“Nobody actually reads blogs.”
“Blogs are just vanity pieces.”
“Business blogs don’t generate leads.”
“Blogging is more work than it’s worth.”
Do any of these excuses sound familiar?
I often meet business owners and directors who don’t have a blog strategy – often for these and similar reasons. But after looking at some of the impressive statistics that link blogging to business results, they typically start to consider blogging.
Why blogging matters
According to Hubspot, 84% of bloggers claim their blog delivers strong or some results. But how? Let’s take a look at 10 ways a business blog can have a substantial impact on your revenue!
1. A blog helps customers find you
90% of B2B buyers start their purchasing journey with an online search, according to Forrester, while 74% of buyers do half of their research on the web before making an offline purchase. This means that search engines play a crucial part in your ability to be discovered. By publishing regular high-quality content using relevant search terms, you will rank higher and be found by more people.
2. Blogging feeds your social media
Many businesses experience social media writer’s block. It can be difficult to find short, engaging, topical posts to share on your company’s social feed on a regular basis. With a blogging strategy, however, you will have natural themes and topics to bring up – often with the option to just grab and share snippets from the actual blog post itself.
3. Blogging feeds your email marketing
The traditional newsletter may be extinct, but email is still a superbly cost-effective way to keep your audience engaged with your brand. And by publishing regular content on your blog, you ensure that you always have something topical to share with your email readers. Many organisations simply send their blog post as plain text to their customers, giving everyone the opportunity to see it and react to it.
4. A blog keeps your site active
Search engines monitor your website for activity. The better you are at frequently adding and updating content to your website, the higher you will rank in the search results. With a blog strategy in place, you can ensure you regularly add useful, relevant content which helps to keep your site ranking well.
5. A blog provides valuable insight
Once you’ve started to get some traffic to your blog, you will be able to draw some highly useful analytics from it. By monitoring the keywords that visitors use before finding your blog, you can refine your current wording to better match what people are searching for and make sure you give them the content they need.
6. A blog can quickly turn into other assets
By measuring blog traffic over time, you can determine which posts are the most attractive to your audience and capitalise on that knowledge by repurposing your blog content into lead magnets. A good blog post will be easily expanded into a white paper, an executive brief, an e-guide, a video script, a webinar – pretty much any other type of content.
7. A blog positions you as a thought leader
Your blog is like a stage, where all lights are on you. It’s a platform from which you can express your voice and share ideas, without having to – necessarily – pitch a service or a product. It’s simply an opportunity to share knowledge and industry insight. By giving the reader an experience of having learnt something relevant, you are automatically establishing yourself as an influencer and a thought leader. You become someone worth listening to.
8. Blogging builds trust
The focus of a good B2B blog is not to directly push products or services, but to add value, educate, inspire, and engage. This makes it an excellent method for building trust. You will be able to become a dependable source of insight, that people come back to for more.
9. Blogging is cost-effective
Inbound marketing methods like blogging provide incredible return on investment. According to Hubspot, the cost per lead is 62% less than outbound marketing. This is partly due to the relatively low investment required, and the fact that the blog can continue to deliver leads over a long period of time.
10. Blogging makes you attractive
People like people. Whatever your ideal buyer looks like, they will be a human being with needs and wants just like everyone else. And one of the most basic human needs is the need to connect with others. We all want to establish relationships; to people first and companies second. By adding a human voice and perspective, you will be able to make the personal connection to your reader – especially if you are prepared to step outside of the ‘corporate comfort zone’ and make yourself available through your own voice.
Make it work for you
There is absolutely no reason why blogging wouldn’t work for your business. Regardless of your industry or your business model, you can use a blog to increase the traffic to your website, improve your lead generation, and see real revenue results.
