The importance of blogging for small business

When it comes to writing better blogs, we can provide you with a wealth of useful advice…

In this article, our crack team of writers provide a comprehensive guide to business blogging. Read on to find out how to write powerful blogs that will really resonate with your target audience and generate significant results for your company.

Written well, business blogs will be of huge value to both your organisation and your customers. They’re also great in terms of conversion rates. That’s one of the main reasons for having a blog. It’s all about building a stronger emotional bond with your audience to boost sales.  

Of course, there are tonnes of blogs about blogging for small businesses. (This is one of them.) But most of the others will dive straight into how to produce better content. In our expert opinion, if you’re to write convincingly, first you must believe in what you’re writing. 

So, before you sit down to draft your inaugural blog, let’s look at why business blogs are so good for organisations like yours. 

Why blogging attracts more people

Blogging is especially important when it comes to your site’s SEO. If you’re looking to boost online sales, your site needs to appear on page one of Google and other search engines. Because, let’s face it, hardly anyone scrolls past the first page of results.

And this is where brilliant business content shines. According to TechClient, your website has a 434% higher chance of being ranked high on search engines, like Google, if you have a blog. You’ll do even better if you write search engine optimised posts.

Put simply, writing content successfully will make you more visible online. Ultimately, you’ll be attracting more of the right people to your site, which will lead to increased sales. 

Why blogging makes you more human

Trust. It’s a major concern in today’s online world. We’re not just talking about the latest security scams. For many customers, your site will be the only interface they have with your company. In other words, they hardly know you. So, how do you expect them to trust you? 

Your blog is the ideal opportunity to give your business a human voice. 

Think of your website articles as somewhere you can really let your personality shine through. Reveal your true passion for what your company does. Make emotional connections with your audience.

If that all sounds a bit too touchy-feely, your blog is also the perfect place to explore your customers’ challenges. You need your writing to engage people. So, write about the stuff they feel passionate about. What are their concerns in their day-to-day lives? What are the things that keep them awake at night?

Why blogging makes you more convincing

This is another massive benefit to be had from blogging for small businesses. You can quickly become an authority on your chosen subject. 

Online customers prefer buying stuff from someone who knows exactly what they’re talking about. But you can’t just declare yourself an authority. Your customers are too savvy for that. 

You can prove you’re an authority in your field by writing compelling content that’s true and reliable. You’ll need to do this on a regular basis. Then, when people start believing in your words, they’ll believe in your company when you want them to buy something.

So, now that we’ve looked at why blogs are so good for business, the rest of this post will look at how you can produce better business content…

The process of creating better business blogs for your customers

Our writers have written lots of successful posts for our clients. In their expert opinion, the important thing to remember is that you’re not writing for you or your colleagues. At the end of the day, it’s for your customers. So, you must write it with them at front-of-mind from the outset. 

In an ideal world, your article will either solve a problem for your customers or it will give them fresh insights into their industry.

Plan your content

Lack of time and ideas are the two main reasons why so many small businesses do not actually have a blog. But, with a decent amount of planning, you can generate enough ideas to keep one running for weeks or even months ahead.

You can use your articles to answer questions that are most frequently asked by your customers. As well as informing your customers, this will save you time in the long term when it comes to providing duplicate answers to those recurring queries.

For instance, if you’re an optician, you could write a post that lets your audience know exactly what they should be looking for when they’re buying their next pair of reading glasses.

Google AdWords Keyword Tool is a great way to find keyword phrases that people are using to search for your services. Here at Ketchup, our SEO gurus use this powerful tool all the time.

Once you’ve identified the right keyword phrase, you can then use that phrase as your title. This is a very simple yet highly effective way of driving traffic to your website. Plus, it’s the ideal way to let the wider world know all about your services. 

So, for the optician mentioned above, the ideal title, based on volume research via Google’s keyword tool, would be something along the lines of: ‘How to choose your next pair of glasses’.

Create valuable content

The key to successful business blogging for small businesses is delivering valuable and relevant content that your readers will want to read. That’s the best way to establish your website’s authority with all clients across your industry. What’s more, if you provide your readers with valuable content, they will pay you back in two ways. Firstly, they’ll become return visitors to your blog and secondly, they’re more likely to part with their money when it comes to paying for your products and services.

