Why should your small business be blogging? Your interaction with viewers, or lack thereof, may be the only thing holding you back from more sales. While the importance of a website is crucial in our tech-crazy era, a website that has the ability to update information through blogging will outperform in sales when compared to a company website that doesn’t. There are other ways to add updated material continually to your site, and many have value, but a blog adds something more.

A blog can have a name, such as The Richardson Copywriter, that specifically targets an audience. Location keywords are helpful in your SEO strategy, and assist your local efforts substantially.

Your blog allows your viewers to get to know you. Over time, if they like what they’re reading, they’ll continue to return to the blog posts and begin to comment and share your material, most likely online. The more frequently your company name and message are mentioned online, the better. And when someone decides to link back to you, you’re rewarded with a level of authority from Google that will start to move you up the page. Good stuff, right?

When you start to realize the trust value a blog platform develops for new business, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without one. Locally, you may do just fine with the great service you provide to your regular clients. That will keep them returning for years. Repeat business is worth around $5,000 per client in the course of a five year period, and you don’t have to advertise to them, they’re already sold! Share new offerings, yes, but the big ‘convincing argument for your services’ has already been determined. New clients are much more expensive to get. But they are necessary for continued growth, and once a new customer is sold, they become that returning customer.

So if you’re not blogging, how do you help existing clients sell your products or services to new customers? Maybe you haven’t thought about that, but you should. When existing clients post comments on your blogs, and share your business on Yelp.com, MerchantCircle.com, Twitter, or even Foursquare, it’s a pretty convincing sell to new clients. In effect, they have become your walking, talking advertisements. Almost nothing is more convincing.

Are you blogging?