by Lucy Fuggle
Blogging is a powerful tool for startups, particularly when it comes to increasing awareness of your business, engaging with followers, and demonstrating your expertise.
61% of U.S. online consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations from a blog, but only 1 in 8 companies have an active blog. Are you making full use of blogging? If not, take a look at these advantages of blogging for startups and reconsider.
A blog leads to more social sharing
If you’re developing a social media strategy for your startup, having a blog that’s optimized for promoting your product and engaging with your target audience will give you so much content to share. In turn, readers of your blog can also share your content on their own social channels, increasing your readership and audience.
A blog humanizes your business
Use your blog as a platform to keep followers up-to-date with your projects and life inside the office. We naturally trust businesses with people behind them, whose faces we know and whose stories we are familiar with. Let your followers get to know you and your team, projects and milestones through your blog.
A blog is good for SEO
Regularly updating your blog with high-quality content increases links to your startup sales site and multiplies mentions of your brand name on the web. Fresh content also encourages regular crawling of your site. See your blog as a door to your startup that helps users arrive at your site through organic searches.
A blog increases awareness of your startup
Create a blog and make it easier to find your startup through organic searches. Each blog article containing your target keywords will increase your online visibility and help drive traffic to your startup’s main site, and companies that blog have up to 97% more inbound links. Social sharing of your content by both yourself and others will also encourage further awareness of your startup.
A blog leads to more engagement
Having a blog for your startup adds an extra way for your target audience to contact you. You can use your blog as an addition to your customer service, perhaps with some FAQs on a static page, or you can encourage users to use your blog comment system for any questions or comments. Reply to comments promptly and write content with your audience in mind and your engagement will surely benefit.
A blog can help you network
You’ll meet all sorts of interesting people through your startup, but having a blog makes networking even easier. Potential contacts can use your blog as a way to get to know you and your startup, and it can trigger and facilitate collaboration.
A blog builds your skillset
Having a blog for your startup has advantages for you too. By creating great content you’ll be able to hone your content writing skills and figure out the voice and tone you’d like your startup to have. These skill will undoubtedly help you out when it comes to writing content for your main site and campaigns too.
A blog demonstrates your expertise
As founder of a startup, you’ve shown that you know a thing or two about your field. Creating a blog is a great way to demonstrate your expertise and encourage readers to go on and purchase what your startup offers. 81% of U.S. online consumers trust information and advice from blogs.
A blog lets you create informative content
If you came across a link to a sales website that was purely promotional, would you click on it? What about a link embedded within useful and informative content? We thought so. A blog allows you to provide your audience with useful and informative content that they can learn from and use in their own lives. This will encourage users to trust your startup and what you offer, and it may well lead to more sales and interaction.
Every day blogging is becoming a more relevant and powerful tool, particularly for business. Consider these advantages of blogging and make the move to start a blog for your startup, or use this post as motivation to continue sharing great content on your existing one. Can you afford not to?
Author:
Lucy Fuggle is currently responsible for online marketing and copywriting for Tripobox, an online travel marketplace that offers hotels, restaurants and activities for group bookings. Tripobox started off early in 2013 and is based in Silicon Valley and Barcelona, with Lucy working for the Barcelona office.
