In recent years, blogs have become so much more than a place for people to document their daily life and share stories with others. Blogs are also a tool that businesses use to increase brand awareness and generate leads. Even businesses directly selling products online use blogs to build up their personal brand and gain exposure. An online blog is a corner of the web where others can follow what kind of information you share with them and it wouldn’t be unusual for people who are in the same niche or industry as yours to be regular visitors. This is what makes it possible for you to use your blog as a platform for growth, visibility, and traffic.
Today, blogs are a common place for people to expand their knowledge, seek advice, and read reviews before making a purchase. Millennials are now the largest generation in the workplace. This generation is now buying cars, homes, and saving for retirement. There are about 80 million millennials in the US alone, making up over 50 percent of the workforce. As such, this trend continues to expand outside of the world of business and into other industries as well. To set the tone, Millennials value convenience, informality, and comfort more than previous generations. This is especially true in their purchasing behavior—and that’s why they are known for discovering businesses online and making online purchases.
Believe it or not, Millennials spend ample amounts of time online consuming blogs. Blogs have a vast appeal for the younger demographic and here’s why:
Blogs Establish Credibility
For millennials, authenticity is everything. And if you want to build a chasm of trust between yourself and your customers, a blog is the way to do it. From startups to tech companies like Facebook, Google, and Instagram, garnering that trust among the younger generation isn’t just an option—it’s a necessity. If you want to appeal to millennials, try running a blog on your website. Let millennials know that you do know what’s going on and are willing to have a conversation. This means creating need-based content for your site, utilizing news stories in your blog posts, or allowing for comments on articles.
Blogs are an excellent way to establish yourself as a credible source of information to Millennials. Creating blog posts and articles that are useful and relatable to your target audience is an effective way to pull them in, encourage repeat visits, increase your search engine rankings and build trust with them. Whether you work for a company that sells plenty of products or if you own a business that is mainly service-related, your blog can improve your credibility and the way people see you. By helping visitors learn more, they’ll appreciate the information you give them, and they’ll be more likely to return for more.
Blogs Double as Social Media Content
You’re feeling pretty good right now. The post that you did yesterday was really successful in getting a lot of social media engagement. It received a lot of likes and shares, and even made it into some viral roundups on other blogs! The post went live at 2 AM, and by 10 AM you already have a nice stream of comments and shares. By the end of the day, the blog post had 1k+ likes. That’s a lot of social signals being passed around! But, have you ever felt like you have no time and no inspiration to create new content for your social media profiles? It’s not uncommon and, trust us, you’re not alone!
As a blogger, there’s no way that you can run out of social media content. Blogging is an incredibly flexible and simple way to stay on top of any topic and also to find new topics. All you need to do is keep writing posts in your niche and cross-promote them across all of your social media networks. Whether you want to write short pieces of content or long-form pieces, you’ll have plenty to share with your audience. And if you want a break from blogging, just rotate these posts to the front of your blog as featured posts and give them a bold title!
Blogs Act as Customer Support
Since an increasing number of customers are searching via Google and social media for a certain problem, an email support line is no longer enough. For fitting your customer service to the modern world, you are obliged to have a business blog. A business blog shows how much more responsive and proactive you are than your competitors. If you want your business blog to be helpful for your customers, try giving them answers to their questions before they even ask them. This is not only useful but gives you a chance to position yourself as the go-to source for that type of information.
For an eCommerce store, if someone reads a blog post about how to use your product, applies it, and finds it helpful, then that's a happy customer who doesn’t need to take any further steps. You have successfully delivered your promise to this potential customer. This also frees up time from customer support and they can focus on bigger issues like features and products. In fact, many customers prefer this medium over other forms of support such as social media or email because they feel it is much easier to contact you and get a quick response in comparison.