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Why Does Your Startup Need A Blog?

According to the Small Business Association (SBA), over 600,000 new businesses pop up annually, and they’re all looking to make it big. Unfortunately, barely half of that number ends up surviving a five-year span. Yikes!

As an entrepreneur, you’re no stranger to competition. But when your small business is stacked against so many others, you need all the tools you can get to make your digital marketing strategy a success.

A blog for your startup is not just a “nice thing to have,” because it has a proven track record that I have seen first-hand with many entrepreneurs in the Orlando area.

I have worked with a few dozen startups throughout the years as I volunteered at StarterStudio as a mentor for entrepreneurs in various industries. While the products and services these startups offered varied, the one thing that remained constant is that the startups needed to find a way to drive qualified traffic to their sites without spending lots of money on marketing.

This is where blogging came in because a blog is a powerful marketing tool that allowed these startups to answer questions their target audience was asking and establish their credibility in the market. Instead of relying on thousands of dollars a month on pay per click (PPC) marketing, successful startups invested time and resources into creating great content that got found in search engine results and built a relationship with potential customers (and investors).

A startup blog is a great way for entrepreneurs to get found in search engine results for relevant search terms while catering to their target demographic by answering questions that the target audience is asking online. Every business needs a blog, and startups often overlook such a low-cost option in favor of more flashy content marketing which is a mistake that can slow the growth potential of the startup in the long run.

A successful blog isn’t just about optimizing headers and adding a few keywords to get found in Google—it’s about writing content that engages with your audience and showing them that you are an expert in the field that provides the best products or services available.

But where do you start in creating a successful blog about your startup? Let’s find out!

How To Blog About Your Startup

Taking your experience in entrepreneurship and turning it into a blog might sound easy, but it’s harder than successful bloggers make it seem.

Startups usually dabble in various forms of content creation over social media, vlogs, and even podcasts. But the never-failing format for entrepreneurs to talk about their experience in starting a small business is a blog that hooks readers instantly and establishes themselves as an industry expert.

A blog will provide your readers with high-quality content surrounding startup culture, will answer your audience’s questions about your small business, and provide another avenue for search engine optimization (SEO) for your marketing strategy to take advantage of. These elements can help establish your startup in your market, build trust with potential customers, and bridge the gap between your competitors even if they have a larger marketing budget then you have.

Google’s main goal is to provide the most relevant results based on what users are looking for, and this means that you have a great opportunity to outrank your competitors with educational blog content that helps alleviate the problems of your target audience.

Sounds good right? Heck yeah, it does!

But starting a blog, when you’ve never blogged a day in your life (and a personal blog doesn’t count), can be scary.

Whatever niche you choose to write about, make sure that you’re focused on engaging your target demographic by thinking about what your target audience is looking for as they look for your products or services and answer questions they have to drive qualified traffic to your site.

Think about what your startup sells, the problems that your customers have, and what those customers search for when looking for solutions like yours. You can find this information by surveying your target audience with an email survey, and as you do ask them about what problems they are looking to solve. This information is vital to help you come up with content ideas.

You can also find blog post ideas by looking at industry forums to find common questions that customers have, and then write blog posts to answer those questions. This can help get you found in Google as customers search for these questions and drive qualified traffic to your site. Plus, you will begin to build a strong brand presence as customers see your site show up in search engine results as they look for information, and this can establish credibility and build a relationship with them.

Great blogs happen at the crossroads between what your new business’s goals are and what your audience needs. It’s the sweet spot for content marketing.

But a successful blog engages its readers, which means you need to capture their attention and keep them coming back for more. One of the best ways to do this is to take your experiences, be it personal or business, and turn them into stories.

Here are some great ideas for your new blog:

  • Write about lessons learned during your time in the industry and why you chose to start your business. This can show the value that you bring to the market and differentiate you from your competitors.
  • Provide insights on industry news and trends to show that you are an expert in the field and your customers can trust you.
  • Answer specific questions that your customers have about your industry, product, or service to provide direct information to help customers find the products or services they need based on their individual needs.
  • Feature information about your company history and/or employees to make your business more relatable.

