The Blogosphere is here and it is not going anywhere. It’s not just for people talking about what they’re eating for lunch or their next celebrity crush. Blogging is big business for entrepreneurs and business owners. CEO Blog Nation recently launched a blogging community and we regularly blog for entrepreneurs and business owners and there are numerous reasons to blog. Rescue a CEO asked some businesses how they use blogging to help their business.
#1- The lynchpin for my business
The key is that I provide original content with genuine value for the people in my niche – which is film and television production workers and aspiring filmmakers. My monthly posts, which I consider articles automatically distribute across my social media, particularly my Facebook business page, from where I can share again. Whenever I publish a post, I get an uptick in inquiries for my one-on-one done-for-you resume services. I create an annual editorial calendar, and also add video content to my YouTube channel in support of blog posts. The majority of my content is designed to be perennial rather than time-sensitive. (I tend to use Facebook directly for timely material.)
Thanks to Robyn Coburn, WorkInProduction.com!
#2- For thought leadership
Our blog lets our potential clients, our competitors and our peers in the digital marketing field know that we can offer insight and authority on the intricate dealings of our industry. It allows us to establish ethos and lets everyone know that we know what we're talking about. Beyond establishing authority, blogging allows us to showcase the passion we have for digital marketing and allows us a space to answer the questions that are frequently on the minds of our specific audience.
Thanks to Aaron Watters, Leadhub!
#3- Attract prospects
I use my blog to create relevant house owning content to attract prospects that may be interested in selling their property. The blogs are organized by main themes like Landlord Issues, Costs of Owning a House and Foreclosure. Then, we create specific content based on the theme, like writing specific blogs about each step in the foreclosure process and options available to the homeowner. We always strive to provide value in our blogs to benefit the reader, even if working with us is not their best option.
Thanks to Tino Jaimes, Sunrise House Buyers TX!
#4- Three useful business purposes
First, it serves as a conversation about what we do, and as such allows me to be an active contributor to the community. That has led to numerous subcontracting opportunities from allies and bystanders. Second, it draw direct leads – at least, some posts do. For instance, our post on ghostwriting contracts has been more than profitable through the warm leads it attracts. Finally, the blog keeps the website active, which in turn leads to better search visibility – and for some of our services, search is the only way to be hired.
Thanks to David Leonhardt, THGM Writers!
#5- To better serve clients
I use my blog to better serve current, potential and even past clients. I often find that I have similar conversations with clients where I give the same advice over and over again. These conversations are usually the inspiration for my blog posts. I summarize that same advice into a blog post. It helps current clients, because I can send them the blog post and say, Read this and the next time we talk I'll help you really apply it to your own situation. My posts help past clients in that some of them still pay attention to my blog posts (or are on my mailing list and read them when they're sent out) and can serve as helpful reminders. And my posts expand my impact by providing useful information to people who I may never work directly with but can take the information and work on their own to apply it. I'm at a point now where many people who eventually become clients come in having already read some of my blog posts. In a way, this makes our work together easier. They already have some exposure to the concepts I'll introduce and I'm just building on that basic knowledge they got from my posts.
Thanks to Jessica Tappana, Simplified SEO Consulting!
#6- Solve a problem, build my brand
When anyone needs a quick pick-me-up to get through a ho-hum day, my 3-Minute Coaching blog is at their service. As a life and recovery coach, I use my blog as a fast and fun way to help readers solve problems or get through annoying issues – in three different forms. Folks can read the blog, watch the vlog and/or listen to the podcast, depending on what’s easiest for them at the moment. They get all three once a week, as consistency is an important part of building your brand. A secondary purpose of my blog is to let readers get to know me better, which is the only way they’ll come to trust me to help them with their own problems. Rather than base my blog on tons of scientific research or preach a list of to-dos, I typically discuss my own issues I’ve had with a specific problem. This not only makes the blog more personal, but it shows them they are never alone with whatever issue they may be experiencing and they can get through successfully, too.
Thanks to Ryn Gargulinski, Rynski Recovery Club!
#7- As a sandbox and creative outlet
While my blog is a great marketing tool, I use it for two even more important reasons. First is as a sandbox: I use my blog to pressure test new content that I plan to develop into a new workshop or speaking engagement. Those blog posts often become the “outline” for a future presentation. Also in the spirit of the sandbox, I use it as a creative outlet. Writing is one of my favorite parts of my job. I truly enjoy writing my blog.
