As a business owner, do you ever wish that your dream clients would flock en masse to your website to discover all the marvelous products or services you have at their disposal that would help them live a better life?
Have you ever wondered why some businesses seem to attract customers without sending salespeople knocking on doors or spending small fortunes on ads?
If so, you are not alone.
And fortunately, there is something that you can do for your business that will help drive people to your website. It is called blogging.
Indeed the average company that blogs generates 55% more website visitors. (Source: Impact)
But this is just one of the reasons experts say why you should consider blogging for your business.
Follow me on our journey to uncover the other ones.
“A blog helps drive traffic to your website”, Corey Wainwright, Hubspot
In this article from Hubspot, Corey says:
“Think about how many pages there are on your website. Probably not a ton, right? And think about how often you update those pages. Probably not that often, right? (How often can you really update your About Us page, you know?) […] Every time you write a blog post, it’s one more indexed page on your website, which means it’s one more opportunity for you to show up in search engines and drive traffic to your website in organic search.”
Remember, Google loves fresh content. For most businesses, their products or services don’t change all the time (which is a good thing). Thus posting fresh content on a regular basis will get people to come back to your website over and over again.
“Blogging sharpens your sword”, Marcus Sheridan, Social Media Examiner
In this article published on Social Media Examiner, Marcus, author and keynote speaker, shares his own story of starting to blog for his business.
“Three years ago, when I embraced the power of content and started our company blog, I noticed many benefits. One of which was the fact that my sales presentations became much, much better. How so? […] Simply put, writing a blog post is like practicing for a game. The more one practices, the better their skills, timing and overall play—which ultimately leads to more victories, or in this case, sales.“
Writing high-quality articles that will be of interest to your audience usually implies researching the subject you are writing on.
You then stay up to date with what’s happening in your industry.
Writing can also prove a great tool for organizing your thoughts in a logical manner. And because blogging is about sharing and teaching, you can translate those skills into your business presentations or sales calls.
Finally, when you start writing on a subject and researching that specific subject, it is likely that you will come up with the answers to all the questions your customers or prospective customers ask themselves during the process that takes them toward buying something from you.
“A blog builds confidence, relationships and sales”, Dechay Watts, Sprout Content
Dechay is the Director of Marketing Strategy at Gorilla Group.
In this post, she writes:
“A blog builds confidence, relationships, and sales. Customers will look to you as a reliable resource for information on your industry; then come to you to buy.”
Oftentimes people don’t trust sales messages, ads, and PR. When you can provide value to your audience through blog posts, you become a mentor to your customer.
They come to trust you, and ultimately if you provide the right product/service, they will be more likely to buy from you.
Remember, blogs are considered the 5th most trusted source for accurate online information.
A study by HubSpot showed that businesses that blog see their leads rise by 126% more than businesses that don’t blog.
“Blogging validates expertise”, Michael B. Fishbein, Huffington Post
Michael Fishbein is a digital marketing consultant and self-published author.
In this article for the Huffington Post, Michael writes:
“Blogs are the new resumes. Blogging about a topic you would like to be viewed as an expert in, can illustrate to readers, employers, and your network, that you are skilled and knowledgeable.”
When you write blog posts that bring value to your audience, you position yourself overtime as a thought leader and an expert in your field of expertise. This, in turn, helps you become trustworthy in the eyes of your audience. By establishing a relationship with them, they will most likely turn to you when it comes to buying a product/service that you offer.
“Search engines are grading you”, Mike Kappel, Entrepreneur
Mike is the founder and CEO of Patriot Software Company.
In this article for Entrepreneur, he writes:
“Search engines are smart. Shortly after you start a blog, the search engine robots (or just bots for short) put your written content through their algorithms. Your blog receives a higher grade if you use proper grammar and spelling, and if website visitors like, share, or comment about your articles.”
This can help your content stand out, in a period where there is a lot (and I mean a lot) of content available. You need to distinguish yourself from your competition and writing high-quality blog posts is one of the best ways to do this.
“It supports your social media initiatives”, Jayson DeMers, Forbes
Founder & CEO of AudienceBloom, Jayson is, in his own words “on a mission to demystify and simplify online marketing for entrepreneurs”.
In this article on Forbes, he stresses out how blogging quality content can help businesses with their social media efforts.
“It’s difficult to maintain an active social media presence without access to unique, high-quality content. Sharing other people’s content on social media is great, but at some point, you want to be directing those leads to your own site. As you share your blog posts on social media, you increase traffic to your business website – a feat that would be much more difficult without highly-relevant, topical information such as that found in blog posts.”
Indeed, high-quality blog posts represent the “holy grail” of content sharing. They are not perceived as sales messages but as either insight into a company’s culture or pieces of knowledge shared by that company.
If you publish high-quality content, your audience will happily share it through social media, thus multiplying your own social media efforts.
“Infinite Search Life”, Mark Schaefer, Businessesgrow
Mark W. Schaefer is a globally-recognized keynote speaker, educator, business consultant, and author.
In this blog post, Mark says:
“Customers can find you on Google long after you publish a blog post. Your content keeps working for you month after month.”
One of the best things about high-quality blog posts is that they have a very long lifespan. You can share them over and over again in social media, to drive people to read your content.
Key takeaways from our Experts
Here is a quick recap listing the reasons why, as a business, you should start a blog:
- Posting regularly on your blog drives traffic to your website
- Blogging helps you refine your message and stay up to date with your industry’s developments
- A good blog helps your business look knowledgeable and trustworthy
- It validates your expertise
- Posting regularly on your blog boosts your rank on search engines
- Blog posts are easy to share on social media and help establish your business’s reputation on these platforms
- Unlike ads and emails, blog posts stay and can attract new audience long after you first posted them
Now that you are hopefully convinced of the benefits of blogging for your business, you might wonder what the next step is.
Developing a Content Marketing Strategy or even just posting regularly on your blog can seem a bit daunting and very time-consuming.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
If you need some help, I’d love to chat with you about it on a discovery call.