Why Online Businesses Need a Blog

We have all heard it said that a blog is now an essential tool when it comes to running an online business. But do you know why?

If you are running an online business, one that sells products or services online, your main audience is the online community. The customers who will be ready and willing to buy from you online are those people who are comfortable researching and buying online, over the internet.

It is vitally important that to these people you are not seen as a nameless, faceless organisation, but a trustworthy business who will supply the goods or services displayed on your web site. There are many ways you can include proof of this on your website, but none is as convincing as online interaction.

A blog is a great format for interacting with your audience. It is less formal than the ‘corporate’ web site, allowing you to inject your own personality into the content. The snippets of information that you post are generally shorter than articles allowing you to post regular short pieces and links to other information your readers may find useful.

You can also have two-way conversations with your prospects that are there for the entire world to see. You can supply user guides, all sorts of tips and advice, write subject related articles that your readers will find useful. And best of all, if they have a question, they can ask and you can respond via the blog so your response is public.

And the best news? As the content is regularly updated and ‘fresh’, search engines LOVE blogs. If you want to be found in the top of the search engines, it’s one of the quickest, easiest and most cost-effective way to get there.

In addition to that there are numerous tools available that will automatically post your blog content to your social media accounts. So if you are active in LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and others, snippets of your blog posts, along with a link to read the remainder of your live article from your main blog, can appear each time you post. Now isn’t that easier than posting to multiple websites?

About the Author:

Justine Curtis is the director of My Virtual Assistant Limited which is currently expanding across the UK with a team of virtual assistant licensees and founder of the UK Association of Virtual Assistants (UKAVA) which offers free resources and information to its subscribers. Justine is the author of Setting Yourself Up As A Virtual Assistant and passes on the benefits of her vast experience of the VA role to aspiring and progressive virtual PAs.

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