To blog or not to blog, that is the question?

Blogging is an activity that comes naturally to some people. Some are gifted writers and story-tellers, while some have oceans of engaging content that lends itself beautifully to the blogosphere. Many people are yet to conquer the blog however, and it’s no surprise as it can be a pretty daunting task. If you’re thinking about blogging (and we think you should be!) you might be asking yourself questions such as:

What’s the point of a blog?
How will it help my business?
What on Earth would I say?
Who’s going to read it?
How am I going to find enough to write about?

All normal concerns, and the answers are simple. The benefits of blogging are no secret, and they’re not just reserved for foodies and healthy lifestyle gurus! Whatever your business, there are all kinds of ways to generate interesting content that you can share on a blog, whether it be things that interest and inspire you, things you’ve been up to in your workplace, experiences you’ve had or just general musings. Your blog needn’t be read by millions to make a difference to your business, you can still benefit from blogging in a big way!

Here’s why:

• It’s a way to boost your website’s search engine ranking – the more you blog, the higher you might climb
• Websites with blogs get 55% more visitors than those without
• Over half of businesses find blogs to be the most effective SEO technique
• Blogs are big now! Most people read 5-10 blogs, with 46% of people reading one more than once daily
• Small businesses with a blog will generate 126% more than leads than those without.

It’s a no brainer! Your posts don’t have to be miles in length, and readers are more likely to digest a shorter entry – so don’t feel you have to be a captivating word smith or have content coming out of your ears to justify a post. We are a world in a hurry, and are becoming increasingly visual by the day – blog entries with images get 94% more views than plain text ones. Make the most of this when you pick your content, and if your product or service lends itself to display, or perhaps you’re not a confident writer, use media to your advantage. Photograph what you’re selling and just be sure to include at least 10% text to amp up SEO, making sure to name every image so that they show in search engine results.

More fun still, why not include some video? It’s a great medium that allows you to speak to and interact with your consumers. Twitter has just introduced video to its app. Instagram and Snapchat have embraced video in the past couple of years and it seems that every other post on Facebook takes the form of video these days too. It may seem off the wall at first, but you can make them long or short, and as plainly informative or as wildly creative as you like. It’s just another method of mixing up your content and amplifying your business’ message to your audience.

We hope we have inspired you to give it go. Happy blogging!