Blogging 101: Why you should blog Part 1 of 3

This article first appeared on the XFactor Collective Campfire Community blog.

Whether you’re an established not-for-profit organisation, a or a one-person business, blogging should be part of your marketing strategy. But if you’re not a writer, it may seem a bit daunting!

So, we’ve put together a three-part guide to blogging, based on years of supporting our clients. It’s intended to help you get started or if you’ve already had a go but are stuck, we hope that these few tips will help you start sharing your genius with the world. And if you need help, reach out – we’re always happy to chat.

We’ll cover what makes a good blog and what you should write about in separate articles, but first, let’s consider the benefits of blogging.

WHY PUT TIME INTO WRITING A BLOG?

There are so many reasons to blog for your business that we can’t cover all of them in-depth. However, some of the benefits of blogging simply cannot be ignored. Here’s why we recommend it:

• Showcase your expertise: Blogging is one of the best ways to reinforce your credentials and show potential customers just how knowledgeable you are about your industry.
• Add value – for you and for them: Everyone loves something ‘free’, and blogging allows you to provide customers (and potential customers) with insights, actionable advice and handy tips – and at the same time, you can probably answer some of the simpler questions that you may often get asked, without taking time out of your more productive work.
• Boost your SEO ranking: Blogging is a great way to implement a bit of an SEO strategy, even if you aren’t familiar with the (sometimes baffling) inner-workings of SEO. Simply by regularly updating your website and talking about industry-relevant topics, you’re saying to Google “Hey, we know about this, send people this way”, which goes a long way towards stopping your website from being buried among countless search results. 
• Create social content: For every blog you write, you’ll have content that you can repurpose and reuse over and over again on your social media channels. Share links, snippets and screenshots of your blog across your channels. Don’t be afraid to post an article on one of your social channels more than once- just wait a few weeks in between!
• Reach a new audience: Blogs are a great way to help people find you and drive new traffic to your website. There are people out there who would have never heard of your business or your brand, except for the fact that an article on your website answers the exact question they were Googling. And when that does happen, there’s a good chance they’ll remember you in future when they need someone to help them solve a problem in your area of expertise.

A final thought – it doesn’t need to be written! You could do a ‘vlog’ – if you’re more comfortable in front of a camera, then get recording!

We hope you learned something new and that you’re convinced to start blogging regularly – whether that’s monthly, weekly or, if you’re really keen, daily! If you are still not convinced and want to chat about whether blogging is for you, get in touch via our profile page.