8 Business Benefits of Online Article Writing

To blog or not to blog? For many businesses, this remains an open marketing question. If you are trying to grow your brand, you may have heard that online article writing can deliver a strong return on investment. However, for many people, identifying how online writing can translate into bottom-line results can be confusing.

8 Benefits of Online Article Writing

When we say blogging or article writing, we really just mean the process of consistently publishing articles on your website. There are numerous benefits of writing content for your business, and it can have a substantial impact on your sales. Of course, as with all marketing channels, article writing needs to be executed well. Many brands need writers or copywriting services with experience in content marketing to achieve the best results. As you develop a clear and focused website article strategy, the path to the benefits becomes clearer.

Understanding what you could achieve with blogging can help you to develop an effective strategy for harnessing this marketing channel. The following are eight ways your business can benefit from online article writing. Use them to shape your approach to blog-based marketing.

1) Increase Brand Visibility

Perhaps the most fundamental reason to consider article writing for your website on a consistent basis is the opportunity to attract more eyes to your brand. There are a few ways that online article writing can help increase your audience:

• SEO: Search engine optimization is a powerful way to bring interested visitors to your website. A good article writing strategy should address topics that people are likely to search for. If you run a camping goods business, for example, you may write an online article on must-have essentials for a first-time camper. People who are interested in your products are likely to search for topics like these. Well-targeted blog posts can significantly increase your organic search traffic.
• Social Shares: You can also increase your brand visibility online through social shares. If you are consistently publishing high-quality articles that engage your audience, they will be likely to share them with their friends and social groups with shared interests. This can be a significant source of direct traffic through an audience that grows itself.
• Backlinks: Similarly, well-written articles can attract interest from others in your field. They may reference your content or otherwise link to your website. This can become quite substantial if you are publishing high-value content such as original data and research. However, even simpler blog posts can attract links and attention.

2) Generate More Leads and Sales

Online article writing can be used as a vehicle for converting visitors into leads and sales. Typically, the most effective articles are those that focus on delivering value to the reader. Therefore, they should not simply be a sales pitch by another name. However, that does not mean that you cannot use them to direct visitors to your more sales-oriented content.

Returning to the camping goods business example, the online article about must-have items for first-timers could link to items sold by your business. This allows the post to focus on informing the reader while also helping to convert new product sales.

Another good way to convert sales is to attract visitors who are in a buying mindset. As you design your online article writing strategy, you should consider which search terms and keywords you want to target. Try selecting keywords that are a likely choice for people with an intent to purchase.

These are often research-related searches. For example, someone may search for “what do I need for cold-weather camping?” You could create an article targeting the keyword “cold-weather camping.” Fortunately, numerous tools can help you to identify what people frequently search for.

For most businesses, this is the most important benefit of online writing. Your goal is likely to improve your bottom-line results, so developing a content strategy focusing on converting leads and sales should be a priority.

3) Establish Your Expertise and Trust

Another valuable benefit of online article writing is that you can establish your brand authority. In other words, you can position your team and your business as experts in your field. Exactly what this looks like depends on your industry.

If you run a software development business, you may publish a series of blogs exploring key technical topics such as security, optimization and best practices. These blog posts aren’t necessarily focused on attracting new customers. However, they help to demonstrate that your team members know their stuff.

This benefit can be especially significant in technical fields that require specialized knowledge. For example, law firms, tax accountants and research and development businesses can all gain a lot from developing brand authority through online article writing.

However, the benefits of writing to develop perceived expertise can help almost any brand. Returning to the camping goods example, writing articles that delve into the details of products is a great way to appeal to the enthusiast audience.

Similarly, online article writing can be used to develop trust. Communication is one of the more powerful tools that businesses have to earn the trust of their customers, especially in the digital sphere. Articles that help buyers make more-informed purchases can be a big part of this.

One of the key elements of online article writing to build trust is the need to be genuine. If you are trying to inform customers rather than simply sell to them, they will grow to trust your brand as a reliable source.

4) Diversify Audience Engagement

Chances are that you already have other active marketing channels. These may include paid ads, social media, print marketing, events and more. There are numerous ways to engage your business’ audience. However, most of them are viewed with some suspicion by consumers.

According to a study commissioned by the American Association of Advertising Agencies, a mere 4% of consumers report that they trust advertisements. While this does not mean that ads are ineffective, it does mean that non-ad-based marketing has an important role to fill. Online article writing is a simple way to diversify the ways that you are reaching your audience and engage them with content that they are more interested in.

In other words, rather than just delivering a sales pitch, you can deliver real value to your audience through content marketing. This makes them more interested in interacting with your brand.