If either a lack of time or a lack of writing skills is an issue, you could hand content creation over to a professional copywriting agency like Ketchup. Our expert team of writers will produce content that will really resonate with your customers. Ultimately, we’re here to help you drive sales for your business.

Frequency

There are different schools of thought when it comes to how frequently you should update your blog. Our rule is to aim for a realistic frequency that you can maintain. Fortnightly or weekly is fine.

The thing to aim for is consistency. It’s all about giving your site the feeling of being alive and relevant. After all, there’s nothing worse than checking out a company’s blog and discovering that it’s been abandoned.

Search engines love fresh content and the more frequently you update yours, the more likely your website will climb up search engine rankings and gain greater visibility for your target customers.

Develop your writing style

You should be aiming for an informal tone of voice when you write your business blogs. This way, your readers get to experience the human side of your company. Inject some personality and always keep the sales pitch down to a minimum. Apply these simple style tips and people are more likely to respond to you and buy your services.

Interaction

You might find that you’re not getting many comments back from readers when you start to publish your blogs. Don’t worry about it. The fact that your article isn’t getting any feedback doesn’t mean it’s not being read. Think about the number of pages that you read every day. Do you usually have time to leave comments? Most people don’t.

The likelihood is that you’ll start to receive more comments as you gradually build up your readership. So be patient and persevere.

Your words should be shareable

Links are the lifeblood of the Internet. By making links shareable you can make your business blogs more accessible to more people. So, it’s important that you make it as easy as possible for your readers to share your posts.

There’s a really easy way to do this – just use the standard share icons. These are social networking icons that make it easy for people to share your post and consequently, drive traffic and potential sales to your site.

Always measure your blog’s performance

It’s vital that you have a suitable statistical analysis tool in place to measure your website’s performance. The most popular one, and tool of choice here at Ketchup is Google Analytics. It’s free and you can easily install it in a matter of minutes. 

In time, as you add more and more posts to your blog, you’ll gain a clearer picture of how people are finding your content and, crucially, which of your posts are more popular. This lets you know exactly what kind of content your readers like, so you can produce more of it.

Writing your inaugural post 

Now let’s look at the actual process of sitting down and writing your business blog. Here are some excellent pointers for crafting better business posts.

Keep it lean and clear

Lose any unnecessary words from your article. The idea is to make your writing as simple as possible for your reader to understand. Concise writing is lean and clear. Your readers should be able to zip through it with minimal effort.

Use one sentence to cover one idea

Use one clear sentence that’s easy to understand to cover one main idea. Some writers are far too focused on sounding clever. But good business blogging is all about conveying information – sometimes complicated information – in a simple way. If you use complex sentences, it can easily confuse readers and many of them will simply stop reading.

Never ever forget that your readers aren’t bothered about your writing skills. They want to quickly understand the solutions to their own problems. So, simple sentences are the way forward for successful posting. If you’re unsure, you can use the Hemingway App to check that all your sentences are bold and clear.

No sentence is an island

While you’re writing your business blogs, always bear in mind that sentences don’t live in isolation. If you want to write a compelling sentence, you need to also consider the sentences coming before and after. 

Using the same word or phrase in adjacent sentences or covering similar ideas in two different sentences makes one of them redundant. To create a more stimulating and rewarding experience for your readers, vary your language and avoid repeating information. 

You can use Power Thesaurus to replace overused words with dynamic synonyms.

Use varying sentence length and different structures

Gary Provost posted some valuable advice on Twitter a couple of years ago. It’s essential reading for today’s blog writers.

“This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. 

Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals – sounds that say listen to this, it is important.”

Put simply, your writing becomes repetitive and boring when your sentences have the same structure or length. Varied sentences make your writing more appealing and much more pleasant to read.

That’s because humans love a bit of variety. This is especially true when it comes to reading your content. Remember that short, medium, and long sentences complement each other. Simple and compound sentences complement each other too.

Avoid clichés

Clichés are everywhere. I was tempted to use “Avoid clichés like the plague” as the title for this section. But the fact is, clichés will make your writing sound unoriginal and tired.

Clichés are basically overused phrases. They’re so overused that they lose their true meaning. There are even studies claiming that figures of speech like “hungry as a horse” or buzzwords such as “leverage” don’t have an impact on the prefrontal cortex, which is the area of your brain that enables you to experience emotions. In other words, some clichés are so overused that they simply don’t affect you. So, there’s absolutely no point in using them in your writing.    

