A big part of my week-in week-out responsibilities at Roundpeg is blog writing. Whether it is a blog post for our website – like the one you are currently reading – or for one of our clients, the writing never really stops around here.

But that’s OK!

I am happy with the nonstop write-a-thon that has been my days and weeks after just about two months under my belt here because:

a) That’s why Lorraine hired me

b) I love to do it

c) I believe it is one of the most effective and rewarding things we can do for one of our clients’ business.

I know everyone and their grandmother has a blog now, so what’s the big deal? Well, there’s a reason they are so popular: they can pay huge dividends towards your business’ marketing, client base and success. So, what exactly does having a business blog do for your company?

Blogs bring the people to you

Chasing down leads, advertising and finding new clients and customers for your business can take a lot of time, resources and can ultimately fall flat. This is especially crippling for small businesses or businesses just starting out. Wouldn’t it be nice to just have people come to you?

Having a blog is an effective – and inexpensive – way to increase your company’s online presence. As John Doe searches on Google, if he is looking up a topic you’ve blogged about, he is likely to check out your content and is then presented the opportunity to follow links back to the site and keep digging. The bigger your site is, the more landing pages you have, the more content you have available and the better your SEO is, the more likely it is that someone who may never have heard of you will discover you.

As a bonus, turn around and share your blogs on social media and you can increase your chances of being discovered even more!

Blogs can bring in new leads

If you are doing your due diligence in marketing your business, hopefully you’re utilizing some kind of email marketing or newsletter – if not we’ve got the resources to get you started. One of the biggest hurdles in email marketing is expanding your contact list and finding new leads.

Blogs can help you clear that hurdle.

Now that you’ve got people on your page, don’t let them leave without leaving their information. Aside from hoping that they visit your “Contact Us” section, an even more effective method is presenting your visitors with a strong call-to-action. This can be a lot of things, a link to an ebook, webinar, information sheet or a free trial, essentially any kind of content that your visitors will feel good about acquiring in exchange for their contact information.

This information can be turned around and turned into leads for email campaigns, follow up emails, you name it.

Your call-to-action can be something as simple as a piece of hyperlinked text, a button or even a nifty graphic like these…

Blogs help build you as an authority

Not everyone is an expert, that’s why they go online to get the information they need.

If your business does a good job of pumping out consistent, relevant and worthwhile information about a certain topic, you can start to build a following of people who come to you first for related information. Congratulations, they’ve pegged you as an expert.

Accurate and helpful information will help build your credibility in people’s minds. Just be careful, as the flip side of this is also a very real potential problem: inaccurate or bad information can drive people away and sink you entirely. So make sure you blog about something you are an expert on or at the very least do some in-depth research beforehand.

Thought about giving blogging a shot, but can’t find the time or unsure if it is right for your business? There is always room to improve your online presence, and we can help.

Roundpeg is an Indianapolis content marketing firm.