Does Your Business Really Need a Blog?

In a world where social media and mobile devices are king, you may be wondering whether your business really needs a blog. It seems like everyone wants their information condensed into 140 characters or less. Why would anyone want to spend five or ten minutes reading a blog post?

The truth is that blogging isn’t right for every business. But for many, blogs still present a way to expand your reach, bring in more traffic and boost conversions.

Here are some things to consider when deciding whether to launch a blog for your business.

Do You Have the Time? Can You Be Consistent?

The key to success with a blog is to produce content on a consistent basis. Posting one or two blog posts every few months probably won’t have much of an impact on your traffic or search rankings.

Blogging is still one of the best ways to get more organic traffic, but you need to post on a regular basis.

Can you commit to running a blog? If you have the budget to hire writers, this answer should be a no-brainer.

And you probably won’t have to spend any extra money launching your blog. Most blogging platforms are free, and you can normally set one up through your web hosting panel.

Will a Blog Have A Direct Impact on Your Business?

Ask any online marketer and they’ll tell you that every business should have a blog. But a blog isn’t the right vehicle for every single business.

Let’s say that you start blogging on a regular basis. Your posts are ranking in Google, bringing more traffic to your site. But you’re not seeing any difference in your conversion rates.

It may just be that a blog is not a good fit for your business.

Do Your Customers Have Problems You Can Solve with Your Blog?

One of the reasons blogs are so successful for many businesses is because they can help customers solve problems (also known as pain points) or answer their questions. Solving pain points can help build trust while establishing yourself as an authority in the field.

Most businesses will have pain points that they can solve through their blog posts, but there are some that will struggle to consistently come up with topics that are useful and relevant to their audience. In this case, a blog may not be a good fit for the business.

Do You Have a Reason to Blog?

If you’re starting a blog because someone told you that you had to, you may want to rethink your strategy. You should have a clear purpose in mind for your blog.

• Do you want to establish yourself as an authority or a thought leader in your industry?
• Are you trying to boost leads and conversions?
• Do you want to build brand awareness?

Before you even think about launching a blog, you need to know its purpose so that you can create a well-thought-out plan for content creation and distribution.

Most businesses find that blogging is a good fit for their online marketing strategy, but answer these questions honestly to make sure that you don’t waste time on a venture that won’t be fruitful.