Every potential customer that comes to visit our Beaconsfield offices turns very pale when I mention that their new website should have a Blog. Then the long list of excuses come next; I just don't have the time, I just don't have anything to talk about, Blogs aren't a business tool.
As most people see a Blog as a burden or an unnecessary feature of a website lets go through some of the benefits that you may not have realised about the humble Blog.
Now you may be aware of some of these features but let's dig deeper into each feature to expose the benefits to a business owner:
Your Blog is purely focused on your business.
A Blog is different to writing content for a standard web page, the basic rule of talking about features and benefits of your business to the customer does not apply. For a Blog focusing on your business and industry in detail, talking about new technical specifications or the release of a new product creates a reference library of content relevant to your business. Specific Blog posts build up to create a library of news, updates, and answers to common technical queries.
Each Blog post is a separate page on your website.
This library of content is automatically created as separate pages with unique titles and content. Most business websites average 25 - 50 pages of content, a simple Blog can contain hundreds of pages all linking back to your standard website pages, all containing unique and relevant content.
Each Blog post is automatically archived by date and subject.
Blogs not only allow you to post content easily they also archive your posts based on information such as date of creation and 'tags' that you assign to identify topics covered in each post. This archive allows visitors to view newer, older or related posts with ease. Most importantly this is automatic so no effort is required to maintain this archive resource.
Each Blog post has a comments option to allow visitor interaction.
Another great feature of Blogs are comments. Comments allow visitors to ask for clarification, give their own personal input on a post and show their appreciation if they found the content useful. This interaction with visitors or potential customers can be very powerful as all the visitor needs to do to comment on your Blog is supply their contact details!
Each Blog post can be shared on social networks automatically.
Blogs use a simple but powerful technology call RSS (Really Simple Syndication) at there core, this technology allows visitors or social network pages to 'subscribe' to your Blog. Each time you post a new article these subscribers receive a notification or in the case of social networks the post appears in your timeline/feed. A Blog can be used as a central point to create content and the Blog system will distribute the posts to relevant parties automatically.
To recap a Blog is a great way of:
It's also worth noting that you can have more than one writer on your website Blog, sales could post new product releases, technical support could post the most common support questions and answers.
The best way to think of a Blog is a website within a website, the Blog creates, organises, archives and shares site content.
A final thought when considering whether you should add a Blog to your site is that search engines love Blogs, companies that post regularly to their Blog receive on average 55% more site traffic and 77% more leads than those that don't!
Two Plus Two's Online Business Platform can be configured to have a Blog as standard if you would like to visit our offices in Beaconsfield for a free 1-hour consultation to discuss your website and Blogging needs please contact us today.