And if you aren’t confident in being able to write high-quality, successful blogs, don’t feel embarrassed about hiring a copywriter to support your business and build your blog content.

Check out their pricing guides and see if you have the budget to outsource your work to a copywriter since costs vary when you pay for blog writing services.

Writing blogs, along with keyword optimization, is a lot of hard work that can take hours of research, writing, and optimizing. In fact, this blog post alone is the result of one hour of research, 2 hours of writing, and 45 minutes of optimizations (plus time for publishing and editing). That adds up in the long run, and if you have other things to think about (like growing your business) then hiring a blog writer can end up saving you lots of time and money.

Why Does Your Startup Need A Blog?

There are tons of good reasons for starting a new blog for your business. Blogs not only provide a great opportunity to boost your site’s online presence, but it also builds loyalty between you and your readers as they see that you understand their needs and that you are an industry expert.

A blog full of educational blog posts, with a voice and a story that engages your audience from the get-go, will help you outrank your competitors and drive qualified traffic to your site. By providing industry secrets and sharing candid stories about your struggles as a startup founder, your audience will learn to trust you as a thought leader.

Your digital marketing strategy can also use your blog to promote other social media channels for your business and brand.

You can ask your readers to sign up for your email list in order to reach them with an email marketing campaign. If you have a podcast, call on your audience to subscribe to get more great content to continue building a relationship with them.

Doing this through your blog will open up more channels for communication between you and your readers, helping to build their loyalty to your brand.

Not to mention that blogging is a form of long-term SEO, meaning that you can build trust, loyalty, and a brand voice in your blog posts, all while optimizing your content to help your site rank in the search engines. It’s a win-win for your startup, and these benefits just go to show why your startup needs to invest in an optimized blog today.

Still not convinced? Let’s look at 10 ways a blog can benefit your startup today!

1. Drive Qualified Traffic To Your Site

Have you made a buyer persona yet to help you pin down who your target audience is? If so, think about what your target audience is looking for and write blog posts that answer their questions. This will help you drive qualified traffic to your site and increase sales.

Writing blog posts that address industry questions or help potential customers better understand your products and services means your audience will have a host of educational and entertaining content to browse through.

Your audience cares about these topics, so your business blog will drive them to your site and keep them coming back!

2. Achieve Higher Rankings In Google

Blog posts are a great tool for SEO success because Google doesn’t rank websites, but it ranks pages for specific keywords. As your customers search for solutions that you offer, you can rank higher in Google and other search engines by writing blog posts that get found as people search online.

Use your startup blog to rank for specific keywords that are relevant to your content and reflective of your target audience. As you write content around these specific keywords and questions that your potential leads will ask in their buyer’s journey, you’ll find that more qualified traffic is being driven to your site!

Paid SEO tools like Ahrefs can be incredibly useful, as it helps determine keywords based on search volume and the competition of the keyword. You can also use free tools like Answer The Public to identify questions that people are asking so you can write blog posts that provide in-depth answers based on those questions.

3. Show That You Know The Needs Of Your Customers

A business can’t exist without a customer base, which means that knowing the needs of your clients is vital. You started your business because you knew that you could offer better solutions than what currently exists in the marketplace, and you can write blog posts that show why your products or services are superior to your competitors.

As your customers search for the solutions to their problems, they are bound to have questions about why your product or service is right for them. Your new blog can easily show them why you are the best fit for their needs and this can drive more sales over time..

4. Establish Yourself As An Industry Expert

Skilled bloggers know exactly how to show off your business’ knowledge through high-quality writing. As an entrepreneur, you can establish yourself as an expert in your field and showcase your hard work by writing motivational blog posts that engage with your audience.

