Running a company requires a lot of patience and expertise in your relevant field. Many business owners spend hours on end thinking of the perfect marketing strategy. Little do they realize that they are skipping the most important part of building a business online…blogging. Blogging for companies is a way to establish authority, build links, and create a loyal customer base. There are multiple blog website examples on the internet that show how businesses use blogging as a form of marketing.
Source: Freepik
Blogging for a personal journal is different than blogging for a business, and understanding how businesses use blogs is crucial to your online success. Now, what are blogs good for, and how are blogs important for professionals? These are just some of the questions we’ll answer in this blog, so read on!
Blogging for Companies vs Personal Blogging
Source: Freepik
Blogging is a form of communication where bloggers share ideas with others by exploring new topics. However, when we consider blogging for companies, it diverts sharply from the world of personal blogging.
Personal Blogs
Source: Young Adventuress
The concept of a personal blog is like a journal where the blog owners share their thoughts about their life, their interests, and the causes they support. Personal blogs do not have to have a particular niche, so bloggers can discuss anything from the weather to personal traumas or the cup of coffee they had in the morning.
Some examples of personal blogs include Cup Of Jo, Young Adventuress, and Backpacker Banter.
Business Blogs
Source: IBM Blog
A blog specifically created to promote a business is called a business blog. Its content is built around a certain theme and each blog post contains images, thorough research, backlinks, and product descriptions. Blogging for companies is like running a marathon where you keep checking your progress after reaching different milestones and improving your performance from there on.
Some examples of blogging for companies include IKEA Ideas, IBM Blog, and the Content Gorilla Blog.
The following table should make the differences between personal and business blogging clearer.
| Characteristics | Blogging For Companies | Personal Blogging |
|---|---|---|
| Audience | People looking for a product/ service | People looking for community |
| Purpose | Generate leads, build a customer base | Find an audience to share your ideas and hobbies with |
| Income | Steady cashflow with backlinks and selling your own product/ service | Payment from selling ads or affiliate links |
| Type Of Content | Informative and linked to product or service | Personalized content focusing on the life of the blogger |
| Online Visibility | Frequent visitors based on the quality of each blog | Consistent and loyal visitors who share similar interests |
| Communication | Contact Information is usually given on the blog | Contact Information may or may not be available |
| Accuracy | No margin for mistakes | Slight margin for mistakes |
| Branding | Promotes the company’s image and products | Promotes the blogger or their publication(s) |
How Can Blogging Make a Difference for Your Business
Source: Freepik
Have you ever thought about how people use blogs as marketing tools for companies? We are here to answer this very question. The biggest advantage of business blogs is that they provide a platform to promote your business any way you want. You can talk about your products, provide reviews, and offer advice to people who are working – or looking for solutions – in the same industry as yours. Let’s explore a few aspects of how business blogs can help.
Drive Organic Traffic
Source: Backlinko
Businesses can drive organic traffic to their website by using blogging as their sole marketing tool. When you write a blog, you create new indexed pages, thus increasing traffic to your website. Take the example of Backlinko, run by Brian Dean, an SEO expert who has managed to drive a staggering amount of organic traffic to his website in a short time. The blog shares SEO strategies and link-building techniques to help business boost their online presence, which it used itself to garner such a reach.
Improve SEO Ranking
Source: WholeFoods Magazine
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a method where a writer strategically integrates keywords into a blog to improve its ranking on Google’s Search Engine Result Page (SERP). For example, the supermarket chain Whole Foods has used the power of SEO to expand its customer base. They have created a blog that generated leads by using the right keywords and quality content to promote their business.
Become An Industry Leader
Source: HubSpot
Writing is a research-based activity, even more so when it comes to blogging. Well-researched and fact-checked blogs like HubSpot’s provide value for the readers. HubSpot’s blog has become a go-to choice for insightful blog posts on marketing, sales, service provision, and building an effective website. If you follow Hubspot’s example, you can also become an industry leader and expand your business.
Promote Your Products
Source: Casper
Many companies spend most of their revenues to promote their products through advertisements and marketing campaigns. The Small Business Administration has revealed that companies set aside up to 12% of their revenue for their marketing endeavors. However, using blogging as a marketing tool can boost your business at a lower cost. For example, Casper, the mattress-selling company, uses its blog to promote its products by adding backlinks for various products as well as compelling calls-to-action to redirect readers to their homepage in an effort to increase sales.
Create A Loyal Customer Base
Source: Lick
When people want to buy something online, they tend to do thorough research by reading various blogs. That is why blogging is so important for companies. It creates a foundation for customers to find your product and learn about your business. The paint brand, Lick, has tapped into the potential of an effective blog by posting unique content related to home decor ideas and renovation. They have built a strong blog following, thus creating a loyal customer base.
How to Start a Blog for Your Business?
Source: Freepik
The first step towards blogging always seems a bit nerve-wracking. But, don’t worry. You just need to learn blogging one step at a time. Just follow the given steps and you will have your blog in no time.
1. Find the Perfect Platform
The first step to start blogging is to find a blogging platform that suits your requirements. Choose from one of the following.
- WordPress helps you create a fully customizable business blog.
- Wix helps you create cloud-based blogs for HTML5 websites.
- Squarespace helps you create eCommerce and product-focused blogs.
- Joomla helps you create blogs for photo-heavy blogs and eCommerce communities.
2. Find A Niche
The niche for a particular blog depends on the business you want to promote on your website. For instance, if you are a retail company, you can create a blog that provides information on different types of everyday products like groceries, clothing, and medicine. As a tech company, you can focus on creating blogs on the latest tech tools available online.
3. Get A Domain Name
Start thinking of new ideas for a unique domain name. Once you come up with a domain name, you can register it on a web hosting service. Check the features of various hosting sites to find the one that suits your business. Here are a few hosting services you can choose from:
4. Personalize Your Blog
Design your company’s blog using the colors in your company’s logo. Select a theme that aligns with the business goals you want to achieve through your blogging site. Remember that blogging for companies requires you to do thorough research on the types of themes that suit a particular brand or business.
5. Establish A Content Strategy
Create a content strategy for your business blog with your long-term goals in mind. Think of everything you want to achieve with your blog content. You need to select topics that people regularly search for. That’s where tools like our blog post idea generator will come in handy! Start writing blogs on these topics and add keywords to push these articles toward better search rankings.
Conclusion
Blogging is a great method of promoting a business. Whether you are running a small business or a huge corporation, blogging for companies is essential if you want to keep pace with upcoming businesses. Once you have started a blog for your business, you can use various strategies to keep the content fresh and generate more leads. Now, go forth, set up your blog, and rake in the sales!
I am a full-time online marketer, for over a decade now. Helped over 100,000+ people & generated well over $12M in online sales.