Thanks to Randi Braun, Something Major!
#8- The foundation of my business
In digital marketing, being relevant is a key factor in staying on the top and blogging keeps me there. Clients see the blog, and they are assured that we really know what we're doing because of the fresh information we publish on SEO. It also helps that we rank for one of the toughest keywords in the country: SEO Philippines which is one of the primary reasons that help clients find us.
Thanks to Marinela Abarca, SEO Hacker!
#9- Create a buzz
One of the biggest benefits of our blog use has been the guerrilla marketing style campaign we’ve been able to launch. Guerrilla marketing – at its core – revolves around successfully surprising and enticing the audience. An easy and cheap way to do this is through blogging. Blogging has allowed our marketing team a chance to create a buzz through personal expression on topics they are passionate about. As we’ve found, when done correctly, these blog posts have provided readers with conversation topics that boost site exposure. When using blogging for the purpose of marketing, it’s important to keep in mind that the audience has the ability to turn to multiple different sources to read about whatever topic interests them. Our goal has always been to provide a knowledge-based perspective or idea that has not been seen before and leaves readers wanting more. Encouraging feedback and comments on blog posts was another simple trick we used to keep the conversation going and lure in more readers as they try to keep up with the buzz. These frequent readers helped to turn our simple blog posts into a community that our audience checks in with daily. Once our blog had fostered its audience, it was as simple as allowing it to lean into a personality all its own and watching the site traffic grow.
Thanks to Gary Stevens, Hosting Canada!
#10- Provide helpful information
At Beekeeper, we use our blog to provide helpful information that can help our customers and potential customers become better informed on topics that pertain to our products, such as employee engagement and internal communications. We literally have a few hundred blogs on our site – all short 3- to 8-minute reads. What we have discovered is that the more educated our customer base is, then the more likely they are to understand just how important our services are, and how positively they can impact their business.
Thanks to Alexandra Zamolo, Beekeeper!
#11- Instill trust
At Mailbird, we are experts at communication and email. However, we also like to be able to provide information regarding all sorts of other related things to our customer base. Like… what's the best strategy for email marketing, or how can you turn your newsletter into a source of income. This way, we're not just experts on email, but our customers can turn to use for how-to guides and lists filled with advice on a number of things.This instills trust with our clients. We provide information that has been discovered through years of research, and often even trial and error on our end. That's why we use our blog as a source of information, but also to set us up as experts on a number of topics.
Thanks to Andrea Loubier, Mailbird!
#12- Express my opinion
In my opinion, a blog has a representative value of a company. Most businessmen try to push sales and they neglect the importance of sharing their expertise in writing. Showing off my knowledge of the market niche I am in is important. Business is built on trust. How can people trust me if they do not know me, or the way I think. We have to give something, before getting something in return. Having a blog helps me to express my opinion about current events (in the financial market, lending, high-interest) and etc. 1 blog post a week is a must for any business.
Thanks to Vytautas Zilenas, Debitum Network!
#13- Share latest information
I invest a lot of time and effort into creating quality articles for my blog. I see it as a valuable space for sharing the latest information regarding HR, careers, and modern workspace. One of the major goals of my website is to provide people with accurate statistics and facts from my niche. Oftentimes, I’m the author of the blog posts as I try to avoid cheap, salesy articles that have very low value.
Thanks to Darko Jacimovic, WhatToBecome.com!
#14- PR, to connect and educate
We place our blogs on the main site, but also on our social media pages so we can gather feedback and ignite deeper, more meaningful conversations with our clientele. We use our blogs to educate our target audience also, and one of the best ways we do this is by creating questionnaires that our own customers fill out, and then we relay the findings in a blog. So, we're using information from our own community to educate and support others. Not to mention, this is incredibly important when it comes to SEO. The Cadenshae blog is a vital part of our PR framework; our customers get added value when exploring our site as we’re providing more than just quality apparel. Aspirational consumers want their brand to stand for more, to do more, to connect – our blog is one way we’re able to give the people what they crave.
Thanks to Nikki Clarke, Cadenshae!