Blog posts also allow your customers to research more about your startup and what it has to offer, which is vital when it comes to them choosing between your products and services versus your competitors.

Make sure that you show where your competition lacks in the market and how you fill that gap in order to further establish yourself as a thought leader and industry expert to your potential customers!

Photo by Ivan Samkov

5. Blogging Is Low Cost

Right now, most businesses are struggling to stay afloat, and startups in their first five years are no exception. It’s important to use every tool in order to keep your business thriving, and blogging is the perfect answer since it only requires you to invest some time and resources to write engaging content about topics that you are already an expert in.

Unlike PPC marketing, which can be costly, blogging can be almost completely free and will still help your site rank higher in search engines for specific keywords that can drive qualified leads to your site (see the previous point for more information on that topic).

6. Build A Relationship With Potential Customers

Blogging is a great way to interact with your clientele—and help solve their problems since you can write blog posts that answer frequent questions in the industry and address common issues customers experience before purchasing your products or services.

Blog posts can open up opportunities that allow you to better understand the issues they’re experiencing throughout their buyer’s journey. Then, you can give them customized solutions that suit their individual needs, which will build a relationship with those customers as they come to trust your advice.

This not only makes your customers’ lives easier but also builds trust and loyalty between your audience and your business which can lead to more sales.

7. Build Your Brand

As you and your bloggers write more educational content based on the needs of your audience and the questions they may pose, your pages will begin to show up on Google and other search engines.

Customers will start to trust your brand more as it ranks higher and higher on Google, especially when your content has keyword optimization and focuses on answering your target demographic’s questions.

Your audience is much more likely to read your content, engage with it, and buy the products and services you’re advertising if they trust your brand. And they are more likely to trust your brand if you’re ranking above your competitors.

8. Support Your Social Media Strategy

Blog posts by successful startups are a great way to create quality, engaging material that will help you grow your audience and reach even more people. You can repurpose your blog posts on your social media posts, and add links back to your blog posts to drive even more traffic to your website.

In no time at all, your blog posts will start generating content that will support your content marketing strategy across your entire startup.

9. Showcase Your Products & Services

Try spicing up your blog posts by highlighting specific features of your products and services and competitor pricing in order to make your business more enticing. You can talk about new features that you have added or highlight ways your services have evolved since you first started out. This shows your customers that you are actively improving your products or services, and this can lead to more trust with your customers and drive additional revenue.

Not only does this market your business, but it also educates your readers and convinces them to consider buying what your startup offers.

These types of blog posts are more geared toward sales and e-commerce businesses, but any startup can use this idea to make their blogs more exciting!

10. Drive More Conversions

As we’ve already talked about, blog posts are a great way to drive qualified leads to your site and make early sales.

Unlike other marketing channels, like PPC, it’s difficult to track sales that come from blog posts. However, you can look at external sources like Google Analytics User Behavior Flow in order to see what sales came from views on your blog.

This helps in optimizing conversion rates since you can see how people interact after clicking on certain links on any given page. This allows you to see what consumers do once they’ve engaged with your content.

Use this to drive more conversions from your blog posts!

Conclusion

If you’re still on the fence about whether or not your startup should have a blog, consider these 10 reasons why you should start a blog for your small business!

Blogging is one of the most low-cost and effective ways to drive traffic to your site, achieve better rankings on Google, and connect with your potential customers. Startup blogs open up new avenues for communication and allow you to convert leads easier!

Establish yourself as an expert in your industry, boost your brand awareness, and support your social media strategy all by starting a business blog.

And don’t forget to reach out to your SEO experts to help you get started and hit the ground running with your new blog!

So what are you waiting for? Start blogging today!

About the Author: Chris

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Chis is the Lead Strategist at StrategyBeam with over 19 years of marketing know-how up his sleeve. He loves transforming business marketing campaigns into success stories by boosting efficiencies across all campaigns. When not strategizing, he can be found laughing at the monkeys at the zoo.

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