The value of blogging for startups cannot be underestimated. While your marketing budget may be scarce, especially when you feel your resources are better directed towards getting your product ready – blogging enables you to reach out to potential customers at a relatively low cost.
The reality is, you need customers for your product to be success. But how are people supposed to find out about your amazing product, if they can’t find you?
Having a blog, allows your startup to be engaging and gain greater visibility online, without paying a fortune.
So where does blogging come into play here – why do startups need to blog immediately? This post will guide you through the reasons why startups need to start blogging as part of their online marketing.
Six Reasons Why Startups Need To Blog Immediately
1. Smartest way of getting the word out
Unlike traditional media channels, starting your blog can be a relatively low investment. Depending of course on how much you value your time, it is the smartest thing you can do for getting attention and increasing your online presence. How so?
By publishing content your target audience considers to be useful – they’re more likely to share it with their network, which gets your startup in front of even more people.
2. Thought leadership
If you’re thinking what to blog about, and that you have nothing to say – don’t worry, there’s plenty to talk about.
Commenting on recent news related to your market and adding your voice to the discussion is a fantastic way of showing people you’re aware of all the latest developments.
As an added bonus, if people are really interested in the story, they’ll be searching for more information and that’s where your blog content should be.
3. You Engage Your Target Audience
Startups often use a sign up page in the beginning, promising to let people know when they’re open for business. The problem here is that it can take months for that to happen, and by the time they announce some news, people have already forgotten all about the startup.
A blog gives them a reason to visit back and keeps the engagement going until you actually launch. Asking for email addresses is a good start, but completely ineffective if you maintain a silence period until the day of your launch.
4. Getting found on Google
Google likes to reward sites that update regularly and publish quality content. By publishing content, you increase your chances to rank highly in search engines.
Recent statistics show that 44% of online shoppers begin by using a search engine, whereas businesses with 401-1000 web pages attract six times more leads than those with 51-100 pages.
Of course you can go down paid option of Google AdWords, but there’s nothing better than that feeling of growing your online presence organically.
5. It improves your communication skills
Imagine having to write for your blog twice a week and how much effort goes into creating content worth sharing. Sounds daunting, right?
On the other hand, doing so will certainly develop your communication skills that spill over into other areas outside the blogosphere.
The more you write, the better you get at it and all of a sudden writing emails to stakeholders becomes a piece of cake.
Getting your message across clearly is another trick you’ll pick up, which definitely comes in handy when you’re pitching your product.
6. You Earn People’s Trust
Being the new kid on the block has its challenges, especially if this is your first startup and you have a young team. One of those challenges will be building a reputation for yourselves and earning the trust of your audience.
By publishing helpful content, you create a connection, similar to the one between a coach and his players.
Taking your readers through the inner workings of your startup creates transparency. It tells them that even though you’re busy working, you care enough about them to keep them updated on the progress.
Even if you’re at a very early stage for your startup, starting a blog undoubtedly has its benefits. You may not have something to show for your efforts just yet, but the people who really care will want to learn more about you. A good start is to blog about the topic of your product, if you’re making home security devices, talk about how people can protect their homes from burglary.
For more information on blogging, check out How To Prevent Your Blog From Becoming A Lame Duck
Photo credit: dierken via Flickr
