Everybody’s got a blog nowadays. The question that you’re no doubt asking is, ‘are they just jumping on the bandwagon or is there actually a reason for this blogging craze?’ That’s a great question. I think the right answer is ‘both’. A lot of people are just jumping on the bandwagon. They’re afraid that they’ll miss out if they don’t have a blog.

The problem with that approach, however, is that as they don’t really know why they’re starting a blog then they might not use it correctly. And in that case, it will hardly help their business along. For that reason, it’s important to know what the blog is for and what it can do for you.

That’s what I’m going to explore in this article.

It allows you to foster trust

The very first thing that your blog is good for (and the only way it will work) is to foster trust. Note that just starting a blog will not foster trust, however. This will take quite a bit more.

To create trust, you’ve got to actually create honest content that benefits your audience first and market your own products second. In fact, to begin with, it might be better off to not market your content all that much. Sure, you can point to other pages where they can learn more about it, but try avoiding doing much more than that.

People are very sensitive to blogs that are only there to push a company’s products and will come to avoid it pretty quickly. When that happens, your blog won’t serve its purpose and then you’d be better of throwing that money down the well for all the good it will do you.

It will allow you to tell your story

One of the biggest problems with the internet for many people and companies is that it has cost us the human element. It’s not like in the old days when you could walk into a shop and see the shopkeeper or the attendant. Many brands don’t really have a human face.

Blogs can change that. They allow you to tell your story and the story of your employees. In this way, you can bring the human element back into your company and create an opportunity for your customers to feel that they’re dealing with people rather than just some faceless corporation.

An additional benefit is that when you tell your employee’s story (and tell it well) they can be quite flattered and will spread that content far and wide to friends, family, and acquaintances. In this way, you can turn into willing brand advocates.

It will allow you to define your mission

Sure, you’ve got the about page to get into what your brand is all about, but often that’s a lot of corporate speak that few of your visitors actually read. Blogs are great places to expand on those ideas that you’ve introduced there and to promote them in a far more human and personal way.

In this way, you can mix together what you’re doing with why you’re doing it, which will give people a much better idea of what you’re trying to do with your brand and lead to them not just liking your product but your brand as a whole as well.

It allows you to show expertise and authority

In many industries, it’s important that people believe that you’re the best and know the most. This is another way that your blog can help your company along. If you showcase interesting ideas and trends in your sector of the business, then that will naturally imbue your whole company and all of your products with authority.

Sure, you can bring in writers to do that for you. An even better idea, however, is to take the people that you’ve got in your company and allow them to use your blog to present their ideas and observations. In this way, your blog can serve to turn them into authority figures in your sector and boost their creativity.

Do note, if you go down this route you will need to get their work edited, as most people aren’t actually natural writers. You’ll probably need to get a content editor for that. Don’t have one of those yet? Start off using writing services for such purpose.

It lets you connect with influencers

If you do manage to position yourself as an authority, then the next step is to use it to connect with influencers. These are the people that have a large audience in the sectors that you’re interested in, who they’re constantly trying to update with the latest developments in the sector.

This constant hunger for new information means that your blog might become an invaluable source of information to them. That will only happen, of course, if they feel they can trust it and the content being presented there.

That’s once again why trust is so important.

It will save you money

If you can pull off some of the things that I’ve outlined above, then your blog is going to save you buckets of money, as it will draw in large amounts of organic traffic and attention. That will allow you to redirect your marketing budget, for example, towards better things.

Of course, do make sure that at least a part of that budget goes towards creating ever better content, as in this way your blog will continue to gain more online ‘weight’ and draw in ever bigger audiences.

Last words

Blogs can do all these things. That doesn’t mean they will, tough. For a blog to be effective in this way, it’s important that you build it up as a long-term strategy. It’s all about building trust and connecting with the people in your industry.

If you can do that, then your blog will become an indispensable part of your company and your outreach to your visitors. If you don’t do that, then your blog will be just another random online appendage that doesn’t really do anything.

Which one you’ll end up with relies completely on you.

Contributed byhttp://writingdaddy.com/