Why start a blog?

While blog content may have had romantic origins as an online journal, today’s blog is more of a strategic way of showing your brand as a thought leader in a particular industry.  If you are not already blogging, then this medium is a something to seriously consider, providing many advantages as follows:

1 – Expert Positioning

Sharing blog content is an ideal avenue to establish you and your brand as an expert in your industry.  This avenue enables you to give insight into your expertise and knowledge of your subject.

The platform also provides an opportunity to showcase your information through different mediums such as a white paper or an infographic  while providing valuable resources for your customers.

2 – Establishing consumer trust

In this way your customer is informed, empowered with up-to-date information about you industry.  While this is your chance to shine as an authority, giving valuable information also shows your customers that you care about their needs, so that your brand is seen as reliable and trustworthy.

3 – Positioning your brand as an industry authority

As an informal channel of communication, a blog is an ideal channel to establish a bond with your target market.  Offering  a certain flexibility, the medium facilitates the discussion of different aspects of an industry, showing your brand as a thought leader.

A blog becomes the voice of a brand, acting as a personal vehicle for establish a rapport with a target market and showcasing services through portfolio samples and case studies.

4 – Repurposing content

This medium is an excellent way of presenting and consolidating your content in one place.  From there, the content can be re-created or repurposed, either in different formats such as a case study, a social media post or an 3-book.

Blog content points can be expanded into a full book or they can be reduced to a minimalist representation, providing the reader with an overview of the subject.

5 – Creating a relationship with you target market

Valuable content looks after a customer’s needs, either by acting as a solution or by enabling the customer to become informed and empowered through that knowledge.  By providing  content, the customer engages with your site and in turn with your products and services, while developing an emotional affiliation with your brand.

6 – Ranking

Adding new content shows your website is active which can add to the SEO of your site, impacting your ranking on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

By including relevant keywords and phrases in your content SEO is further enhanced and in turn so are you chances of a better ranking.

Blogging is a process rather than an end goal.  It is an art form that is continually refined as you receive feedback to your content.  This enables you to continuously tweak your subject so that is tailor made to the needs and interests of your target market.  In turn,  target market engagement is established as you use this medium to further build your brand and your business.