The easiest way to test clichés is to simply ask yourself if you’ve heard the term before. If you have, try to express your idea in a new, fresh way. You can also eliminate clichés by running your business blogs through a cliché finder tool.

Wave goodbye to unnecessary copy

When you write what you think is the perfect paragraph or sentence, your inner author tends to cling onto it. Even if it doesn’t fit in with the rest of your content, you still might try to shoehorn it in somewhere. The problem is, you’ve become too attached to let it go.

But it’s crucial to remember that paragraphs or sentences that don’t deepen your readers’ understanding of your topic, don’t provide new information, or don’t spark interest in the next section just aren’t necessary. All they will do is make your writing more difficult to read.

Instead of building around unnecessary copy, strip it away and start something new from scratch. Culling your writing is always hard, especially if it reads well to you. But if it doesn’t provide value to your readers, it’s time to let it go.

Take some time out

Before you submit the final draft of your copy, it’s crucial to have some time away from it. You need this time to see things differently. With a fresh pair of eyes, you’re more likely to discover overlooked errors and new ways to improve your writing.

Eddie Shleyner is the founder of VeryGoodCopy.com, which is well worth checking out if you’re looking for tips on all sorts of writing, including blogging for small businesses. Eddie always follows “The Rule of 12” when it comes to editing his posts.

As soon as he’s produced his final draft, he leaves it for 12 hours. Then he makes his final round of edits. After a break from the piece, he says he always finds a mistake or a new way to polish his copy.

Be a SMART business blogger

This section of our article is all about helping you to develop a business blog that attracts the right viewers. Those who could go on to become customers.

As with any other marketing campaign, your blog must have defined goals. These targets will differ depending on your business, but the SMART strategy outlined here is a reliable format for any organisation to use.

For each of your goals, check that they are:

Specific

What exactly are you trying to achieve? In business blogging, you may want more site traffic, more leads for your new product, to generate more brand awareness or to establish your business as an educator or thought leader.

Measurable

It’s vital to constantly track your progress. This is how you can determine when you have achieved your goals. Metrics like daily website traffic, social shares and email subscribers are all excellent barometers to gauge audience engagement with your content.

Attainable

While it’s tempting to aim high, you should always set realistic expectations. You can do this by using data analytics to guide your goals. Don’t feel too deflated if you’re setting low targets. Remember that 100 genuine brand advocates are worth so much more to your business than 10,000 one-off visitors.

Relevant

Your goals should be closely linked to your key business objectives. For example, increasing your email subscribers by 10% in the next quarter will likely result in some new leads for your product or service which, in turn, presents new opportunities for sales.

Time-based

Every goal needs a deadline. If you set a schedule to chart your progress, you will also encourage your team. You must make sure that they are always pushing forward to hit targets on time.

The importance of long-term blogging for small businesses

While there are millions of blogs on the Internet, only a relatively small number of them are active. There are lots of reasons why they die. For instance, people simply run out of things to say, they get busy, or worst of all, they feel like they’re talking to themselves.

Here are a few tips to help you keep yours up and running, while making sure your content stays fresh and appealing for your audience.

Create a posting schedule 

When you start your blog, commit to posting once a week, or once every two weeks, and block out some time in your schedule to do just that.

Start with a low posting rate. Then if you find you have enough time to post more, it will be a pleasant surprise for your readers. On the other hand, the last thing you need is disappointed readers – who are used to seeing your new content every day – when you start posting every two weeks.

Brainstorm 100 post ideas 

Sit down with a notebook and write out 100 topics you could write about. Even better, create 100 titles for future posts. You can possibly go a step further and write quick outlines of how the posts might look.

The next time you’re stuck for something to write about, pull out your notebook and write one off your list.

Write posts in advance 

Build up a backlog of three, four or more posts. This gives you a cushion in case you find yourself stuck for a topic at a later point in time. You can also use the post scheduling feature several blogs have.

WordPress.com and Blogger will both allow you to set up posts for the future if you are going to be away on holiday, for instance.