#15- Several ways
Our blog is a mixture of marketing and business tips through to life hacks and seasonal tips. Given the nature of our business we have users from all types of business backgrounds, cleaners, builders, gardeners and even photographers. We also know that a lot of businesses’ that register through us are start-up companies and so need a help in hand with certain stages of creating a business. This gives us an SEO advantage to target a wide range of areas when including keywords and other SEO criteria’s in our blog posts as well as helping as many users as possible at various stages of running their business.
Thanks to Ellie Pearce, Whoever You Need!
#16- Improve SEO
Blogging is a sure-fire way to increase your website’s SEO performance. Fresh content is still just as important today as it ever was in boosting your rankings and showing your website to be a quality one, both in the eyes of Google and your customers. Keyword-specific topics help your target audience to find your website further up the search engines’ rankings, which is the key factor in driving higher conversion rates. It also offers your target market plenty of relevant and helpful information, making you a trusted source for them to turn to at any time.
Thanks to Guy Novik, Orlando Villa Holidays!
#17- Attract and nurture leads
The great thing about a business blog is that it can be so diverse. We firstly engage with our audience to find what is most relevant for them, answering questions and solving pain points using step-by-step explanations that we know our reader-base appreciates. Our blog, like many others, is based around content clusters with the central pillar content being based around an ebook, white paper or guide. We've found this approach to using our blog a really valuable way to attract new leads who are interested in our product, as well as nurture existing customers who want to get more out of our services.
Thanks to Ben Culpin, WakeupData!
#18- Build relationships
One way I use RocLogic's blog is to get a potential customer to think about a particular topic that I think is important to them, but isn't at the front of their mind. In this scenario I already have an established connection and generally some amount of relationship developed. If your thoughts on the particular topic are coherent and compelling, you'll build trust. You want to be empathetic about the context in which you're sharing the content. You don't want to share without having some sense of topic relevance and timing appropriateness. This requires you to think before you share, so as to stand a better chance of being helpful vs annoying.
Thanks to David LaVine, RocLogic Marketing!
#19- Support videos we release
We use our blog to support the videos we release on Youtube and on social media. With our blogs, we normally with transcribe them so it actually gives a good amount of content. When we do this, what we see is that we not only have our video showing up for our main keyword terms, but our blog as well. Allows us to get more real estate in Google's search results.
Thanks to Jeff Moriarty, Moriarty's Gem Art!
#20- Validating our industry knowledge
Our blog is focused on answering grey areas for credit unions. The credit union industry is slow to innovate and is often being challenged by the big banks. The CUCollaborate blog allows us to answer the questions our clients are consistently asking us. We do interviews with different credit unions, analyze new regulations and build case studies around different trends in the industry. From a marketing perspective, the analytics from the blog allows us to understand the problems that our clients find most troubling. With this data, we can better tailor our products to them and also influence new leads who are on the edge of using our services. Our blog is a great medium for marketing ourselves as thought leaders and providing our clients validation of our industry knowledge.
Thanks to Lucas McCanna, CUCollaborate!
#21- Two ways
First, I use it to showcase my work. Before contacting me, all my potential clients have a look at my blog and articles published there.So I make sure that each article is superbly written, to the best of my ability. Second, My long term goal is to transition from freelance writing to affiliate marketing and generating passive income. To achieve that goal, I need articles and lots of them. So my blog posts, besides being samples of the quality of my writing, are also keyword targeted, SEO-ed and some of them also host affiliate links. Over time as my blog grows and my site's domain authority rises, I expect to make many more affiliate sales and then affiliate marketing income will supplant my income from freelance writing. So, I'm using my blog to gain short term benefit of getting new writing clients, while also thinking ahead and looking into the future.
Thanks to Nikola Roza
#22- Blogging is my business!
Blogging is how I not only ensure that Google can find my business and rank it, but also how I provide valuable content to potential clients and current clients. I post a link to my blogs on every social media platform and I also send links out with email marketing. As a content creator, I write blogs and do email marketing for busy entrepreneurs. My blogs not only allow me to attract new clients, they also help me teach entrepreneurs best practices so they can implement the techniques themselves.
Thanks to Melanie Herschorn, VIP Business Connection!