Why I Blog
I started blogging for my business in late 2013, not expecting any grandiose results, at least not at first. I wanted to have a place to direct my clients and prospects for frequently-asked-questions as well as hopefully positively impact my SEO efforts with keyword rich content. I did not expect the return-on-investment to be manifested in so many other ways. With the positive feedback, the invitations for speaking assignments, the recognition in my industry & community, increased traffic, and increased leads, I can say without a doubt that the time invested has by far paid off.
The Benefits of Blogging
I’ve talked in the past about how to blog and how to promote your blog, but now after over two years of blogging, I’d like to discuss the many benefits of blogging, whether you are a B2B or B2C company.
1. Blogging is a Learning Process. Before you actually start writing your next blog, you plan out pertinent subjects for your target audience. As in my case, many of my posts are inspired from conversations and questions from my clients. Once you chosen the topic, you do hours of research, exploring different points of view, statistical data and case studies. In that process of research, you will learn a lot more about that subject and become well versed to integrate your personal experience with what you’ve learned.
2. Having a Blog Saves Time. Often I am asked the same or similar questions from clients and prospects, and instead of having to write the answer out each time or explain it in great detail, I can direct them to my blog with a short synopsis of why they should read it, and then send them the link to the specific post. It saves me hours of time when frequently asked questions arise and saves me writing redundant information.
3. Blogging Starts the Conversation. Many of my leads visit my blog first, and its their interest in a particular subject that initiates their filling out my online form for more information or calling/emailing me directly. Content Marketing via blogging is a great way to engage, inform and instruct your target audience without directly selling to them.
4. Blogging showcases your Expertise. Every small business owner of any type of industry has inside information and experience that they can share about their products and services, and why beneficial to their customers. When you take the time to share that knowledge with them, you are giving them a glimpse into your experience, your skillset, and your knowledge base, and thus exhibiting yourself and your company as an expert in the field. That instills trust and credibility in your brand.
5. Blogging keeps your site dynamic, more responsive and more interesting to visit again and again. And its a good for your website’s overall Search Engine Optimization.
“If visitors aren’t finding new and improved content on your site, why come back? The same goes for search engines. If you aren’t constantly pinging search engines with new content, there’s nothing to entice the spiders to crawl your site and rank your webpages higher than those of your competitors. Publishing and updating content to your site frequently means that search engines will more readily find your pages, potentially resulting in higher rankings and increased viewership.” Elizabeth Garvey, Content Strategist for skyword.com.
6. Blogging gives you more opportunities for keyword-rich content … in the post content, in the title and subtitles, in the media files and in the meta tags. Each post is an opportunity to attract a different segment of your target audience depending on what set of keywords you focused on. The more posts you write (with specific set of keywords), you are opening more doors to your website for users and for search engines to index you.
“Why are blogs such powerful tools for SEO (search engine optimization) and online visibility? Because every blog post you write becomes another web page, and every web page is another opportunity to rank well for a specific search your ideal customer is doing right now. Or in a month. Or in a year.” – Amy Porterfield, Social Media Manager and Author
7. Plain and simple, Blogging increases your Leads. Here are statistics that back that statement up:
- B2B marketers that use blogs receive 67% more leads than those that do not. (Source: Hubspot)
- Companies who blog receive 97% more links to their website. (Source: Hubspot)
- 81% of U.S. online consumers trust information and advice from blogs. (Source: BlogHer)
- B2C companies that blog generate 88% more leads per month than those that do not.(Source: Rick’s Tips)
- 57% of companies with a blog have acquired a customer from their blog. (Source: Hubspot)
- Once you write 21-54 blog posts, blog traffic generation increases by up to 30%. (Source: TrafficGenerationCafe)
- Once a site has over 300 indexed pages, traffic generation increases by 236%. Blogs greatly increase the number of indexed pages a site has. (Source: Sigma Web Marketing)
So after reading this, I hope you are motivated to begin blogging for your business. How often should you blog? What topics should you write about and how do you know what will tap into your target audience’s interest? How should you integrate your keywords? And how do you promote your blog?
For answers to those questions, please read my blog posts:
- Blogging for your Business: The Hows & Whys
- How to Promote your Blog Posts
- If you need blog writing services or blog training, please contact Startup Production for our Business Blogging Services