If you are a nascent entrepreneur and you are running a small business, there’s a probability you are wondering if the blog is the right tool for driving traffic and generating leads. The simple and resounding answer is Yes! Posting articles and quality content is relatively easier and an inexpensive method of traffic generation, inbound marketing and lead generation.

According to a data released by Hubspot, 57% of companies with a blog have been successful in driving traffic and converting them into leads through their blogs. The same survey also presented data, which showed 81% of entrepreneurs are believer of the blog to be the real tool for driving traffic and generating leads.

In this blog post, we look into varied benefits a blog will add to your small business. All these points included are tried and tested; they have helped hundreds of small businesses in finding their share of audience on the Internet.

1. Blogs can help you improve Seach Engine Ranking.

In today's digital world, finding the right customer base is tough without looking good in the eyes of search engines. Search engines like Google and Bing make use of sophisticated algorithms for listing websites in the search results. One needs to follow the various paradigms, ensure proper Onsite and Offsite optimization and also learn PPC (Pay per click) campaign in order to acquire traffic from search engines. With websites scope of SEO improvement is limited but one can always depend upon blogs for improving the SEO of the website.

Here are some of the quick tricks that will help your Search Engine Optimisation efforts and improve your websites ranking in Google search results. 

• Create Internal Links: Pass valuable links to your website from your blog. Use your blog for educating your audience about the use and benefits of your product or services. Use internal links for redirecting customers from blog to your website. Every customer reading your blog will not to go your site and make a purchase, but if you have been successful in establishing yourself as a leader in a specified niche, then people who all are in need will come to your site and make a purchase. Creating internal links from your blog to your website will not only increase traffic but will also create sale opportunities.
• Integrate Social Media: Integrate Social Media buttons and social media plugins for Facebook, Twitter and Google+ on your blog. It will help your blog readers to find you on Social Medias and be connected there as well. Social Media can help with backlink generation and will also open new doors of possibilities. 

Creating internal links and focusing on inbound marketing can bring fringe benefits for your site but planning things in advance and launching a blog way before your business website makes a debut is yet another popular strategy.

Here are some of the common benefits of starting a blog way before you launch your business website -

• Domain Authority: Launching a blog way before you start your business website will help you improve your domain knowledge authority. With better leadership image and quality contents of your blog, you will enjoy better search engine rankings for your website too.
• Page Rank: Starting a blog before launching your website is the new trend and it help the website in looking good in the eyes of the search engines. Google PageRank (Google PR) is one of the methods Google uses to determine a page's relevance or importance. Important pages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results.
• Creating Indirect Links: A blog that has been there for a long time will work in the favor of your blog. All the valuable links pointing towards your blog will start pointing towards your website the moment you start generating internal links to your site; such Backlinks are also referred to as Web 2.0 backlinks. 

2. Generate Leads with the help of Email Marketing.

Publish quality content, optimize them for search engines and create quality backlinks and traffic will follow. But such traffic is raw traffic and it needs to be worked upon. Use of tools like Google Analytics will help entrepreneurs discover their targeted set of audience. Use the analytics tool efficiently for targeting your desired base of audience. Create content that sales more and improve the pages from where customers are bouncing.

Once you start creating relevant content for the targeted audience asking them, their email ids become easier. Now start generating a subscriber list. The readers on your blog are already interested in the content on your site; all you need to do is show email subscription box and they will subscribe to your mailing list. Now start using this mailing list to make special announcements for your business, services and products.

During Festivals or launch of any new product, you can use this email list smartly for reaching out to people. Email allows small businesses to reach out to every customer individually and let them know about the latest updates personally. Email marketing is one of the most successful marketing formulas in the contemporary world. Customers love their mailbox, and they will read your email and chances of generating sales will increase. 

Four things that will help you take your email marketing to the next level: 

• Use Quality Content: When we say quality content, we refer to a type of content that is relevant and simple to read for your readers.
• Proper Use Of Images: Using email marketing properly is crucial to your success. Do not over do and lose the essence. Make sure that the message is relevant and should be delivered when the reader wishes. Allow them to unsubscribe or opt out from your mailing list.
• Link Perfectly: Link to the most important pages on your site. If you are sending an email to informs customers about your new product launch, then make sure you are providing a link directly to that product page.
• Offer Something Exclusive: Personalized Discount or offers are always going to do the trick for you. Making your customer feel special is especially important for you.

3. Bad Reviews are good for your business.

There’s nothing like negative publicity in the modern age. Every thing coming your way can be used for your benefit. Be it a bad review on your blog or an outrageous comment on your social media account. 

While a lot of entrepreneurs don't respond to bad reviews and negative comment on their blogs or sometimes remove them but by doing so, they are losing a valuable opportunity to reach out and understand customers. Understanding customer and resolving their problems will help you retaining a client. Entrepreneurs need to be really out going and bold about the feedback of their product and services. Get to know the problem your customer had and assure a better service the next time and this way you will be able to retain the client. Blogs and forums are great places to interact with your customers.

Lack of fund should never be a constraint for the small businesses, efficient use of technology will help them discover the perfect audience base and also empower their businesses in the long run. With a blog, small businesses can unlock amazing benefits. 

If you have plans of starting a business on your own then NOW is the time for you to start a blog and prepare the ground for your business.