often go viral by creating an instant connection with the audience. The beauty of social media is the ever-increasing reach of the communication that keeps expanding through sharing.  When the audience finds value in the content, they come forward to re-post it, re-tweet it and share it by other means that keeps on spreading the content almost endlessly. All this happens without any additional effort on the part of the marketers. Automatically, the visibility of content keeps multiplying that gives local businesses enormous exposure without any investment.

Stay connected to customers

The success of a business depends largely on how well your nurture your customer base by keeping in touch with them. Social media has made it easy to connect with customers on a personal level. However, local businesses might find it difficult to remain active on social media networks with a steady flow of content that attracts the audience.  Where would you look for content that could keep your audience connected? The answer lies in presenting stories of your business to the audience that revolves around your business activities. Choose stories that the audience would find interesting and you will be surprised how quickly the audience reacts to it by engaging in conversation. Thus, begins the process of building relationships with customers by using social media that you can extend to acquire new customers too.

Advertise free of cost

Local businesses that have small budgets cannot think of advertising on the traditional channels due to high cost. Social media has now made advertising easy for small businesses, as it does not involve any spending except for creating the advertisement. A social media profile allows display of content that features business achievements besides upholding the products and services through text, videos, and images. It is possible to create a long-term advertising campaign on social media that helps to take your business to the doorsteps of customers regardless of their location.  The advertising campaign on social media acquires good value due to the trust enjoyed by social media that shows your business in good light.

Social signals impact search rankings

Social signals generated by sharing content on social media are highly valuable to marketers because search engines use social signals as a measure of website authority. When you post your business on social media, the response of the audience determines how well your website would rank during searches. Since people keep talking about your business only when they find enough value in it, social signals constitute an element of business value that reflects in the search results. A social media profile becomes visible in search results and opens up new opportunities of earning more clicks in addition to the links displayed in the search results.  For more benefits in rankings, you have to optimize the business profile on social media.

Choosing social media networks

The plethora of social media networks can land marketers in a dilemma when deciding which ones would be right for them. While taking your business across all available networks might sound like an easy solution, it is neither feasible nor desirable. To make it easy, your comfort level in using some platforms is a reason for choosing it. Match it with the choice of the audience because you need to take your business across social media channels where you would find the majority of your target audience. A third factor to consider is the compatibility of the platform you select. How well the platform would be able to uphold your business in the way you want is something to think. Most importantly, judge the traffic generating capabilities of the channel both online and offline.

Implement a social media marketing campaign based on sound strategies that provide the expected returns.

[“Source-irishtechnews”]

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Blogging

5 Ways Small Businesses can Benefit from Blogging

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

5 Benefits of Blogging for Small Businesses

Startups prefer online promotion over offline promotion because the former is cost-effective and yet often has shown definite results. Because blogging is the default window leading to online promotion, more and more brands are getting into it these days.

For a small business on a shoestring budget, investing time and resources in blogging is a better option tha other marketing alternatives. Blogging can aid in getting a high ranking on search engines and in gaining social media visibility?

But anything beyond that?

The Benefits of Blogging for Small Businesses

Let’s find out:

Establishes Thought Leadership

Blogging is instrumental in establishing thought leadership. Small firms need it more than their big counterparts. That’s because big companies can spend money and skip intermediate phases in the sales funnel. But small businesses have to pass through them.

Contrary to what many believe, thought leadership is not simply an accompanying factor in the sales cycle. It impacts a customer’s purchasing decisions when he’s on the payment page. The ORM overdose has made average customers suspicious about the claims made by brands about their products. But customers are less suspicious about industry thought leaders.

Another benefit of thought leadership is it attracts efficient employees, who might otherwise work in big companies. Some of those employees feel the corporate houses are soulless places to work. Big companies don’t allow employees to perform fully up to their potential. Small brands, especially the ones that are thought leaders, grant them this privilege. What’s funny about thought leadership is it doesn’t go hand in hand with paid efforts. Customers always take promotion with a pinch of salt.