5) Demonstrate Your Products & Services More Deeply

You likely already have product and landing pages on your website describing your product and/or services. These can provide an opportunity to delve into your product’s or service’s features and benefits. However, it is harder to take a deep dive into the experience of your offerings from this type of page.

Article writing offers a chance to provide a more educational and experiential view of your solutions. You can often adopt a more personal tone with blog posts. Additionally, you can share stories about your business.

One great way to use online article writing is to explore case studies of previous work you have done. Examine how your products or services delivered success to a previous customer. For a less formal version of the same concept, have some people share short reviews that you can include in an article on your blog. This is a good way to show what you have to offer rather than simply telling your audience you have it.

6) Engage Long-Term

All the benefits of online article writing are enhanced by the fact that it is available online permanently (or at least for a long time). If you were to create a paid ad to attract new customers to your camping goods business, it would only be effective for the time that you are paying for the ad placement. However, an article about preparing for a first-time camping trip can engage new customers for years.

Although you may need a writer with a good sense of content marketing strategy to achieve this, you can create a snowball effect with your blog posts. Gradually, you will develop a large amount of content that covers a diverse range of topics. This means that you can continue to attract people to your website based on many different relevant searches and interests.

This characteristic is wholly unlike conventional marketing campaigns. While most businesses benefit from a mix of marketing channels, online article writing is often underappreciated despite its significant potential to grow exponentially over time.

Furthermore, a well-developed blog can engage a loyal audience. This is especially true for a brand aimed at an enthusiast audience. If they continue to get high-quality content through your blog, they will be likely to keep returning to stay up-to-date.

7) Broaden Your Audience

Many brands find themselves targeting the same audience repeatedly and not achieving optimal growth. There are many ways to diversify your marketing audience. However, online article writing has some unique benefits that make it perfect for engaging new audience segments.

First, you can research keywords and explore some of the searches that are similar to ones that are already generating traffic. One of the examples mentioned above includes targeting “cold-weather camping.” You may find that people are searching for “winter camping in the Appalachians.” That is similar but potentially targeting an audience that you aren’t currently reaching.

One of the benefits of article writing is that you can experiment with relatively low stakes. While it takes time and effort to develop each blog post, you aren’t buying a media spot and the worst-case scenario is that it doesn’t reach many people. So, you can always explore a possible audience with a simple article then expand your strategy if you are successful.

Additionally, since articles on your website are easy to share (be sure to include social media share buttons in each post!), you can often rapidly expand your audience by encouraging social shares in interest-based communities that you aren’t currently reaching. Using the example above, getting shared by the “Appalachian adventurers’ club” could be a major boon to your growth. A savvy article writing strategy provides plenty of opportunities to reach new people.

8) Grow Your Network

Typically, article writing is thought of as being a customer-focused activity. The goal is to attract potential buyers and convert them into customers. However, this doesn’t need to be the (sole) aim. Online article writing can also be used to expand your team’s network within your field.

Advantages of Networking

Networking can be a powerful tool for business success. These are a few of the advantages of article writing:

• Increased visibility in the market
• Opportunities for collaboration
• Referrals from non-competitive businesses
• Event invites
• Advice and ideas
• Opportunity to influence and shape your field
• Meeting potential hires
• Access to different perspectives

If you are delivering valuable content via your blog, other companies and prominent individuals in your field will start to follow you. Some may be simply looking to see what you are doing. Others may be interested in working with you. Growing your network via your blog can be a good reason to write fresh content.

How You Can Harness the Benefits of Online Article Writing

For many business leaders, as great as the above benefits of article writing are, getting started can seem daunting. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be. In fact, getting started is surprisingly easy. It really can be as simple as writing something that you believe your audience will find interesting.

Of course, like all marketing techniques, online article writing should be based on a thought-out and focused strategy. For that, you may need a writer and marketing strategist who are familiar with content marketing to plan some effective blog posts.

It is helpful to develop a backlog of content and topics that you can pull from. Additionally, you should strive to release your blog posts on a consistent schedule. Many blogs start strong but lose steam after the initial round of posts.

Finally, remember to research your online article writing and base it on SEO principles. You can create the best content in the world, but if your audience isn’t finding it, you won’t see the results you want. A blog that is closely tied in with SEO and search engine marketing strategies will tend to excel.

Get Online Article Writing Services Today

There are many benefits of online article writing that your business could harness with the right strategy and content. However, it takes time and effort to create and run an effective blog. Most businesses need to hire a writer or writing service to achieve the best results. BKA Content can help you write online articles in a way that engages your audience and grows your business. Learn more about our services today.