Should Small Businesses Have a Website with a Blog?

That is debatable. But be in the know. Learn to make learned and informed decisions for solid brand building in the digital economy. In the present entrepreneurial business landscape, which is continuously becoming digitized and dominated by emerging technologies like AI marketing tools and apps, any business should strive to create its own home space for feeling at home with tech tools on the internet.

Remember, technology can be scary and intimidating if you fail to embrace, adopt, adapt, and transition to using it. The easiest way to learn to feel at home with any digital transformation so much needed in the present-day creative digital economy is to have a simple website.

What About a Blog?

A blog is another story, but a website is a must and non-negotiable for the surface appearance of your digital footprint and presence. When you want to go deeper with the substantial meaning of your business concept and its offers on the market, long-form content is the way to go. 

A blog seems to be becoming a priority with the traumatic confusion of whether social media platforms will remain in their long-established supreme position in the era of AI algorithms that have become too sophisticated and incorruptible for viral views.

It seems the social media obsession and addiction most social media addicts have developed in the past decade is fast dwindling. The hype in social media marketing based on the virality of luxury lifestyle flaunts has failed to give what most viewers are looking for on the internet. 

That is something of substance that is of value and benefit in their lives and business pursuits. Instead, most reports on the effects of social media on the psychological health of adults and young people are making most people realize its shortcomings as a platform for professional and sustainable digital marketing. 

Long-form text content version seems to be gaining attention for consideration in digital marketing. That observation makes most small businesses that always rely on social media marketing with limited effort to push for brand building continue to wonder whether small business ventures must have a website with a blog.

Here are the five benefits of blogging that will make you decide whether to have it on your business website. And before we deep dive and delve into the five aspects, let's reflect on the brand-building mindset in the digital economy.

Brand Building Mindset

It all starts in the mind and how you envision the future of what you create, no matter how small the business is. Being a small business should not limit cultivating a growth mindset inbuilding your brand and elevating its global reach. Asking that question in your mind shows you are already conscious of that gap in your digital marketing strategy. So, if you always have that question at the back of your mind, you are in the right direction in your brand-building process and journey.

In the saturated business landscape, marketing for sales has become a holistic approach and process. And that encompasses every aspect of digital marketing, with text content as the hallmark of Content Marketing. Those who have learned to embrace digital marketing are making a conscious effort to embrace blogging as a digital marketing strategy in brand building for sustainability and longevity in the market. Here are the positives of a blog on your business website.

Boosts Web Traffic

From its basic design form and format, a website is just as good as a landing page with surface details of what you do and offer in the market. It is a plain interface with static pages like the Home page, About Us page, and Contact page for easy navigation of your site. And just a surface appearance and meaning of your business. 

Though it is good as the starting point of your business’s basic digital footprint, a blog helps to make it more live and active. It brings life and action to the site. So, when it comes to making it more meaningful and captivating to your visitors, in-depth content through a blog is imperative and helpful.

That will help your web visitors understand the purpose and value of your business before converting into constant visitors. A blog boosts presence and visibility online. Online visibility boosts attention to make visitors feel like digging deeper into what you offer. With a blog, your customers are most likely to come back now and again to quench their thirst for knowledge and information.

 A blog also helps to lure more web visitors from organic searches where your business or brand concepts or keywords can ring true with Google searchers. But note here, we said Google searchers, human beings, not google crawlers or bots. 

Human and customer-centric content creation is the game of providing value and benefit to humanity and appropriately using the Internet web. That way, driving traffic from people who never knew anything about your business. That is how the Internet helps small businesses grow through digital marketing and blogging as a channel for sustainable brand building.

Online Credibility

Of course, a website marks your online presence. But credibility comes from going deep into clarifying your purpose and value. A blog makes that possible and more comprehensive through text blogging. Being credible and authentic has come to mean more than just a plain website with an e-commerce shop and product listings. People are nosy and want to know more about your business, what you believe in, and your values in the market.

