Your brand is your identity. It is what potential customers use to distinguish you from your competitors. Traditional brand-building methods such as billboards, TV, radio, and flyers are still utilized but are they considered a complete waste of money now that blogging is in the game?
With the advent of the digital age, it is becoming easier to get brand recognition. It doesn’t matter whether you have been in business for a while or you are just a start-up struggling to get on its feet, the internet provides an excellent platform to promote your brand.
And so, one of the most potent tools for publicizing yourself is a blog. It gives you online visibility and, at the same time, allows you to monitor your market engagement, growth, and success. But how do businesses use blogs effectively? Let’s take a look.
How Blogging for Your Business Can Help
1. A perfect communication tool
Your blog is the ideal place to share information about upcoming projects and everything that you and your brand are working on—in conjunction with social media, of course. For example, it serves as an anchor point for everything information-related for a new project or product.
Talking about anything to do with your brand before a new project is launched is a great marketing strategy—just PLEASE don’t copy Billy McFarland! The anticipation this creates guarantees sales as soon as the product is released—just make sure you have what it takes to back up what you’re saying you’re going to do.
In addition, blogging allows your customers to read your content and leave feedback. Do not hesitate to engage your customers in the comments section. Even so, remember that comments are not always positive. Seek out the reason behind negative feedback and follow-up on the issues raised.
2. An extra source of income
It could be that you set up your blog solely to market your brand but conveniently stumbled upon other money-making opportunities. Most people would seize such opportunities, and if this is the case, your blog is an excellent way to do this—it’s hard to say no to extra cash, isn’t it?
Apart from the obvious selling of your product or service, there are several other ways blogging for your business can earn you an income:
- Advertisements
If your blog has the needed traffic, companies are likely to pay you (perhaps through Google’s Adsense) to place ads on your site. If they don’t come to you, you can reach out to them, instead. By establishing your online presence and networking offline and through social media, other companies and brands might approach you to endorse their brands in return for an exchange of funds or free products. This usually only occurs when you have a recognized online presence, which is greatly enhanced by having a blog. - Affiliate marketing
Affiliation is becoming a trendy sales tool for business—by relying on third parties for endorsing their brand, they get a kickback for any sales generated through their promotions. Effectively, it’s free marketing for them, they’re just paying a commission instead of incurring costs for their own advertising.This is one sure way your blog can generate passive income; by promoting another person’s product, and as a result, getting paid every time your endorsement ends up in a sale. This usually occurs via your own, personalized affiliate URL which is located on your blog. Every visitor who clicks on the link and ends up completing a purchase (within a specified timeframe) will earn you a commission. - Donations
Putting a donate button on your blog allows willing readers to send you money. You might want to position this button in such a way that it is visible to everyone who visits the blog. While some specify the amount they would like donated to them, others leave this decision entirely to their readers.If you go out of your way to produce exceptional content, your readers will also go out of their way to ensure you don’t starve. OK, this might be a slight exaggeration, but the key here is that you really need to make sure you’re providing value to your readership through your blog—make it factual, value-added, and engage with your audience.
3. Blogging for your businesses credibility
Apart from informing your readers, regular, high-quality content portrays you as an industry expert; one who actually knows what they are talking about, which can be a far cry from many other bloggers out there.
Even better, if you satisfactorily respond to your readers’ questions; you will be regarded as an authority whose word is law. Thus, people will be drawn to your product and not someone else’s.
Also, your influence will attract people to you for mentorship. As part of strengthening your brand, you could consider creating a book in your area of expertise or create an online course. This will not only offer more value to your readers but can also increase your income.
4. Boosts SEO ranking
By having your own blog, an internet search will likely find you sooner than it will your competition that doesn’t have a blog.
Here are some ways in which blogging can boost SEO ranking:
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- Increases the dwell time
Dwell time is how long a visitor stays on your site before going back to find an alternative source for the search query. The higher the dwell time, the higher the SEO ranking, in general. Therefore, longer articles perform better on search engines than shorter ones. But bear in mind that the content still needs to be relevant to your brand! - Ensures the website stays relevant
Websites that are frequently updated with new content rank better than those with archived and aged content. Blogging updates Google that your website is still up and running with fresh information. It’s also a great way to concrete your authority by staying relevant and up with modern trends concerning your brand. - Helps you to position keywords
Specificity is the way to go with SEO. Blogs containing keywords that are more specific and tailored—i.e., longtail—will be found faster than those with generalized high-traffic keywords.
- Increases the dwell time
A core part of your blogging, therefore, is to do your keyword research, but remember: do not stuff your content with just keyword. It’ll read badly, your audience will disengage, Google will put you on the naughty step, and you’ll generally do your brand more harm than good.
5. Professional advancement through networking
Linking up with like-minded people is an excellent way to grow your brand. However, in your pursuit of professional relationships, you must remember that what you bring to the table is more important than what you are getting from your contacts. One way to do this is to share informative and well-researched articles.
Don’t forget how much power social media holds. While it’s a great idea to create social media accounts specifically for your blog/brand, there is no harm in attaching links to your personal social media accounts. Doing this welcomes both readers and other bloggers into your world so that you can share ideas. Just ensure that you remain professional, at all times.
Blogger conferences are also highly popular. They provide bloggers with an opportunity to meet other bloggers face-to-face without the barrier of a screen, humanizing the blogging world. If there isn’t a conference near you, why not get on the front foot and start your own? Remember I mentioned about establishing authority? What a statement this would make!
Now, go! Don’t be afraid to blog
Blogging is not the only way through which you can build your brand. Social media is also a great way to go. Spread your wings far and wide. Also, if you are planning to start a blog, welcome aboard! There is no better time to do it. Just start.
Above all else, be original. Be you. Build you. Tell your own stories as they are. Doing this will make you memorable to all those you interact with.