Organic efforts, especially blogging, establishes thought leadership.

Content Planning

Blogging makes content planning easy for brands. In fact, the two are not separate. Brands that excel in blogging are those that plan their content in a meticulous way.

How exactly is content planning beneficial for startups?

Proper content planning can save cost and increase ROI. Brands, both big and small, unnecessarily shell out money due to wrong content planning. Big brands may not keep track of every dime they spend, but small businesses do. Cost-cutting and ROI increase are the focal points.

The following are essential for content planning:

  • Consumer demographics,
  • Problems consumers face, and
  • How branded products offer up solutions.

Of the factors above, some help brands to understand customer idea feedback. The next step of content planning is drafting the content in accordance with such feedback. Audience reactions can clue marketers in on the acceptability of the posts they publish. Once they garner audience appreciation, they can move on with the accompanying writing style.

Strategizing each step is content planning. Content planning helps to measure content marketing ROI, which is difficult otherwise. In the absence of industry-approved publishing metrics, proxies like virality and engagement factors are used. But via content planning, we can figure out more rigorous ROI measurement factors.

Monetizing the Blog

Very few give it a serious thought. They should because the majority of startup companies are bootstrapped. Blog monetization can be an alternative way for them to make money. It’s not rocket-science. There are ample resources on how to create a money-making blog from scratch.

Some hold monetizing a blog reduces the odds of establishing thought leadership. That’s not true. Making the site cluttered with ads is not a good idea, but paid promotion via in-text links (to a limited extent, of course) and giving favorable reviews to sponsors are great ways to monetize a site without putting banner ads on it.

Other than financial benefits, blog monetization can help startups expand their network. As they explore the financial opportunities, they can partner with other bloggers and with industry influencers. They may hop onto the money-making bandwagon if given a chance.

How-to Guide

Startups don’t hate DIY as much as big brands do. That’s because big enterprises can take care of all product related needs of customers — from packaging to promotion. Startups, on the other hand, offer specific services targeted at specific requirements.

Customers who go for DIY may need supporting tools and additional services. They expect these at lower cost, which rules big brands out of the equation. Only small businesses can understand and meet their requirements. Here’s an example:

Let’s say a small business operates in the chimney flue manufacturing industry. On the blog page of its site, it can offer guidelines on how to install a new chimney flue. A homeowner can do the installation himself, but he needs to buy the flue from a store. This is how small businesses can endorse DIY and yet publish how-to guides on their sites.

Tutorials and how-to type posts can quickly draw reader’s attention. How-to-led DIY can make someone successful in his endeavor or result in failure. The first outcome adds authenticity to the procedure detailed by the blogger (the small business). The second outcome prompts readers to get back to the blogger with questions, leading to a long trail of interactions. Hence, how-to posts lead to a win-win situation.

Getting Noticed

Startups aim to secure funding from venture capitalists. VC firms invest in businesses which they deem worthy of investing. How do they decide whether to invest in a startup or not?

They calculate the possible ROI based on speculations.

For a small business, it’s tough to convince investors that funding it will bring them good ROI. Approaching the investors, and for that matter reaching them, is the first hurdle. Persuading them to invest is the next. And do bear in mind that as a startup, you have to jump all these hurdles without sounding pushy and without bragging about yourself.

Blogging is an excellent way to get noticed by big players. There’s no dearth of platforms if drawing the attention of the big players is on your mind. Admins of third-party B2B blogs will be delighted to publish your posts, provided these posts are useful and offer new information. Then there are publishing platforms like Pulse. LinkedIn is where most of the VC guys are. And they hover over Pulse articles for new insights.

From your blog, people running VC firms will come to know about your achievements, methodology and innovations. You can even present case studies to bolster your claims. From case studies, investors can get a glimpse of your firm’s internal workflow and business process. If they are impressed by these, they may invest. Choose relevant topics, do a lot of research and offer solutions. In short, give VC firms all the reasons to notice you in the crowd.

