Every brand has to start somewhere. Whether your company or product is based on the customer support or the qualitative work ethics of your company, your brand is going to need to leave a lasting impression on your audience and customers at the end of the day.
Think about the top brands in the world. Names like Apple, Microsoft, Target, Coke, Pepsi and Nike come to mind. While many of these companies are in different markets, they all have one special thing in common – how they make their customers feel about their experience with the products and services they deliver.
Pepsi and Coke could throw advertisements in your face as much as they like, but if they didn’t have a great-tasting soda, no one would buy them. Apple and Microsoft have helped revolutionise the world through the use of their products and software. Brands like Nike and Target make the shopping experience fun for the customer and continue to deliver products that people not only want but also need.
So, now this brings us to your brand. What makes your brand any better or different from the millions of other blogs in the world? And why should anyone pay any attention to you?
Starting a company and brand is one thing, but being able to get the attention of people around the world and gain real-life customers while having massive competition from established companies that have millions of dollars in advertising budgets is extremely tough.
However, the good news is that we can level the playing field through the use of the internet, and specifically through the use of blogging.
Since first launching my own blog in 2007, I’ve been able to gain the attention of millions of internet users around the world, appear on FOXNews and ABC News, speak at different conferences around the world as a keynote speaker and much more.
On top of all of that, I’m just a one-man company. I don’t have a PR team or someone pushing my name to big media. All of this is possible through the reach of my blog, and now I’m going to give you five reasons why your brand must absolutely have a blog and how easy it is to get started right now:
1) It’s Extremely Easy and Cost-Effective
The most obvious reason to start a blog around your brand is the initial cost and simplicity of getting set up. A typical blog runs off of the WordPress platform; a platform that is completely free to use and has a very simple learning curve. If you know how to use Microsoft Word, then you will know how to run a WordPress blog with ease.
The cost of setting up a blog is also extremely cheap. If you already have a domain name for your site, you can simply run it off another directory on your site, such as /blog. If you prefer to create a new domain or a site just for your blog, the costs are a mere $10 a year for a domain name and web hosting packages are usually in the $10/month price range.
2) Creating a Blog Allows You to Expand Your Reach
One of the many reasons that more brands are focusing their efforts on blogging is because it’s been such an excellent way for organisations to create content around the products and services they offer.
If someone was to visit your website and wanted to learn more about your product, wouldn’t it be great if you had a full video review and comments from other customers who are using the product? This is the type of opportunity that blogging will allow your brand to benefit from.
In addition to being able to create great content through your blog, you will also increase the amount of search engine listings and traffic you have flowing to your site, as each article will rank in the search results for a different keyword.
3) Connect Your Blog Content with Your Social Networks
Most brands are already active on major social networks like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Having a blog is a great way to continually be in touch with your social networks by engaging with your followers on your latest blog posts.
For example, when a new blog post goes live on your site, you can send that post’s link to your social followers. If they click it, they will be sent back to your blog, where they can read the content and leave a comment as well. The better the content you write, the more likely people are not only going to visit your site again, but also learn more about your brand, thus, potentially leading them to subscribe to your blog and ultimately buying one of your products or services.
4) Your Blog Will Work for Your Brand 24 Hours a Day
Having a website or online store is a great way to create awareness and sales for your business. If you already have a site online, then you are already experiencing the benefit of having your business open 24 hours a day, every single day.
Now, imagine that you can create hundreds of new pages of content around your brand and business as well as the products and services that you offer, but having them now all featured through your blog. This means you are adding multiple content pages for potential site traffic that will allow you to acquire new customers and new leads from the search results and social media updates every second of the day.
The more content you create (targeted around your brand and services), the more likely you are to increase your rankings in the search results and for what keywords people will find your blog under.
5) Google Loves Sites with Fresh Content
In addition to all of the other benefits mentioned above, even Google wants to see a blog on your site! There are trillions of websites ranked in the search results, and the ones with the most updated and fresh content will usually rank higher in the search results.
A blog is not only a great way to create a lot of new content for your site but Google can also quickly index your site and any new content that you go live with. Google+ is another huge benefit for bloggers, and you will be able to link your Google+ profile with the sites that you currently create content for. This will allow Google to verify that your content is unique and original.
All in all, Google likes fresh content and verified authors. A blog is a great way to keep Google and your search rankings happy.
The Cost of Not Having a Blog is Too High
We’ve covered some great reasons why your brand needs to have a blog. It would be hard to come up with any good reasons why your brand shouldn’t have one of its own.
While every day you sit around thinking ‘if’ you should create a blog, your competition is quickly moving ahead of you in the ongoing search results, social and content war by producing a new post daily. If you aren’t currently active with your existing blog, get to work now. And if you haven’t started a blog of your own yet, it’s easier than you think!
Take action and defend your business by starting a blog today.