Are you wondering why blog and what are the benefits of blogging for business?
Is it worth the effort to start a blog in 2022 to grow your coaching business?
A blog is a fantastic tool, which can help you simplify:
- Your online content management
- Content consumption for your internal & external clients
And the business instantly improves when you manage to do the above two things well.
In 2009—the midst of the Great Recession—Michael Stelzner, Founder of Social Media Examiner, noticed many people were talking about what they disliked about social media. But few were sharing how businesses could benefit from the emerging platforms.
With no social media experience, Michael set out to create a movement for businesses. His premise: If marketers openly shared what worked with social media, businesses could thrive. His mission was to bring together the brightest minds and offer quality content for free.
Today, more than 85 million people have benefited from the content produced by Social Media Examiner.
In July/August 2008, Michael floated the idea of starting an online magazine about what they all were experts in, which is social media at dinner with his business partners.
Michael is a real role model for taking action immediately once you have an idea. You can watch the following short video to learn more about Social Media Examiner’s origin story and to get ideas on how you can implement your blog idea fast.
In this post, you’ll learn the immediate and medium to long term benefits of blogging for business so you can make an informed decision to start a blog.
Let’s get started!
Immediate Benefits of Blogging
Do you know a report by Strava, suggests that people are most likely to ditch their annual commitment to themselves on January 19?
Blogging is like getting fit. It is hard to see the results with:
- One workout
- Eating healthy occasionally
- Sleeping on time once in a blue moon
Similarly, blogging won’t’ work if you:
- Write as and when you feel like it
- Read occasionally
- Publish once in a while
Blogging usually produces marketing results in the medium to long term if everything goes as per plan. Most blogs fail because it is hard to stay motivated over a long period of time without seeing progress.
However, a few important immediate blogging benefits can substantially improve your business and keep you motivated to blog consistently.
1. Clarify your why, how & what
The most significant immediate benefit of blogging is that it gives you a chance to share your “why” to get feedback and optimize.
You can share:
- Why are you doing what you are doing (your inspiration)
- How you do what you do (your processes)
- What you do (your offers)
By creating blog posts or pages to explore the above three can help you:
- Explore your business’s “why” inside out by sharing with others
- To record “what you do” and “how you do it” in details
- Acquire “Google love” while doing the above two
2. Ideal to manage your content
Most businesses produce huge amounts of content nowadays. Blogging software such as self-hosted WordPress has evolved as a master content management system.
A professionally created about page of your blog can be a great place to:
- Share your why (your origin story)
- Link to your how to’s & offers
- A gateway to team trainings
Are you using your blog to manage all your business content in one place?
3. Record answers to faq’s by your customers
Recording answers to frequently asked questions from your customers can be the most valuable source for your blog content.
A few benefits of recording answers to faqs:
- Enhance customer experience
- Reduce your customer service efforts
- Helps your blog get more search traffic
Your inbox can be a great source to dig these repeated questions from your customers and create pages to answer these valuable questions from your customers.
4. Content for social media
According to a recent study, there are about 3.196 billion social media users at present.
Content is an essential element of playing a social media game, staying visible and keeping your social media presence alive. However, quality content creation is time-consuming and requires a lot of effort.
Benefits of active social media profiles:
- You can build a following
- Establish your personal brand
- Referral traffic to your blog
It is wise to repurpose your blog content to drive social media traffic is a great way to get the most out of your blog content, which you spent time and resources to create.
5. Share ideas
Internet and blogging tools have democratised publishing.
A blog is a great way to share your personal thoughts, insights and ideas about a certain topic, particularly about your own niche.
Especially for online coaching, blogging is a great way to:
- Share new ideas
- Help your target audience through your content
- Build a personal brand in your niche
Medium to Long Term Benefits of Blogging
You’ll see most of the blogging benefits in the medium to long term. However, the above immediate benefits will help you stay motivated.
7. Increased brand awareness
It is said that 70% of customers learn about a company through articles
rather than ads.
Creating high-quality content can be an effective way to launch your business and create brand awareness. Quality content can be the best use of your marketing budget over the longer run.
People are more likely to opt for something that is well known to them rather than going for something that they have never heard of.
8. High-Quality Leads
Blogging can play an important role in generating more leads. According to one study, 61% of US consumers have made a purchase based on a blog post.
