Power of Digital Marketing: Benefits of a Blog

Whether you’re a start-up or you’ve been running a small business for years, digital marketing has never been more important. We’ve created a three-part series to show how to reach customers with your website, social media, and email communications along with resources to put together a powerful online presence.

In the first of our digital marketing series, we’ll look at the many benefits of including a blog on your website.

Why is digital marketing so important?

Of our country’s 37.1 million small businesses, 5.3 million have fewer than 20 employees. A whopping 25.7 million have no employees at all – only the owner. Launching a business is demanding, filled with a seemingly endless number of tasks that often must be done by one person. Because of this, a digital marketing strategy may not be high up on the To Do list. But it should be.

According to Statista, which tracks and reports on all aspects of digital marketing, two-thirds of the global population are now online. This translates to nearly 5 billion people with 600,000 new users added every day. Americans are among the most active, spending nearly 8 hours every day on the internet browsing websites, scrolling through social media, and checking email.

With the added challenges from the pandemic, which shifted even more of our lives online, the importance of digital marketing has only increased for small businesses. Forbes conducted a survey in 2020 – at the beginning of the pandemic – and found that 60% of small business owners already acknowledged they needed to develop a stronger online strategy.

Even among major corporations, the age of traditional advertising in print or television/radio has largely given way to the world of digital marketing. This is great news for small businesses since it’s significantly more affordable and accessible to almost anyone with an internet connection.

What value does a blog bring to a business’ website?

Your website is your mother ship. Just as any physical location would do, your website establishes the look and feel of your business online. Everything about your brand should radiate out from it, including social media and email communications. Of course at a minimum every site should have a Home page, About page, Products and/or Services page, and a Contact page. But you should also have a blog.

Some may sniff at the notion of having a blog and can’t imagine how writing a few hundred words will do anything to boost their business. However, having an online content hub will help your brand and website in pretty remarkable ways.

1. Blogs are a huge boost to Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
   
   
   • Every blog you post adds a new page to your website, which gives search engines like Google a reason to re-crawl your site to find new content to index
   • Keywords in the titles, description, and body of your blogs are powerful assets in SEO and help increase the visibility of your business
   • Blogs can generate backlinks – when other sites link to your content – which increase the authority of your brand and ranking with search engines
   • In contrast to a static site, every blog contains fresh content that can reach new customers and drive traffic to your website
     
     
2. Blogs help build a relationship with your customers
   
   
   • By sharing your business’ news, upcoming events, and product updates, blog content offers value to your customers
   • Blogs can become lead generators since many visitors could also become customers
   • Each blog post gives you the ability to tell your business’ ongoing story in greater detail than any About page can do
   • Blogs allow you to demonstrate your business’ experience, knowledge, and authority in the industry
   • Content can and should be repurposed through other channels like social media and email communications, which only enhances the traffic to your site
   • When you respond to customers’ interests and concerns with your content, blogs can also become a form of customer service

What kind of information can you learn by including a blog on your site?

In addition to blogs breathing life into your website, the variety of their content acts as a valuable testing ground. Analytics can help you learn from your visitors. Google Analytics is the easiest to implement because it’s free and automatically collects data once it’s connected to your site. It can also be customized in multiple ways and integrated with everything from Google Ads to Shopify.

With it, the data you collect can include:

• Sessions – how much traffic your site gets on a daily and monthly basis
• Sessions by channel – which channels drive the most traffic to your site, such as search engines, social media platforms, and email
• Pageviews and average time per page – which blogs and other pages on your site are the most popular
• Click-throughs – what links on your site are clicked the most
• Popular searches – what visitors search for the most on your site
• Insights into your visitors – the age, gender, geographical location, general interest, and device (e.g. Android or iOS) of anyone who visits your site

Not only can Google Analytics (and other tools) tell you what campaigns have been successful in the past, they can also guide your marketing decisions moving forward. The analytics from a blog can inform upcoming content on your website, the channels where you focus your marketing efforts, and even what products or services your business offers in the future.

How should a small business begin a blog?

When launching a blog, some suddenly feel a lot of pressure trying to put together a content calendar. Just remember – you do not have to post every day. Frequency is not nearly as important as consistency. It’s up to you to decide the pace at which you publish and then set expectations with your audience. Maybe you start by posting every Tuesday. Maybe you post every other Tuesday. Whatever you determine should be manageable for your workload and right for your business, especially once you discover when most of your customers are online. Delivering quality content on an established schedule will help build a loyal following.

Though anything you publish should adhere to your brand’s style guide, you shouldn’t worry too much about perfection. Your blog will likely evolve over time and you will find what is right for your business. What’s important to remember about content – whether it’s copy, photos, or videos – is that it should be authentic, informative, and engaging. Always be true to your brand.

What are some tools and resources to help build a website with a blog?

Thankfully we live at a time when there is a great deal of technology to help small businesses. A number of fantastic platforms – such as WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace – can build websites with blogs. They are also affordable and accessible; there are templates galore and content management systems (CMS) continue to become even more user-friendly. But these website builders are also very powerful. Most have room to grow, including expanding into e-commerce, giving small business owners the opportunity for a scalable marketing strategy.

If you’re still unsure about the various aspects of creating a website or adding a blog yourself, there is plenty of help online. Whether you need a web developer, graphic designer, or copy writer, talented freelancers are available through sites like Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer.

And of course Meraki Go empowers you and all your work online with secure and reliable business-grade WiFi. We will also continue to share inspiration and information that can be valuable to small businesses. On that note, the next in Meraki Go’s digital marketing series will discuss how to make the most of social media.

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