Your Business Wants a Blog.

It’ll thank you later.

I was cleaning up the yard the other day with my kids. Well, actually, with my kid. My 4-year-old wasn’t feeling it. And to be honest, I don’t blame her.

But my 2-year-old? Oh boy. My 2-year-old. He was amped. I laid out the task for him: all the sticks in the yard go in that pile. He bee-lined it with his 3-foot body for the 9-foot branch downed in last week’s storm.

After a quick recalibration, he redirected his energy toward more manageable sticks. And he would not let me help. He’d follow me until I was about to bend over for a stick, then he’d yell, swoop in and grab it, and race it to the pile.

I eventually left him to his one-stick-at-a-time method and went for the rake.

He has a lot of energy. He can put in a lot of hustle.

Want to know who can’t? Me.

I don’t know about you, but I prefer to work smarter, not harder.

Marketing is like this. You can get out there and hustle, chasing after each stick...one at a time. That’s incredibly admirable, and if you’re a 2-year-old boy, it’s optimal. (It leads to great naps.) But it’s definitely not efficient.

Or...you could grab the rake. Casting a wider net, increasing your productivity, and getting more sticks...plus a good amount of leaves as a bonus.

BLOGGING...YOUR BUSINESS WILL THANK YOU

Worried about an overblogged internet? Here are five more motivators to convince you that a blog is exactly the commitment your business wants from you...even (especially?) if it’s just a small local business.

5. It’s FREE (or at least inexpensive) - This can’t be understated for a new entrepreneur.

Can we just start with the obvious? We’ll start with something we can all easily agree on (I like a good, common ground.) Blogging is a marketing strategy. Yes?

That being said, it’s a free marketing strategy. For the small, local business, this can’t be overlooked. When we’re just getting started, we need all the free strategies and help we can get.

So just to be clear...blogging is a marketing strategy...and it’s free. We’re on the same page here, right?

4. Build Community - Your audience is online. So are their conversations.

Blogging is a tool used to educate, engage with, and entertain your audience. Quality blogging tells a story. It brings your readers in and along on your journey. Through this, you build relationships.

According to HubSpot, there are about 70 million new blog posts posted a month...from WordPress alone. Through those 70 million posts, there are about 77 million new comments generated. That’s a lot of people talking through a lot of information...together.

In a world that becomes smaller every day and a community that’s more online every day (thanks #2020), we can’t afford to be ignoring our readers online.

Remember, this is your rake. You’re putting information out there that resonates with your people. Worst case scenario, you get no sticks. Best case scenario? You rake in a good pile of sticks and even leaves by means of interest and lots of conversations sparked in the comment section.

3. Credibility - No one cares what you’re selling…unless you show them they should.

No one cares what you’re selling or offering.

Unless….

You prove that 1) they want it, and 2) you know what you’re talking about and have the exact solution they may not have even known they were looking for.

As an entrepreneur, you’re not selling stuff or services. You’re offering solutions. Through blogging, you have the perfect opportunity to prove that you have done the work. You have the solution needed to meet your potential customers’ and clients’ needs.

This is done by educating your audience. Educate them about their problems. Educate them about how they could begin to solve these problems themselves. Educate them about the solutions you offer. Educate them so they know they can trust you to come along with them.

This is done by engaging with your audience. As mentioned before, blogging builds community. Make sure you’re not the aloof authority on the pedestal. Rather, engage with them. Hook them through the blog content you put out. Engage in the comment section. Engage on social platforms. Make yourself a real and relatable person your community trusts.

This is done by entertaining your audience. Again, the relatable factor. We’re breaking down walls here. Content writing (aka blogging) isn’t done for the immediate sale. It’s done to build rich relationships with readers and play a longer game with them.

Making yourself more personable through entertaining content keeps them coming back for more. Even if they never turn into a paying customer, you’ve built a stronger community simply by being fun, personable, and entertaining. And likability goes a long way in business.

Through educating, engaging with, and entertaining your online readers, you’ll stay in the front of their brain space. Not only will you be building your network, continually raking in a larger group of readers; but you’ll also be warming your potentials clients.

When they’re ready to have their problem solved for them, you’ll be the first one that pops into their head.

2. Link- and Share-ability - Word of mouth is the best business builder.

This one is simple. When you first start your small, local business, you launch a site of probably about 3 pages. (Sound familiar?) You’ve got your Home Page, About Page, and Services Page. These are inarguably the essentials.

If you continue to be satisfied with your website of three basic pages though, you will serve only people who already know you and are looking for you anyway.

If, on the other hand, you’re looking to grow your audience and client/customer base, (and who isn’t, right?) you’ll need to use a rake...not a one-stick-at-a-time method.

Blogging simply provides more content connected to your website. The more content your website provides, the more reasons there are to share that content.

In the 2020 Marketing Statistics, HubSpot found that articles exceeding 3,000 words got 3 times as much traffic, 4 times as many shares, and 3.5 times as many backlinks as shorter articles.

In short, blogging provides your readers with reasons to get excited about what you’re putting out as well as bring other people on board.

If you provide quality, word will get out. And word of mouth is the best marketing strategy. It’s the best way to organically build a business.

1. S.E.O - Everybody wants to be seen.

Here’s the big one. Search Engine Optimization.

According to Think With Google, 2018 there had been (over the course of two years) a 900% growth in searches related to something nearby.

This means, even if you are just a small, local business mostly serving a local audience, you still have people visiting that could be interested in seeing what you have to offer. They don’t get the word of mouth like your local crowds.

You need to be findable online. And Search Engine Optimization is all about online findability.

If you know what your audience is looking for, you can better meet their needs. You can also take measures to make yourself more findable.

Through well-written content aimed at exactly what your readers search for (like, actually type into the Google search box), your links and posts will be a better match.

These days it’s all about being on the front page of the internet. Front page of the internet = front page of potential clients’ brains.

SEMrush finds that search engines are still the #1 way internet users find blog posts. This means that the words and content you put out in blog posts is what makes the internet and search tools believe that your site and your business is relevant.

There are obviously ways to optimize this (hence the name…), and over time, we’ll discuss those too. But for now, let’s focus on the basic and the obvious: the more content you put out, the more content there is to find.

How to start, though?

This one is up to you. There are almost unlimited ways you could reach your audience through blogging. Many website hosts have an option built into their packages. WordPress (as mentioned above) is one of the most popular blogging platforms.

A little Googling will go a long way. (And pay attention to those top spots...duh! Who doesn’t? They’re the ones who’ve mastered this game.)

We’ll talk more in the future about what kind of content you should be putting out as well as how to best reach and serve your audience through blogging.

But your homework for today? Start. Say hello to the internet world. Greet your audience. Your business will thank you later.

P.S. Looking to nerd out on more numbers and data surrounding marketing? Well, sharing links outside of your own website is usually a no-no...the goal is to keep readers on your site….but I believe in breaking the rules and the status quo. Here is a really fun resource to pour through with lots of graphs and numbers. Although blogging is a great way to build a reader base, there are many additional marketing strategies to reach your audience.

5 Reasons your Business Deserves a Blog