Having a blog makes it is easy to build rapport by:
- Demonstrating your knowledge
- Letting your work speak for you
- Incentives/offers
Organic leads are known as high-quality leads because these visitors are finding you because of your content and not because they are searching directly for your business name.
9. Email subscribers list
Whether you are trying to sell a product, service or information, email sign-ups can bring significant results. Your blog is the best way to get email subscribers.
According to a study, people who buy products marketed through email spend 138% more than people who do not receive promotional emails.
Having an email list can help you in the following ways :
- Share new articles
- Market your product
- Offer discounts or promotions to boost sales
You’re not making the most out of your blog if you do not use it to build an email list.
10. Improves search engine rankings
Search engines love fresh and valuable content. Regularly updating or adding content to your website can help attain a better ranking.
Each blog post that you publish is a separate page on your site that search engines can index. This multiplies your chances of getting ranked.
It is also said that businesses that blog receive 55% more traffic than those that don’t. And more traffic means more opportunities to generate a lead.
11. Helps to build quality links
Having high-quality content on your blog can help link building in two ways :
- Other websites will link back to you
- Drastically increase inbound links
It is estimated that companies who blog receive up to 97% more links to their website than those that don’t.
Link building contributes directly and significantly to getting ranked by search engines which in turn generate traffic and then customers.
12. Establish you an authority in your field
Blog posts are a powerful way of demonstrating knowledge, building trust and establishing yourself as an authority in your niche.
It will give readers the impression that you truly understand your industry, your customers and their needs.
A regular supply of high quality, informative and user friendly content will eventually earn you recognition as an authoritative source.
13. Sell a product or service
People are more likely to buy a product or service from a source they trust than the one they don’t. Writing about it can be an effective way to build that trust and convert your readers into customers.
Blogging is a great way to advertise your product with a lower overhead cost than selling a product by other means. Also, you can use the email list to market your product or send promotional emails.
Selling a product or service on your blog is a subtle yet helpful way to monetize it.
14. Fresh content
Fresh and regularly updated content is the key to ranking in search engines and to reaping the SEO benefits of blogging.
It is not always easy to actually update website content regularly so a blog platform provides you with a solution to that problem.
New content will also maintain your regular readers’ interest as they would have something to look forward to. It is not always about creating fresh content only; sometimes, it is equally important to update the existing one.
15. Market your business
Blogging is an inexpensive and cost-effective way to market your business and reach the maximum audience.
According to research, 36% of Fortune 500 companies are using blogs to market their businesses.
Trends have now changed and clients are getting tired of the traditional “buy now” tactics, so it is crucial to present your services in a creative way and creating a blog is a great way to go about it.
16. Improved user experience
Having a blog on your site is an excellent way to enhance your user’s experience.
Following are what people look for before making a purchase.
- Relevant information/Everything they need to know
- Solutions to their problem
- Frequently Asked Questions FAQs.
- A way to connect to you
If they can find all of this in one place, there is nothing better than that.
17. Increases brand trust and credibility
Building trust online is not the easiest thing you will have to do, but it is definitely worth the effort.
Your blog content should be reliable, credible, authentic, and authoritative as it is the key for creating trust.
You can’t buy trust; you have to earn it, and usually, there is no shortcut to it.
18. Build a customer support area
Following are the ways through which a blog can help you build customer support area :
- Providing them with the information they are looking for
- Answering commonly asked questions through the FAQ page
- Responding to queries in the comment section
- Offering them to contact you
This can also help to decrease the workload from your customer support team drastically.
19. Build your network
Starting a blog is a guaranteed way to establish and expand your network. Growing your network comes with its own benefits such as gaining access to premium software and tools, being invited to seminars, conferences, workshops, and other events.
It allows you to connect with influencers and leaders, and establish contacts in your own industry who can be instrumental in growing your business.
20. Share your knowledge
Writing a blog is a good platform to showcase your knowledge. It is a roundabout way of adding value to your customers. It will give readers the impression that you know what you are talking about.
Primarily for someone who loves to teach, this will provide you with the opportunity to educate others in what you know best.
Being passionate about something makes you want to share it with the world, and that opens the door to connect with those around you who speak your language and share your passion.
21. Enhance your knowledge
Having a firm grip and knowledge is crucial before you start writing about a subject.
When your goal is to provide the readers with the latest and accurate information, you’ll probably end up researching various topics to support your claims. Creating regular content will lead you always to be searching for new information.
