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Why Does Your Business Need A Blog?

Having a great blog for your business can be a lifeline in today’s oversaturated and competitive market. Unlike other marketing channels, blogging allows you to show potential customers that you are an industry expert as you answer questions that your target audience asks online.

As potential customers look for specific information in Google and other search engines, you can capture their attention when you write high-quality content that addresses their needs.

If your business doesn’t use blogging in its content marketing strategy, you are at a huge disadvantage in comparison to other companies in your industry. Blogging not only allows you to get found in search engines for specific keywords, but also allows you to provide actionable advice to potential customers to establish your authority in the market and drive more sales.

Blogging is a long-term search engine optimization (SEO) strategy that helps you reach your target audience, drive more qualified leads to your site with relevant blog content, and helps you rank above your competitors in search engines.

It almost sounds too good to be true. How can a blog help my business do all this?

Grow Your Online Visibility With Blog Traffic

As online businesses grow and the digital world continues to change, more than ever, you need a content marketing strategy to help you reach your business goals.

As a business owner, you already know that you need to reach your target audience to sell your products or services based on the needs of your customers and blogging can help you build your online presence, establish your authority, and help you increase sales.

In addition to engaging with your target audience, blogging also helps you rank above your competitors in search engines. This is because you can target specific keywords in each blog post to ensure you rank above your competitors and drive qualified traffic to your site.

There are lots of tools like Ahrefs to help you find keywords to use in each blog post, and as you choose keywords be sure to look for terms that have high search volume and low competition to ensure you stand out in search engine results.

Audience loyalty is a huge part of why your business needs a blog, and why you need to set blogging goals to drive more blog traffic to your site and see higher SEO rankings.

If you’re not a blogger, but you still want to make money blogging, consider outsourcing your blog posts to the blog-writing experts to save yourself hours of work and to ensure your blog posts meet the needs of search engines and your readers.

 

Why Do Blogs Fail?

As we discussed above, blogging can help you reach your business goals by establishing your authority in the market, reaching your target audience, and driving qualified traffic to your site. However, while blogging can be an amazing tool in your marketing strategy, it’s not an easy process and many blog posts fail to achieve success.

Many business owners start out with a commitment to blog every day, but they quickly find that blogging is more than just writing words on a page. Blogging also includes research, writing, editing, and optimizing posts to ensure they reach the target audience.

After a few weeks of struggling to keep up with everything on your plate and struggling to keep your blog current, you may get discouraged if you don’t see any results for your hard work.

The truth is that you should not expect to see results from blogging for at least six months, and only about 10% of your blog posts will perform well while the other 90% may not see much traction and require additional optimizations in the future.

So why do blogs fail, and what can we do to keep your new blog from dying before it’s even begun?

Blogging is a long-term SEO strategy so you should not expect to generate any sales (or much traffic for that matter) right away. This is due to a few reasons like Google not trusting your site right away, and there is a lot of competition online that you need to compete against before you can drive qualified traffic to your website.

Here are a few reasons that your blog might fail, and how you can overcome these challenges:

1. Self-doubt

With 600,000 new businesses starting every new year, setting measurable goals for blogging can be overwhelming. How can you compete with the big-name brands that have millions of dollars for marketing, and how can you reach your audience among the sea of other small businesses trying to get found online?

Lots of business owners we work with approach blogging with the expectation that they will see immediate results and underestimate the amount of time and effort it takes to regularly blog on their website.

I have been blogging on our site for over 9 years, and let me tell you the hardest period of time for me was the first year of trying to grow the blog. I had to teach myself how to use free tools like Answer the Public to find questions customers have, and learn the process to create, optimize, and edit a great blog post.

This includes creating featured images, adding internal links, and formatting the post so readers can consume the content easily and drive sales.

Just be sure to set expectations for yourself and commit to 1-2 blog posts each month so you are not overwhelmed. Also, launch your blog once you have 5-8 blog posts completed so you can add internal links and you have lots of content for your audience to read on your site. This will set you up for success and help build confidence to drive your blogging goals into the future.

2. Inconsistency

Blogging takes time, effort, and resources to build a successful blog. As a small business owner, you have lots to think about from finances, sales, and product development.

You may start off with the best intentions for your blog, but you may become overwhelmed and blogging can quickly slide to the back of the to-do list, and this can hurt your overall blogging efforts since Google and your readers want to see frequent updates from you to build trust.

Instead of writing a blog whenever inspiration strikes, try out a blog content calendar to keep you on a blog posting schedule. You can choose time-dependent topics based on recent industry news, and you can write about evergreen content which are topics that are relevant regardless of the season by writing how-to guides to help your customers accomplish their goals.

Be sure to check out blogging tips from trusted sources, like our own blog, to help you stay consistent in posting.

3. Unable to Write

Sometimes, the blog just isn’t going to happen since you are a business owner and not a writer. Even with all the blogging tips and tricks, we offer, and all the realistic goals we can give you to get started, blogging is hard.

Keeping track of page views, keyword optimization, and SEO ranking, setting achievable goals, and trying to make money blogging—it’s a lot to do well and keep up with. Especially for beginners.

If you need to focus on growing your business and not spending your time writing blog posts then you should consider hiring a freelance copywriter so you can publish content that gets results and allows you to focus on your business.

Does your blog lack a content strategy that allows for setting smart blogging goals in order to reach success? Are you prioritizing keyword optimization for better SEO to get more engaged leads? Have you started to pursue affiliate marketing yet?