Tell people your web address 

Let your customers, potential customers, partners and suppliers know you have a blog. Put the URL on your business cards, add it to your email signatures, put it in your profile on social networking sites, include it when you post to forums, and so on. The more people are aware, the better.

Comment on other people’s posts 

Be an active part of the blogging community. People will see your comments and click your link to find out more about you. Plus, you’ll make friends in your area of interest.

Link to other blogs 

When other bloggers see that you’ve linked to them, they’ll check you out, and they may link back to you to return the favour.

Write a guest post 

There are many high-profile websites that regularly publish guest posts by other writers to help them generate more interest. Check your favourite and see if they have information about contributing. Don’t give up if you can’t find anything, simply email the blogger and ask.

Write great content 

This is the most important thing when it comes to long-term blogging for small businesses.

No-one will attempt to read your posts if they’re written poorly, or they’re mind-numbingly boring. To add insult to injury, no-one’s going to be willing to publish your guest posts, and nobody will link back to you. You won’t feel motivated to write, because you’ll feel like nobody is reading you, and because you feel unsatisfied with the quality of the work. 

You don’t need to be the next Hemingway. But you must develop an authentic, engaging voice.

How great business blogs can drive your sales

Making your business stand out from the crowd in today’s busy digital marketplace is essential. But it’s not easy. When you need to grow your online audience, and connect with your target consumers, blogging for business is a tried-and-tested route to success in the digital era. 

However, many small business owners are yet to realise the benefits of a blog on their website. By regularly posting high-quality content to a business website, you can deliver more value to your potential leads and customers. This can lead to improved conversions, higher sales, and better customer retention. 

Your customers love reading business blogs

We know this because people everywhere love reading blogs. It’s a universal phenomenon. Whether they are reading to learn how to solve a specific problem, figure out how to do something, or just to stay informed about a certain topic, your customers find quality content valuable and irresistible.

There’s one very important thing to remember. If you really want to engage your customers and make them listen to your communications, you’ll need to make sure that your words provide value. That means you need to do a great deal more than simply touting your brand as the best one out there. Instead, you must write about the stuff that your consumers find most important.

If you’re serious about producing content that will really add value for readers, you must ensure that all your content is well-written, researched, and reliable. 

If you don’t have someone on your team that can dedicate time to producing quality content, you may want to outsource this work to Ketchup. We have a team of writers who are expert bloggers. They will make sure that every piece of content you publish is valuable for your target audience.

Useful blog content can convert customers

Business blogs can have a positive impact on your company’s sales. That’s because they’re a great tool to help you to influence conversions. As you’re no doubt aware, turning visitors into leads, then leads into customers is no mean feat. 

But your business blogs can do a lot of the groundwork to help you move customers through your marketing funnel. The key to generating conversions via your blog is knowing your audience. So, your assigned writer should be writing about topics that your target customers are most interested in. 

Never simply cover topics that you and your colleagues find interesting. Instead, think about what’s front-of-mind for your audience. Cover the stuff that they need to understand before they can convert.

By gaining a better understanding of your audience, you’ll be in a better position to write in a way that appeals to your target buyers. For example, if you sell a high-tech product or service but your customers aren’t technical minded, you’ll want to explain topics in a simple way that they can easily understand – otherwise, you risk losing them halfway through your post. 

Similarly, consider the tone of your content and adopt a voice that’s appropriate for your audience. Another consideration when using posts to influence conversions is how you will engage consumers throughout the buyer’s journey. Though your end goal is a conversion, you need to engage customers at each step in your marketing funnel, especially if you want them to move from visitor to lead and then from lead to customer.

Always bear in mind that someone in the awareness stage would rather read different types of blog content compared with those who are at the decision stage. You’ll need different content for readers who are at different stages.

How blog frequency impacts customer acquisition

If you’re serious about leveraging your blog to influence more conversions, you must be consistent. This means updating your site regularly and posting new content often.

The more frequently you post to your business website, the more likely you’ll be to acquire new customers through your blog. Customers love seeing lots of great content that they can read and learn from. However, it’s also helpful for search engines to see regular posting. 

The more posts you create, the more pages of quality content you have for search engines such as Google to scan and index. According to HubSpot, companies that posted 16 or more times per month (4 per week) experienced 3.5 times more traffic than those who only published new content 1 to 4 times a month.

