Research shows that 20% of startup businesses close up in their first year of operation. The businesses that do survive that first year find it difficult to stay afloat, and 65% end up shutting down within 10 years. One of the main reasons cited was poor marketing. With few resources available, it can be a challenge for small business owners to effectively promote their brands.

Blogging is a very cost-effective tool used in marketing. So, if you are not sure if your small business should own a blog, I would say yes, because of its marketing advantages. There are currently 5 billion internet users worldwide, and 60 percent of consumers claimed to read blogs on a regular basis, which represents a huge prospective market to reach through blogging.

Related: How to Scale Your Blog Like a Startup

How can blogging help your business?

There are great benefits your business can enjoy from blogging, including:

• Establish customer relationships: There are new businesses emerging every day, and that has made it quite difficult to maintain customer loyalty. However, with high-quality blog posts about your business and products, you can keep your visitors engaged and build strong relationships with them. You can interact with your blog visitors by answering questions or responding to their comments. In the long run, this will help you build trust with your audience.

• Thought leadership: People often look for solutions online whenever they encounter a problem. Invest time in SEO so that your business shows up in the search results. By sharing your knowledge and experience, you can become the expert they will turn to whenever they need advice.

• Create a sales lead: Blogging is a great way to generate traffic for your business. Make sure you research your target audience to understand their needs so that you can carve a niche for yourself. The use of SEO-based content can generate traffic to your website, which may turn into sales leads for your business.

Related: 5 Ways to Grow Your Business Through Blogging

Starting a new blog for your business may seem like an intimidating task. So, here are a few tips to help you create a successful blog:

1. Provide value

One of the main reasons people read blogs is because they want to learn something new. Blog posts with how-to guides, tutorials and tips are very popular, and they can help you achieve a vast amount of traffic. For example, Nepal Hiking Team has a comprehensive blog that shares information on everything you need to know about Nepal, from things to do and local Nepalese foods to transportation and souvenir guides. They offer a valuable resource for anyone looking for information about Nepal or planning to visit.

2. Allow guest posting

People love to share their ideas and experiences. Allowing them to guest-post on your blog gives them the opportunity to do that as well as interact with you and other visitors. Guest-posts are also great for helping you understand who your readers are and what they are interested in. A great example is Hackernoon, the online platform where anyone can publish and share anything related to technology.

3. Make it interactive and allow comments

A blog that allows its visitors to comment and ask questions on related topics draws more attention than those that do not. Create a user-friendly platform where guests can post their comments and ask questions. Making your blog interactive is very important for building good customer service and better understanding your customers, which may eventually generate more sales leads.

4. Monitor and analyze your blog traffic

According to Hubspot, many people prefer blog posts that are informative, entertaining and teach new things. It is important to track your blog traffic to determine which of your blog posts are performing best and find out what interests your readers. You can capitalize on that to grow more traffic and leads for your business.

5. Get external links to your blog

The “web” is literally a web of networks. By attracting external links from other online sources for your blog, you can considerably increase your Google ranking and get more traffic for your site. Consider launching a press release campaign or guest-posting on other, more authoritative sites for this.

With commitment, creativity and effort, blogging can be a very effective marketing tool for your small business. Blogging is a low-cost marketing strategy with great benefits if utilized properly.

Related: Tips to Create a Traffic-Generating Blog

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