At this point you've heard everyone insisting, "You. Must. Blog." Well, this isn't going to get you out of blogging, but as with everything marketing and business I am driven to helping people understand the WHY behind the behaviors. To blog for the sake of blogging is what I call a hobby, but for business and marketing, blogging is a serious business. It is chocked full of keywords to improve search engine optimization, builds your platform as an expert in your field and can be a part of a successful sales funnel, bringing you only the most ideal potential clients down the sales funnel. But there are more reasons and each case is different. I have listed five benefits regular blogging can have for your business. I hope you will see the marketing benefits clearly.
If you already know you should blog, but need help with better titles click here for a little inspiration.
1. Blogging Helps Drive Traffic to Your Website.
There are many ways people could find your website. They could type your name into their browser and pull up your page. These are people who already know who you are and you are already on their radar. While it’s nice to have them visit, this does not constitute more traffic for you. In order to get more traffic, you could pay for traffic by purchasing a mass email list and blasting them hoping that a few will click through to your page. But, that can be expensive and, if you don’t have permission, illegal. If you’re looking to stay on the legal side of things you could place tons of ads hoping to pique someones curiosity enough to drive them to your site. Of course, the minute your ad budget dries up, so does the traffic to your website.
Fortunately, blogging solves both of those problems. Every time you post a blog to your website it’s one more indexed page which means a better chance of the search engines picking up your site organically. It is one more cue to Google and the other search engines that stuff is happening on your website and they need to be checking in with you to keep up to date.
Blogging also helps you get noticed by social media. By writing a blog you are giving people content to share via Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and the rest which helps you expose your business to people you may not yet know.
Blogging also helps to keep your presence on social media current and fresh. Instead of constantly having to come up with brand new content for your social media accounts your blog can serve as a repository for new content. While you strengthen your social reach with new blog content, that same content is driving people to your website through social media. A great symbiotic relationship.
So, the first benefit of blogging? By working closely with the search engines and social media concurrently, more traffic is driven to your website.
2. Blogging Helps Convert Website Traffic Into Leads
Just as every blog post is another indexed page for the search engines to find, each new post is a new opportunity to generate leads. In order to do this just add a lead-generating call-to-action in every post. These calls often come in the form of free ebooks, free whitepapers, free fact sheets, free trials, basically any content asset for which someone would be willing to give you their information.
It works like this. Someone reads your blog through the many social media channels you have put out there and notices the free call-to-action offer. The visitor clicks the call to action which brings them to a landing page. The landing page has a form for them to fill out which once they have done so and submitted the request, they receive their free content. Every blog you write should have at least one call to action, but make sure they are helpful and not forced. This will help you keep your rapport with your audience, and ultimately bring your most ideal client right to you.
Keep reading our blogs and you'll see it all in action!
3. Blogging Helps to Establish Authority
The best business blogs consistently provide useful information to their target customer. This is especially handy for Sale and Service professionals. Imagine being the salesperson who wrote the blog that was so helpful to a confused customer. How many more sales would you make if you were seen as an authority by the people you are selling to?
If “establishing authority” is hard to measure, consider measuring it the same way you measure sales enablement. Because, at the end of the day, that’s what many of your blog posts are. If prospective customers find answers to their questions via your blog post, they are much more likely to come into the sales process trusting what you have to say. Having already helped them before they were even a paying customer establishes authority and trust. They as a customer will also be better informed about your industry, company and what you have to offer. This makes for a more informed sales conversation and in the end, more trust between two people who are relative strangers. Also, for the sales person, having a archive of blogs is an incredibly useful asset in answering customers questions about specific topics. Instead of having to make up something on the spot, salespeople can send the relevant blog post directly to the customer the moment that question comes up.
Being seen as the authority in your industry by the consistent and relevant blog posts you create will help you, your company, and your sales people succeed.
4. Blogging Drives Long-Term Results
People often think of blogging like this: They write a blog, post it, get a response, done. But blogging is different than posting an article in a trade magazine. Let’s say you post a blog which gains you 100 views and 10 leads. Tomorrow that same blog gets you 50 views and 5 leads. Then people get caught up in new things and your views drop off. It’s finished right? No. That blog post is now ranking in search engines. That means for days, weeks, months, and even years you can continue to get traffic and leads from that blog post. So while it may feel like day one or bust, in reality blogging works for you even if you’re not at work!
Not every blog you post will get that kind of attention, but some may, and if they do they are called “compounding” posts. As more and more people view these posts, more and more people visit your site. It is in this way that it is easy to see the scalability of business blogging. While you might not see results immediately, over time you’ll be able to count on a predictable amount of traffic and leads for your business without any additional investment. The leads you getting today was generated by work you did long ago.
5. Secondary Benefits of Business Blogging
While the reasons listed above are by far the main reasons you should be blogging on a regular basis, there are some secondary benefits to consider. A blog is a great place to throw out new ideas for campaigns before a lot of time or money is invested in them. Customers and prospective clients have an opportunity to comment on your ideas before those ideas start costing you real money. Also, your blog is a way to check on and better understand your company’s persona through the open and honest discussions that are available through social media.
This post was written Priscilla McKinney, Momma Bird at Little Bird Marketing. As a full service agency, we provide full branding overhauls, website development, and extensive digital strategy including inbound marketing packages. Hear more from this Momma Bird in her podcast, Ponderings from the Perch or follow her on Twitter @LittleBirdMktg.
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