Blogging for business drives more traffic to your site

Every business is looking for new ways to drive more traffic to their website. Of course, there are paid strategies to help you do this, like PPC and Google Display ads. However, the goal is to maximise the amount of organic (or free) traffic that you drive to your site from search engines like Google. This is extremely important for small businesses, especially when you’re working with limited digital marketing budgets.

The only way to boost organic traffic is to focus on proven search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies like blogging for business. Each time you create a new post on your site, you’re effectively adding to the number of indexable pages that your website has. This basically means you’re creating yet another opportunity for your brand to show up on search engines and rank higher on the search engine results page (SERP).

As well as being a great way to create more indexed pages, business blogs also boost your opportunity to receive more inbound links. These are links to your content from other sources. Inbound links improve your SEO while boosting your chances of being discovered by visitors to other sites.

Search engines aren’t the only place where you can drive more organic traffic back to your site. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram also provide your business with new opportunities to drive traffic to your site. 

As well as sharing posts on your company’s social media channels, you should also encourage your fans and followers to share your content with others who might find it valuable.

Compounding blogs

At this stage, it’s worth noting that not all your blogs will drive steady traffic over time. But according to WordStream, 1 in 10 are compounding. This means that organic search traffic for these blogs continues to increase over time. The more consistent, quality content your business publishes over time, the greater your chances are of creating a compounding post.

To really maximise your blog’s potential, be sure to monitor analytics to see which posts are most popular and generate the most engagement over time. Then, you can continue to update and optimise these posts for better reach to encourage continued traffic. Also, consider the topic and other elements such as the title, imagery, and CTA so that you can test new types of content to maximise reach.

Blog content helps build trust within your target market

Building relationships with leads and customers is a vital part of increasing conversion rates and influencing repeat sales. Blogging for business is a great way to build trust within your target market and work to support and grow these customer relationships.

Why is blogging such a powerful tool when it comes to building relationships? Because business content can provide real value for consumers. Unlike traditional marketing which is concerned with selling a product or service, business writing helps consumers understand why they need the product or service and how it can add value in their lives.

Business posts can also help you to boost the authority of your brand. By providing quality content that offers valuable insight and information on important industry topics, you can prove to your customers that your business is knowledgeable and experienced.

It takes time to become an authority in your industry through thoughtful leadership content. But the payoff can be significant. The more reliable and helpful information you post to your site, the more likely your audience will be to trust your business and turn to you when they are finally ready to make a purchase.

Business blogging is also a great way to encourage engagement with your brand. This is all about trust. When you help consumers better understand their challenges and needs through quality content, you encourage them to speak directly to your brand when they need a solution. If they trust your business, they’ll be more likely to buy from you.

Why we love blogging for small businesses

We’re not saying writing business blogs is easy. It’s a constant battle. You need to keep coming up with fresh, engaging content. Everything must be well-written. Plus, it needs to connect with your very specific audience. But done right, as we do, it pays. When we’re blogging for small businesses, we’re focused on making more leads for our clients.  

That’s because, according to Hubspot, companies using blogs as part of their marketing mix are rewarded with a whopping 67% more leads than those who don’t. This is another key reason why posting articles is so great for small businesses.  

Make your case

Thinking about writing your own business blogs? Need more buy-in for a page you’ve already started? The reasons above are a great place to start convincing your colleagues about the power of blogging.

Bogged down with blogs?

Are you struggling to produce fresh, relevant and well-written content every month? Ketchup’s crack team of copywriters can help. Our expert writers are well-versed when it comes to blogging for small businesses. We’ll create an effective content plan and provide everything you need to bring all the benefits of blogging to your organisation.

You might be considering hiring a new team member to help you create consistent content more frequently. However, you’ll save money if you work with Ketchup. Marketing’s what we do, so you can rest assured your business blogs will generate the results you require. 

Graeme Copywriter

About the author

Graeme is a copywriter who prides himself on his ability to turn a phrase and capture a moment. As Ketchup’s Creative Copy Manager, he also leads the copy team, and acts as the guardian of the Ketchup brand voice.

Graeme believes in the power of words to shape a brand, and the importance of copy as a key tool in Ketchup’s creative arsenal. Need to express something clearly and concisely [but with that dash of sauce]? Graeme’s the go-to guy.

Read more about Graeme