Being a small business in the present-day digital economy does not mean doing your stuff haphazardly with no clarity of why you exist and what your principles are. That will ensure your customers know and realize what you are involved in and whether they can rely on your business to solve their problems and pain points. With access and exposure to comprehensive and helpful information from blog posts, new visitors to your business website can feel enlightened by helpful insights and perspectives on your site.

That builds credibility and trust. And demonstrates expertise in what you do and offer in the market. Once your customers can easily access relevant detailed information for their queries and questions, it reduces customer service calls that can be time-consuming and cause friction and uncalled-for disputes. Your target users appreciate detailed written information for understanding product and service offers in the market. And that boosts mutual understanding and interaction of your brand with its target users.

Authenticity

Just like credibility, you cannot buy it, but you can create it through solid brand building based on the purpose and value of your business venture. That drives relevant and relatable value creation and using appropriate digital marketing tools like blogging based on the purpose and value of your business venture. 

That is a brilliant tactic for differentiating yourself from the crowd and preparing your customers to perceive you as a brand with unique offers in the market. Remember, words professionally carved can be influential and have the power to convert to the acclaimed value and benefit as spelled out in the unique value proposition and the brand promise. 

A well-defined purpose and value of a business venture gives you the power of authenticity and genuineness with the value you provide to your customers and prospects. No one would stop you from sticking to your underlying vision and mission as spelled out in your purpose and value statement and clarified by the Unique Value Proposition and Brand Promise. That spells out your value creation that any visitor to your website can’t miss at any touch point of your business. And that is how text blogging can optimize brand building for your small business.

Customer Relationships

Your customers are human beings. And they need nurturing for long-term business relationships. It is not all web visitors that go online for shopping. Remember, we are now living in the knowledge and information age. So, most people are hungry and thirst for new perspectives and insights in your industry and niche. So, a blog on your business website can help as a resource in answering your customer's problems.

You can also use it to share fresh content on business aspects that affect their lives and business endeavors in line with your niche and other industries. Whether it is about your products or services, it will help keep customers updated with what is happening in your industry and other relatable industries to their lives and business ventures, like AI tools that all industries are experimenting with, scared of, and worried about its effects in the digital ecosystem. Sure, you would not like to deal with customers who exist in the dark.

Remember, an informed customer is a pleasure to serve, for they can do any business with you with an open mind and heart of their appreciation of your product and services. And the best tool to bring that mindset to reality is a blog on your business website. Blog posts can optimize contextual formal interaction with your target users for long-term business relationships.

That will help cultivate and develop a growth mindset to create and build a brand with a solid and influential position in the digital economy. Note here that in this context of a brand-building mindset, you should not be scared to refer to your small business as a brand. However, it might still be in the making and a work in progress.

Inspiration and Empowerment

The business world has become traumatizing with high technology and ever-changing algorithms that can easily affect website traffic. So, relying only on product and service listings for Search Engine Optimization is fast getting disrupted by emerging technologies like Large Language Models that train on large quantities of data and information. So, content is the key and king for your web visitors to plow through, for most web visitors yearn for something that can reassure them of their safety and sanity when browsing the web.

So, any blog with content that closely makes them feel relaxed and at home on the web will inspire them to believe in what they are doing and how best they should conduct themselves online. That helps empower them to realize that the Internet is for business and must be used to improve lives through creativity and innovation in branding and marketing in the digital economy.

A website is a solid tool for branding, marketing, and advertising. However, bombarding your target users with promotional content is not inspiring and empowering. You should enrich their experience with eye-opening and educational content that adds value and benefits their lives and business pursuits. And blogging is the right tool to do just that.

 So, a blog with comprehensive content based on the purpose and value of your business is a perfect channel to inspire and empower target users and consumers of your brand for solid brand building in the digital economy. And they are bound to come consistently for inspiration and empowerment.