Promote your business with one of the easiest tools available. A blog amalgamates content marketing, social media marketing and SEO to reward your business with "juicy traffic."

1. Content Marketing: Why your Business Needs a Blog
As an entrepreneur, online marketing is no doubt a bonus when it comes to expanding your
market share and of course reaching out to the growing population of internet users on the globe.
In Nigeria, you will agree with me that online marketing is still at its infant stage and quite a lot
of business owners unfortunately think digital marketing is just social media campaigns and Pay-
Per Click banners.
For your Online marketing plan to be successful, you should craft a plan that includes Search
Engine Optimization, Content Marketing, Social Media Marketing and Email Marketing.
When your online marketing strategy has a mix of all these, your will be rewarded with what
Neil Patel calls Juicy traffic to your website.
Whilst it is important to have several social media handles to engage with your customers about
your product and services, owning a blog and writing quality content that people want to read
will better meet your objective of customer engagement.
Put simply, Social Media handles should be seen as a platform to share quality content, engage
your community of readers and link them to your blog and eventually to your website.
Blogging is the path to fame, and popularity, like these guys have done:

2. Neil Patel
Robert Kiyosaki
Rand Fishkin

3. Sean Ellis
Larry Kim
What better way to promote your business than to get that brand name out there on your very
own personal blog?
But many entrepreneurs see blogging as a time consuming act. They feel the two or so hours
used to put up a blog post should be channelled instead on getting more work done or acquiring
more followers on social media.

4. But the peculiar thing is, blogging is so easy to do and it is work and it is one way to get more
followers.
According to a 2014 research on blogs on the Blogconomy:
1. Interesting content is one of the top three reasons people follow brands on social media.
2. Small businesses with blogs generate 126% more leads.
3. 90% of consumers find customer content useful.
4. 70% of consumers learn about a company from blogs rather than from ads.
These four pieces of information alone tells you that most people would follow your social
media page if you have interesting content, consumers learn and like blog contents of small
businesses, and consumers also enjoy blogs than ads. This only means one thing, get a blog.
If you have a knack for writing, are passionate about a niche or willingness to share what is
happening around you, it wont take up ages to cook up a blog post, although it requires little
research, which may be a bit tedious if you dont have a plan.
If you would like to make your blogging seamless then I recommend that you read the Advanced
guide to content Marketing by Neil Patel.

5. However, if given attention and dedication, owning a blog is essential to bridging the gap
between yourself and your customers.
See below the five major reasons you should own a blog?
1. Blogging helps bloggers infuse sharing pictures, graphs, and written information on one
site: This is good because sticking to one social media network teaches you just one kind
of social media skill.
o For example, if youre a chef and you happen to a member of LinkedIn, you can
include the fact that you have mastered a cooking skill, like grilling.
o On the blog however, you can share a post of a recipe, or how to get your grill
going at the perfect degree. As an added bonus, you can advertise that you also
sell grills or you serve such delicious recipes as meals at your restaurant.
o Readers will deem you trustworthy enough to share a recipe. They will patronize
your product and will rush to your blog for more tips, recipes and ideas.
2. Log Book of Everything: Ten years ago, Hi5, a social networking site crept up and
everybody joined it, thinking it was the best thing to happen since Yahoo or Hotmail.
People uploaded pictures, videos, and information about themselves.
o Then came MySpace. People ditched Hi5. Then came Facebook, many did the
same, and somehow when Twitter emerged people reduced using Facebook and
learned how to tweet.
o My point is, social media sites may come and go, but a blog post you shared ten
years ago on say Blogger (now known as Blogspot), will be there forever and
ever, unless you choose to delete it

6. o .
3. Blog posts can easily be shared on social media sites: And thats good because that is one
way to redirect your social media following to see and learn more about you and your
business on your blog.
4. It is kind of like keeping an online journal of your progress experiences and activities: As
mentioned on number 2, you can trace back old posts of yours.
o This is sweet when its time to get nostalgic, see how you have progressed in a
skill, or trade, and most importantly backtrack information that youve shared, in
case you thought you were just about to post the newest, trendiest piece of
information on the blog, when in reality you posted something similar on
September 11, 2011.
5. Unlimited Space: Social media marketing sites like Twitter enable you to share just 140
characters of data at a time. Instagram allows you to share as many pictures as you wish,
so long as theyre posted separately.
o However, a blog will allow you to share as many pictures as you would like in a
blog post. BellaNaija for example, thrives well via social media, but chooses to
share their wedding stories on their blog so they can upload as many pictures of
the bride and groom.
6. Marketing Medium: by blogging, you can easily share with your followers new products
or features in your business. That way, you ?promote business.
7. Learn and Share: blogging should be an essential part of running a startup, because
sharing what you are learning benefits others.
8. Followers get to know you on a personal level, and not the quick social media poster that
you seem to be: With instant uploads of pictures and frequent updates of skills and
certifications on LinkedIn or Instagram, it is almost impossible to tell customers more
about yourself and your personal life.
o Customers love to know who they're buying from because once you know
someone on a more personal level; you are more prone to trust their handiwork
than someone you've never met before.

7. Conclusion
So there you have it, several reasons as to why it is a good idea to own a blog.
Before you decide to get a blog however, it is good to ask yourself if this is something you are
passionate about and can be consistent with, Also if youre one to sit and generate creative
content to keep your readers busy and interested.
Let me know your thoughts.
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marketing-why-your-business-needs-a-blog/
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