The Best Benefit of Blogging Is Something Nobody Talks About
Why is blogging a great idea for small businesses? To show up for search terms? To demonstrate your expertise?
Of course. Those answers are fine and dandy. We deeply believe in leveraging your blog for both of those benefits. They're great.
But there's another, bigger benefit to blogging. And nobody's talking about it.
And it boils down to what many things boil down to in business: sales.
The biggest benefit of blogging is to generate content that you can leverage directly in sales.
Your blog is a living, evolving sales kit that you can have with you at all times.
It doesn't matter what field you're in. It doesn't matter if you think your work is boring. If you're selling something to someone somewhere, your blog is the best place to create content that closes deals. The top way to do that:
Creating educational sales content that backs up your in-person pitches.
But let's backtrack for a minute here. If you don't live in the world of marketing, the concept of blogging for your small business might sound a little foreign to you. Let us explain.
When we say blogging for business, we don't mean showing what your staff ate for lunch. We don't mean keeping a diary of what happens during the day.
We mean writing about what you already know to bring in customers and benefit your bottom line.
The point of posts on your blog is to connect with buyers (or potential buyers) through the know, like, and trust factors. Here's what those look like:
Perhaps the purpose of one post is to explain your web design philosophy and help you appear in your customers' Google searches for "web design Columbia MO" – that's a know post, intended to help your customers know you and your business.
Maybe another post's main goal is to tell your backstory and highlight your personality or company culture – that's a like post.
Yet another post could be talking through the benefits and drawbacks of different services or products – that's a trust post.
But the most important (and lucrative) use of your blog is to fuse the know, like, and trust factors with your existing sales process to act as a sales tool to educating potential customers.
This approach is gold for hair salons as well as construction companies, accountants alongside restaurants. Wineries. Photographers.
Blogging isn't a pastime; it's a business strategy to close sales.
And it's a business strategy suited equally to a wide variety of companies. What's a good educational, sales-oriented blog post topic for your business? Questions that you get all the time.
• What's a question you can count on hearing with almost every new customer?
• What's a concept you find yourself explaining to your customers over and over again?
• What's a product or service you know your customers need, but they don't even know about?
Write about those concepts and use your blog post in your next customer face-to-face. That's exactly what we do. When we're explaining why Pinterest could really benefit a client's small business, we have statistics and projections at our fingertips. When we're about to send a new brand out into the world, we're able to walk through major pitfalls for our clients to avoid. And now, when we're explaining what blogging means for small businesses, we'll be able to pull up this post right away.
Keeping a regular blogging schedule gives you the opportunity to create content that works overtime.
We're passionate about empowering small businesses to take their marketing success into their own hands.
We know that not all businesses have the resources to hire out their marketing. But we don't want your budget to hold you back.
So we've created something else to help you: Comprehensive workbook and template bundles that take you step-by-step through the process for developing, writing, and publishing a blog post.
Turn your expertise into polished, professional posts easily and efficiently. Buy now →
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Hoot Design Co. is a marketing, branding, and design agency located in Columbia, MO. We specialize in creating a custom and comprehensive marketing strategy centered around your business's unique strengths and educating you with the tools you need from day one. From logo design to brand identity, website design and execution, and social media marketing strategies in-person and through online courses, we're focused on your business success every step of the way.