And if by any chance, your blog’s sole purpose is to educate others, you will automatically learn more about your niche because you need to educate yourself first to teach others.
22. Improve your writing skills
There’s a rather famous saying, “Practice makes a man perfect.” This is the exact same case with writing, the more you write the better you become.
Blogging regularly forces you to think about the writing basics, sentence structure, grammar and so on. Given enough practice, all of this will come to you naturally.
Not only this, you will learn technical writing and improve your communication skills in all areas of life.
23. Make money online
With the current pandemic situation prevailing all over the world, everything is shifting online. So there is nothing better than knowing how to make money online.
Following are the ways in which blogging can help you make money :
- Market your business
- Sell a product or service
- Get opportunities to work professionally as a content creator
- Offer consulting and training
You are not making the best use of your blog if you or your business is not generating revenue from it.
24. Learn a skill
Irrespective of whether you are starting a blog as your passion or promoting your business, you are learning a skill that will go a long way.
With the growing trend of blogging, this is one of the most in-demand skills. Companies that want to benefit from content marketing are always looking to hire people with blog related skills such as graphic design, search engine optimization, content marketing, and social media marketing.
Once you acquire these skills, they will always come in handy if you are ever looking for job opportunities or freelancing.
25. Become a published author
People who have exceptional writing skills and good insight have the advantage to become a published writers.
Furthermore, blogging can help you :
- Build an online portfolio
- Build an audience
Publishing companies prefer giving book contracts to writers who have all of the above.
Having an existing audience is the key, even if you are looking to publish a book on your own.
26. Become proficient in the language
Whenever you start with something new, your goal is to get better every day and master it. Similar is the case with blogging; you continuously make an effort to improve your sentence structure, writing style, grammar and other basics.
Your vocabulary automatically increases, and you become proficient in the language that you are writing in. Not only that, your speaking skills significantly improve as well.
Blogging in another language is also a great way to learn a new language.
27. Become a good researcher
Being a blogger, you always want to stay at the top of your game, and for that, you will always end up researching different topics.
Creating regular content = more research = increased knowledge
Your topmost priority is to know the latest trends, what people are searching for, and ways to improve your content.
28. Boost your confidence
Starting a blog might help boost your confidence in the following ways:
- Having complete knowledge about a certain subject.
- Improved writing skills
- Enhanced communication skills
Being a prominent part of your industry will allow you to attend different conferences, seminars and other industry-related events. You may also get invited to speak. Having all of the above skills will enhance your self-esteem and make you more confident.
29. Improve your presentation skills
No matter how unique or informative your content is, an endless page of information will make it look monotonous, and readers might lose interest before they even begin.
According to a study, blog articles that contain images receive 94% more views.
To make your content more attractive, you can take advantage of pictures, videos, infographics, charts, slides and illustrations.
When you start adding media to your blog, your editing skills, as well as presentation skills, will improve.
30. Make you open to new ideas
A blog is an excellent way to open a door for interaction and break the ice with your customers or readers.
You can encourage feedback and give them the confidence to share their ideas or experiences via blog comments or emails.
Writing a blog means exchanging ideas with people particularly interested in your field, making you more open to different perspectives and expanding your horizons.
31. Notice a positive change in yourself
Days after starting a blog, you will notice a few positive changes in yourself, as blogging requires a certain amount of commitment, time and discipline.
- Develop healthier habits
- Learn time management
- Get disciplined
- Organize your thoughts
- Learn how to express yourself
Blogging, if done right, can give you and your business a direction.
32. Accepting criticism
The most challenging thing you will learn from blogging is taking criticism positively and understanding that there is always room for improvement.
Everybody is entitled to have an opinion of their own. And to be fair, not everyone is going to like the content you have created. But the point is, instead of letting it bring you down, you should become a more open-minded person and be open to constructive criticism.
Being an amateur blogger, this is the road that will help you become a professional.
33. Develop patience
It is important to understand that blogging takes time. First, it takes time actually to create impressive content. And after you hit publish, it’s not going to yield your desired results overnight.
Therefore, blogging will help you develop patience and encourage you to continue working hard while waiting for the results.
Conclusion
This is my list of benefits of blogging and how blogging can help you grow your business.
Which blogging benefits from this list resonated with you? Or maybe you have a question about blogging.
Either way, let me know by leaving a quick comment below.
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