Blogs can and will fail for many reasons. Make sure you’re taking all the steps necessary to keep yours alive.

But can long-term goals for your new blog really help you scale your business? Let’s find out!

Why Does Your Business Need To Choose A Blogging Goal?

Now that we discussed why a blog is an important part of your business marketing plan and some of the common reasons a blog fails, let’s take a look at why you need to choose blogging goals for your business to ensure your success.

Your goals can be specific goals, such as wanting to release two blog posts a week until the end of the year or getting an x amount of email subscribers from your blog.

Tracking your blogging goals will affirm how well your business is doing. This will spark pride in you, and in turn, make your content shine.

Your blogging goals should be established early on during your business so that you and your team know what you are trying to accomplish. Would anyone run a race if there wasn’t a finish line waiting for them?

Nope and the same is true for your blog since you need to know what you are trying to accomplish to keep you and your team motivated during difficult times.

If you are outsourcing your content to an SEO agency or copywriters, make sure your bloggers know your goals so they can create content that helps accomplish them.

So, what blogging goals should you keep in mind?

 

What Are The Top 4 Blog Goals To Aim For?

As a business owner, you know how important goal-setting is. Not just for you, but for your team to work toward achievement.

But what blogging goals are most important?

Whether you want to prove to your audience that you’re an industry expert, boost your SEO rankings and drive more qualified traffic to your site, or use your blog to promote sales, creating measurable goals will help you take action!

Let’s take your blog to the next level by checking out these 4 blog goals you need to set.

1. Thought Leadership: Show Your Knowledge In The Industry

An educational blog can show off your knowledge and establish yourself as an expert in the industry and build trust with your audience.

Sharing your knowledge about your niche and your life experiences will build trust in your audience, which in turn drives more sales as customers see that you understand their needs. Building brand loyalty by using your blog to open up other channels of communication with your potential leads, such as gaining podcast listeners or email subscribers, can be a big path to success.

Make sure that your blog posts are both entertaining and educational since you want to engage with your readers while showing them your expertise at the same time. Be sure to showcase your knowledge by writing about the latest news and trends in your industry, creating step-by-step guides, and collaborating with other thought leaders in your niche.

All of these can go a long way to build trust with your readers and prove that you are an expert that they should do business with as they look for products and services that you sell.

2. Keyword Ranking: Help Your Site Rank For Specific Keywords

Google ranks pages for specific keywords, and blogging is a great way to rank for relevant keywords in search engine results.

You want your blog to show up above your competitors when your potential customers are going through their buyer’s journey to ensure they click through to your site. It’s crucial that you use blog posts to start ranking for specific keywords by answering common questions that people ask and addressing issues that your customers experience.

Use tools, such as Ahrefs to find relevant keywords for each blog post, or perform your own research to see what keywords you should use in your blogs based on search volume by sending an email survey to your customers to find frequent questions and issues to write about.

Plan and write your blog posts around these specific keywords to not only reach more of your audience but to ensure that your blog pages outrank your competitors in the search engines!

3. Traffic Goals: Drive More Qualified Traffic To Your Site

You need to drive qualified traffic to your site if you want to boost sales. You simply can’t sell more products or services if your audience does not experience problems that you are trying to solve for them, and blogging can help you attract qualified leads as you answer questions your target audience asks online.

You can implement this easily by getting into the minds of your readers and going through their buying journey to figure out what their common needs might be. Use free tools such as Reddit and Quora, industry forums, and Facebook groups to find what your target demographic is asking about online so you can tailor your content to ensure you meet the needs of your target audience.

Be sure to write content that addresses these questions in order to find and attract qualified leads to your site by producing in-depth information about specific topics. You can track and set goals for reaching more of your audience by using Google Analytics and creating high-quality content that engages with your readers!

4. Sales Goals: Tie Sales To Blog Posts

Encouraging your readers to check out your goods and services is never a bad idea since you offer the best solutions on the market compared to your competitors. You’re not only trying to hook them and keep them reading your blog posts, but at the end of the day, you’re trying to get them to buy from your business too.

Some businesses want to tie their sales directly to blog posts, but blogs must cover the entire customer journey in order to engage the audience and keep ranking in search engines. Not all blog posts will relate back to buying your product or your service.

However, you can use Google Analytics User Behavior analysis to determine how many of your leads find your blog posts and buy from you as a result.

Adding a call-to-action across your blog posts and promoting your goods and services can remind your readers to check out what else you can offer them!

Conclusion

Now that you understand the importance of setting blog goals for your business, what are you waiting for? What goal will you aim for first?

Having a blog provides an opportunity to share your knowledge and expertise with the world, helps improve your site’s SEO ranking, drives more qualified traffic to your site and can even help boost sales. What goal will you set for your business blog today?

Remember, these goals should be actionable and achievable so you can start seeing results from your blog posts sooner rather than later. Are you ready to set some goals and watch your business grow?

Start your business blog today with actionable, achievable blogging goals 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.

One Comment

  1. Avatar
    Louise Savoie May 23, 2022 at 1:33 am - Reply

    I just would like to say thank you for sharing this insightful content about blogging and also for the videos alongside it. The harsh truths are very harsh truths indeed, even if all effort has been poured into it – one has to be patient and should perseverance as well. One thing that is instilled in my mind whether it’s SEO, digital marketing, blogging, or anything related is that it’s not an overnight success.

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