Blogging About Business Loans: How to Attract a Global Audience
Operating a blog can be rewarding, but it is also both challenging and demanding, especially when it’s on a tricky subject such as business loans. It’s because the information you provide your audience has to be 100% accurate. Get it right, and you’ll find it can be a great source of income, too.
The larger the size of your audience, the further you can spread the word and the more income you can generate. Your ultimate goal might be to reach a global audience, and if that is the case, you’ve come to the right place. That’s exactly what this particular blog is all about, with a focus on Estonia, Italy, Lithuania, and Poland.
Resonating With Your Audience
Whenever you write a new blog, if your aim is to attract readers from Europe or other places around the world, you must bear in mind that the content you create has to resonate with an international audience. In this blog, the potential audience we are referring to are business owners and entrepreneurs in Estonia, Italy, Lithuania, and Poland, but the same principles apply to any country.
Business Loans – the Oxygen that SMEs and Economies Need
Without business loans, economies around the world would be significantly smaller and less diversified. Not many startups have sufficient capital readily at hand to get launched or to establish themselves and expand. Business loans are the lifeblood of any economy.
However, securing business loans, especially unsecured business loans, is not as easy as it sounds. The banking networks, which were the traditional lending source, impose challenging regulations that prospective borrowers must meet before their loan applications will even be entertained, let alone granted.
Thankfully, today’s digital Fintech industry has come to the aid of wannabe entrepreneurs and business startups by encouraging the growth of alternative business loan providers and alternative business loan search and comparison platforms.
If you have a blog that promotes these platforms and you want to expand your readership, let’s now discuss how to go about it.
Researching Demographics
Demographics can be described as the analysis of the characteristics of different populations and their subsets, which include things such as age, nationality, and gender. It’s pretty essential, particularly when your audience is multi-national.
Once you’ve carried out your research, you can then develop advertising campaigns and marketing strategies to attract different nationalities. There will be certain common points that apply to all as well as country-specific needs.
Useful sites for gathering data include:
- Estonia – Worldometers and the World Bank Group
- Italy – Istat.it and Worldometers
- Lithuania – Worldometers and Ops.Stats.Gov.It
- Poland – Stat.Gov.pl ans Worldometers
With good research to collect the most pertinent data, you can focus your business loan marketing campaigns on specific, targeted segments of any country’s population.
Determining Psychological Variables
Psychological variables take demographics to the next stage by understanding consumer preferences and patterns of behavior. When used in the concept of marketing, these components come under the broad umbrella term ‘psychographics’. It’s another process that allows you to fine-tune the audience for your marketing efforts.
Conducting Market Research
If you have the time and manpower, you can conduct your own market research via interviews and surveys and interact with focus groups. If you don’t have the resources to do this yourself, you can search the internet for appropriate information. The types of information you need to gather through research include your audience’s desires and expectations, pain and pressure points.
Creating Content for Your Business Loan Blog
There is a saying among online businesses that content is king, and it couldn’t be truer. When visitors land on your blog site, they will decide in minutes (sometimes even seconds) whether or not to stay and delve deeper. Your blog site’s content is the thing that drives this decision, so its importance cannot be overlooked. If you cannot create engaging, informative content yourself, hire someone who can. It’s all about the background to creating a compelling value proposition that is unique to your blog alone.
Useful Authoritative Links
The YourEurope.Europa.eu website is a very useful link to have on any European business loan blog site. Why? It’s because of their financing digital transformation policy, which is important for any businesses seeking EU-backed funding. They offer a COSME Loan Guarantee Facility (LGF), which supports the financing of digital transformation projects being undertaken or launched by SMEs in all areas of the economy, regardless of current levels of digitalisation.
There is another European Commission website that provides information on financing your business in the EU and knowing your rights.
While you don’t want to overstress the importance of such sites, as your prime interest will be getting your readers to follow the links to your recommended business loan comparison sites, it is nonetheless useful to cite them. It’s because linking to authoritative sites like these helps to establish that you are an authoritative, credible source and an expert in your field.
Country Specifics of Which to Be Aware
The EU, of which all four of the countries we are concerned with in this blog are members, offers guidance on financial matters. However, there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to applying for business loans in different countries; each country’s banking system has its own set of rules and regulations.
The Banking System in Estonia
Estonia’s banking network operates within a strict regulatory framework which is governed by the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority (EFSA). They issue and police licenses for all aspects of financing. With regard to business and consumer loans, they issue a Credit and Financial Services license to financial institutions that focus on providing credit in one form or another.
A comprehensive guide applicable to Estonia can be found on the GenerisOnline.com website
The Banking System in Italy
The banking system in Italy also operates under rules and regulations, which, in the case of Italy, are overseen by the BoI (Banca D’Italia).
The provision of all types of financing to members of the public is also permitted for other financial intermediaries that hold licenses under Article 106 of the TUB (Testo Unico Bancario) and that operate within the confines set down by the BoI.
The term ‘Finanza Agevolata’ relates to the public funding available for businesses in Italy. It covers a diverse range of incentives and support programs available via the Italian government to foster economic growth, particularly for startups and SMEs, via grants, subsidies, low-interest loans, etc.
The Banking System in Lithuania
The Bank of Lithuania (BoL) the Central Bank, was established in 1990. BoL has the exclusive rights in terms of issuing and revoking licenses for both local and foreign banks operating in Lithuania.
In the early 1990s, commercial banking regulations left much to be desired, resulting in 1995 in the failure of many banks. Since then, tougher regulations have been laid down, and all commercial banks are audited annually by an independent body. It also resulted in applications for business loans being reviewed more stringently.
The Banking System in Poland
The legal framework concerning the banking system in Poland operates under the auspices of the Banking Act of 29 August 1997. In addition, banking activity is regulated via:
- The 29 August 1997 Act – Narodowy Bank Polski.
- The 29 August 1997 Act regarding bonds and mortgages.
- The 14 March 2003 Act – Gospodarstwa Krajowego bank
- The 10 June 2016 Act concerning bank guarantees.
Applying for business loans for an established enterprise from Polish banks requires the accompaniment of a considerable number of reports and paperwork.
The Importance of Linking to the Best Alternative Loan or Loan Comparison Sites
The links to business loan lenders or comparison sites are the other things that are of key importance. It’s these links that visitors to your blog will use to trigger their loan applications. If you can set up an affiliate marketing agreement with the sites you’re linking to, you can also earn money every time your visitors follow a link and apply for a loan. Examples of these links with regard to the countries we are focussing on in this blog are:
- Estonia (Eesti) – Ärilaen
- Italy (Italia) – Prestito Aziendale
- Lithuania (Lietuva) – Paskola Verslui
- Poland (Polska) – Kredyt dla Firm
The above-listed sites are all business loan comparison platforms. The great thing about linking to these types of platforms is that they provide your readers and followers with lots of loan offers from which to choose. It puts the power and the decision-making process in their hands. Your business loan blog will be the instrument by which they are granted that power.
Concluding Thoughts
The rise in popularity of alternative business loan platforms in recent years has revolutionized the way in which entrepreneurs and businesses can acquire the finance they need to start up or expand. The modern technology that these new platforms use, such as the Cloud, Big Data, and advanced logarithms and data analysis, result in a significantly faster application process and fairer results.
When designing or operating a profitable business loan blog, including the information discussed above will improve your success in attracting readers from the above-mentioned countries, and similar principles can be applied from a worldwide perspective.
Encouraging readers to check out local government grants is important, but so too is ensuring that the new alternative business loan and loan comparison platform options are at the forefront of your recommendations. They really are the future.