Summing Up

In the era of content marketing, blogging is bound to help a business climb up the ladder of success. However, the efforts put into it must be precision-guided. The five tips shared here can make sure of that.

[“Source-smallbiztrends”]

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Blogging

10 Important Reasons to Work Seriously On Your Small Business Blog

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

10 Important Reasons to Work Seriously On Your Small Business Blog

How the heck do they do it?

You know who I’m talking about. I’m talking about those successful small business entrepreneurs who get tons of business and engagement online.

Sure, they hustle just as much as you do. They attend the same networking events. But there’s a difference.

They seem to have much more business than you do. They’re closing more deals. They’re generating more leads through their website.

So what’s the difference between you and them?

They’re probably blogging. They’re probably using their small business blog to build an online audience that is engaged with their brand.

If you’re a small business entrepreneur or solopreneur, you have probably heard of content marketing, right? No doubt you’ve heard of the importance of creating valuable content for your website. But maybe you haven’t taken that first step yet.

A small business blog is one of the most-used and effective content marketing tools at your disposal. Simply put, if you’re not blogging, you’re leaving money on the table.

Here’s some stats for you:

  • Marketers that use blogs get 67 percent more leads than those who don’t.
  • 81 percent of U.S. online consumers trust information and advice from blogs.
  • Companies that blog have 97 percent more inbound links.
  • 61 percent of U.S. online consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations from a blog.
  • 60 percent of consumers feel more positive about a company after reading custom content on its site.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you need to consider how you’re connecting with your audience. Since you might not have the huge marketing budget of a mega-corporation, you will have to use other means to build and connect with your audience.

One of the best ways to do this is by blogging. It’s been shown to be highly effective at generating quality leads for your business.

Many business owners overlook the potential rewards that blogging can provide. But you’re a savvy entrepreneur, so you’re not going to make this mistake, are you?

This post is going to give you ten benefits that a small business blog can provide for your business. When you read through this post, you will learn various ways you can use your blog to generate more business, earn more credibility and make it easier for prospects to find you online.

Why You Should Have a Small Business Blog

1. Market Research

Having a blog with many articles allows you to more effectively understand what your audience really wants. From the back end of your site, you can spy on what pages people are viewing the most, and this gives you an idea of where their interest lies. When you know what types of content perform the best, you know what types of content to continue to create.

Also, you can use your blog to request feedback from your audience. If you have an engaged following, it’s very likely that they will be happy to answer the questions you have.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

As you probably know, there’s not much of a point to having a killer website if nobody can find it. One of the biggest keys to getting more traffic is making sure that people will find your site when they use search engines. As a  matter of fact, search engines are the no. 1 driver of traffic to content websites! SEO is something that you can’t ignore if you want to have a viable online presence.

The more relevant content you have on your website, the more likely it will be that you will rank for certain keywords. This is where a small business blog comes in. Consistently publishing high-quality content on your blog will do wonders for your search engine optimization efforts.

When you produce useful content, Google’s algorithms will rank your site higher. Over time, your site will make its way to the front page of search results. Not only that, but when people read high-quality content, they’re more likely to link back to it. Earning quality backlinks from other high-authority blogs will do wonders for your SEO efforts.

3. Customer Engagement

Engagement is immensely important for any online business. It’s not enough to just create great content. You also need to interact with your audience as much as you can. You can’t have any success by just talking at your audience. You need to have ongoing conversations with them. It will help you know your audience better. It will help your audience know you better.

That’s what you want.

If you enable comments on your small business blog, you can discuss topics and get feedback directly. This can tell you a lot about your customer base. Not only that. It shows your audience that you are interested in interacting with them. This will increase loyalty and help you form a deeper connection with your audience.

4. Communicating Your Mission

One of the most important components of effective branding is purpose. Connecting with your audience means embracing a unique brand perspective that can give your audience something they can connect with on an emotional level.

This is where blogging comes in.

