Mill St. Blog
Top 5 Reasons Your Business Needs a Blog
Blogs have been an integral component of the internet for quite some time now. They allow people to collectively discuss important issues as an online community, and may serve as a personal outlet, or online journal, for others. So how can implementing a blog for your company be beneficial? While blogging itself can be time-consuming, it is one of the most inexpensive ways to begin promoting your company and endorsing your brand. A business blog also allows you to connect with your target audience by essentially putting a “face” to your company’s name. And above all, a business blog serves as a great SEO tool. As you can see, there are numerous advantages to starting a blog for your company. Here are the top five reasons your company should be blogging:
1. Positions Your Company as an Expert in the Industry & Strengthens Your Brand – Through the act of blogging, you can almost instantly position your company as an expert in the field and showcase your knowledge of the industry. By writing blog articles on topics such as the latest news or trends within your industry, your company is able to not only promote itself, but 
more importantly, demonstrate awareness and leadership. Make sure to adapt your company’s blogs to meet the needs of your target audience. This means that you should write first and foremost for humans (as opposed to search engines). By providing unique, fresh content that readers find both entertaining and insightful, your company will increase its online presence and gain its target audience’s trust, which will subsequently increase your site’s traffic.
2. Engages Your Target Audience – Having a business blog creates an online space whereby readers can learn more about your company as well as your industry as a whole based on the interesting and unique content that you provide. If your blog is engaging, you increase the
chances of your target audience returning to your blog (and therefore your website) in order to read your most recent posts. You can further this by utilizing RSS feeds and social media tools (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Google +, etc.) whereby readers can “subscribe” to your blog and are able to see when you’ve posted something new. Another great way of engaging your target audience is to allow comments on your company’s blog posts. Comments from readers are a valuable business tool, since they provide insight as to what your readers like, dislike, and want to see more of. Enabling blog comments cultivates an online community between users and builds a relationship between your business and your target audience. This type of interaction will enable you as a business to see through the eyes of your target audience and better understand what it is that they are seeking or want to learn more about. By having this two-way communication between your company and your target audience, you will begin to notice that your audience will become natural ambassadors or representatives of your company in the online community – a service that some companies would pay substantial amounts of money for.
3. Gives Your Company a “Face” – Aside from an “About” Page, most company websites have little interaction with their target audie
nce. Even though your website may have several pages of information about your company and its products or services, there is no real personalization or “human factor” behind your site’s professional exterior. Implementing a business blog on your site will give your company a “face” and a “voice”, which is what your audience craves! They want to get to know you better, and having a blog creates this transparency which allows them to feel as though they know you without ever having met you. Plus, the more your target audience knows about your company, the more likely they are to trust you and establish you as a credible and authoritative business in their minds. Having a company blog also provides your audience with insight into your company, including the company’s values, goals, and missions. Additionally, a blog makes your company more knowledgeable, since you are constantly releasing up-to-date information about your business.
4. Keeps You Up-To-Date With Your Industry – Having a company blog means keeping up-to-date with the
continuous news releases and events that pertain to your industry. It essentially forces you to stay on top of your evolving industry and its current trends, so that your company blog is both contemporary and relevant. This means that in order to have a successful business blog, you will have to do some research, as blogging requires continuous learning. No one wants to read old news that they’ve probably already read elsewhere, so try to provide your audience with fresh, original content in order to encourage them to return to your site.
5. SEO Purposes – Last but certainly not least, having a business blog can quite easily increase your SEO and boost your site’s 
rankings. Since search engines thrive on websites that are updated frequently with original content, implementing a blog is one of the easiest ways to get your website recognized and ranked. Blogs used for SEO purposes are great inbound marketing strategies, since your targeted audience is better able to find your website due to its frequent updates and relevancy to their search terms.
As you can see, there are several good reasons your company should be blogging. Having a business blog is a cost-effective way to position your company as an expert in the industry, engage your target audience, give your company a “face” and “voice”, keep you up-to-date with your industry, and serve as a highly effective SEO tool.