Craft bean-to-bar chocolate makers seem to be stuck in a vicious hustling cycle.

Mostly solopreneurs or small business owners, they are already working 10+ hours a day, weekends and holidays, wearing many different hats in the meantime (chocolate maker, accountant, mechanic, salesman and cleaner to name a few), driven only by their passion for the craft. Despite all their efforts, the craft chocolate market isn’t really a place where to become millionaires.

Choosing craftmanship over industrial operations often means that profit margins are running pretty low. Craft bean-to-bar chocolate makers can’t really afford to hire employees, buy bigger machines, scale up and finally “chill out” until they reach a steady high amount of sales and can finally delegate some responsibilities. So they stay busy all day long to make ends meet and keep things flowing.

In this hectic scenario, things like marketing and social media are usually the last priorities for craft chocolate makers. Without the budget for a marketing team or even just one dedicated person, it’s hard to find time to take pictures and be social while closely monitoring a batch of cocoa beans in the roaster or frantically hand wrapping chocolate bars in time for the weekend. So why am I suggesting that they create a company blog and sit down for hours to write?

For busy business owners, creating a company blog and start blogging regularly can sound like a waste of time, but it is actually a surprising return on investment.

In 2022, running a blog on your e-commerce website might be more useful than trying to keep up with the ever-changing social media algorithms, paying a hefty price for underperforming online ads or convincing lifestyle influencers to give your brand a shoutout in a 10-second Instagram Story.

Here are 7 valid reasons why you should start blogging as a craft chocolate maker:

1- Drive more traffic to your website

Millions of people from around the world search on Google questions about chocolate and cacao every day. When you create a blog that gives answers to those concerns, you drive more traffic to your website compared to only having an online store.

Although these curious users came to your website to get the info they needed, now they can look around and discover what you have to offer. They can read more educational articles on your blog, get to know your company and ultimately buy from your online store if they are impressed with what they see. Just like it happens in a physical store, the longer online users hang out on your website, the higher the chances that they are eventually going to buy something.

So having a company blog helps you bring more people to your website. But what about actual sales?

2- Generate more sales

It’s true that the people that end up on your website through your blog aren’t necessarily looking to buy something. BUT they are indeed interested in the same topics that you are talking about (i.e. chocolate).

With paid online ads and social media, you might be reaching people with a plethora of interests, and chocolate could probably be one of them. But the people that took the time to look up a question online and came to your website through your blog are definitely interested in chocolate.

Through your company blog, you can attract a targeted and interested audience that is more likely to buy what you have to offer. Because you attracted an audience already interested in chocolate, there are high chances to convert part of those users into sales.

This is why it’s common practice to mention your products in the blogposts. By including links inside the article, you can bring readers directly to your online store. Talking about single-origin chocolate? You can include a link to your single-origin chocolate tasting box. Explaining the meaning of mylk chocolate? Direct people to the vegan options in your assortment through a link.

While increasing sales, a company blog gives you the chance to simultaneously increase brand awareness.

3- Improve your branding

You can write whatever you want in your company blog. So take the chance to use it strategically to:

• communicate your company’s mission and values,

• let your customers know where you stand on important chocolate matters,

• share your latest products, news and events,

• show the human side behind the brand,

• connect with your audience on a more personal level,

• increase the credibility and transparency of your brand.

Without having to pay for a feature in a magazine, you can achieve all of the above for free on your own terms. However, you shouldn’t only talk about your company on the blog. Remember that the extra traffic is represented by people that want to be educated on chocolate.

Most of your company blog should actually contain educational material.

4- Educate your customers

In a physical store, you can only talk to one customer at a time before you have to repeat the same things over and over again to the next customer in line. Even on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, posts disappear quickly from people’s feeds and your words get lost and forgotten in the span of a day. On a company blog your lengthy explanations will:

• be easily retrieved and accessed,

• reach a broader audience,

• require a one-time effort that needs no repetition.

Make a list of the questions that your customers ask you most frequently and turn them into detailed blogposts. Over time your company blog will become a rich database full of educational content that you can share and direct your customers to. You will also be able to reuse that same content on your social media platforms.

5- Repurpose blog content for social media

Creating a well-written, useful and detailed blogpost requires more effort than writing a social media post. However, one blogpost can translate to dozens of social media posts!

If you already took the time to write a good article for your company blog, you can maximize your efforts and use that same material as content for social media. Despite feeling like a huge one-time effort, blogging will reward you by saving you a lot of time and effort on your social media strategy: what you already wrote in your company blog can be copied and pasted directly onto your social media posts (with no extra effort!). Especially when you run out of social media ideas, your company blog will save the day.

A company blog also represents a great way to demonstrate your expertise in the chocolate field.

6- Show your expertise

Having a company blog is like organizing your own conference, talk or workshop. You create a stage that is exclusive to your company, accessible at any time, by anybody around the world, and totally for free.

From that stage, you can show your expertise to establish your company as an industry leader and expert. You can decide to answer general questions and concerns about chocolate, but also to dive deep into more complicated topics, latest industry news, delicate subjects like child labor and deforestation, and much more.

Potential customers, business partners and media outlets can develop an interest in your company just from reading the interesting blog that you keep up on your website.

And why not making some passive income in the meantime?

7- Create an additional income stream

You can place Google Ads (or ads from other providers) inside your articles. These will generate a monthly income based on views and clicks. There is nothing extra you need to do to earn this money. Since you would be writing articles for your company blog anyway, all you have to do is to be mindful of the best SEO practices to drive more traffic to those pages. The higher the number of views, the higher your income from ads.

While it may sound time-consuming, a company blog doesn’t need to feel like a side hustle. Here is how you can start:

• add the category BLOG to the primary navigation of your website homepage (next to ABOUT US or CONTACT);

• search online for the most frequently asked questions on chocolate and add them to the list of questions you also get frequently asked by your customers;

• decide how many times a week or a month you’d like to publish a new blogpost;

• allocate a specific time of the day/week/month to writing for your company blog;

• consider hiring an SEO consultant to optimize your website for Google search and ranking;

• start writing, publishing and sharing!

If large and successful companies like Starbucks, Ikea and Nike are taking the time to curate their company blogs on a regular basis, it must be worth something, don’t you think?