Your blog is a place where you can communicate your brand purpose. This is important because establishing a strong brand is an important part of encouraging customer loyalty. When you communicate a brand purpose that goes beyond what you sell, it helps you stand out from your competition.

For example, if you are a business that sells vegan meat substitutes, you can express your brand’s purpose by posting animal welfare material on your site. This shows your audience that your company is focused on something more than just making money.

5. Communicating With Customers

If there’s something going on with your service — for example, there will be a planned outage or lack of availability — you don’t have to keep your clients in the dark. Having a centralized place to post announcements is extremely important because people don’t always read their email.

6. You Can Offer Promotional Material

A small business blog is also a great place to offer occasional promotions. If you already have an engaged audience that consumes your content, they will be able to see what discounts or promotions you are offering. It’s a great way to keep your customer base informed.

Sure, you can spread your coupons around Facebook, but it’s better to get into the habit of compelling your audience to visit you at your own site, especially if it’s an ecommerce site. Keep them coming back for more by posting your promotions on your blog.

Here’s a caveat: you don’t want to overdo this. While blogs can be great for offering promotions, it shouldn’t be used solely for this purpose. Most of your content should focus on offering informational value to your readers. If you only post promotional content, your audience will not continue to visit your blog.

7. Showing Your Human Side

People want to know that there are actual human beings behind the business that they buy from. Post some personal stories and talk to your customers through your blog.

This is an opportunity for you to let your personality shine through. When you’re writing blog posts, don’t smack your reader in the head with a bunch of “corporatespeak.” Nobody wants to read that. No really, they don’t!

It’s much better to write in an informal style that people can relate to. When it comes to blogging, it’s not just about what you say, it’s about how you say it.

8. You Can Become a Source of Value

The key to effective blogging is providing value. Nobody is going to read your content unless they get something out of it, right?

If you want to build influence, you have to be valuable. You can do this by providing helpful information to your readers through your blog.

Arjun Reddy, the founder of Super Baby, builds credibility with his website’s “resources” section by giving actionable tips to his visitors.

“Our visitors are parents who are looking for fun ways to help their children become smarter. The advice we give in our resources section is designed to provide helpful parenting tips for our readers.”

The reason Reddy is enjoying success is because he’s providing value up front. When you do this, you show your potential clients that you are valuable to them. That’s why content marketing works. When you’re creating content, you should be asking yourself what your reader is going to get out of that particular piece of content. Each piece of content should be designed to inform, educate, or entertain. If possible, you should do all three!

9. Networking!

When you have built an audience and gained some notoriety, it can attract other entrepreneurs to you. For an entrepreneur, networking is important, isn’t it?

If you’re able to grow your readership effectively, you will gain more credibility. This will attract other influencers in your niche. You never know who might be paying attention right?

This could lead to other opportunities for your business. You might be able to take advantage of the key relationships that you form through your small business blog.

10. Building Credibility

Having a small business blog gives you a presence in your niche. A blog is a record of quality value and experience that you are bringing to your audience. This will give you instant “street cred” when someone finds your content.

Lissette Palencia, CEO of Sleeping Angels has built a steady stream of clientele by using her blog to provide valuable information to her website’s visitors.

“As you can guess, when you run a nanny agency, your clients are parents who are concerned about the safety of their children. They want to do the research first. When they visit our website, they find tons of valuable information that helps them make the right decision for their family. Not only does it inform them, it makes them more comfortable with doing business us.”

This is essential for your business. Your blog is a tool that you can use to establish credibility in the minds of your potential clients. Prospects will read your content and gain value from it. Then, they will become far more willing to buy from you because you have already given them a significant benefit through your blog.

Conclusion

Here’s the thing. If you’re looking to expand your online presence, you need to be creating high-quality content on a consistent basis. A blog is one of the best ways to do this.

These are just a few reasons to keep a blog if you’re an entrepreneur, but there are much more. Just remember that anything that can bring value to your audience is something that you should consider adding to your business.

[“Source-smallbiztrends”]

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