The Top 6 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Blog

A blog about blogging… Can we get any more meta than that?

Maybe, maybe not —  but the fact that blogging is an incredibly lucrative notch to add to your digital marketing tool belt isn’t up for debate.

In fact, according to Hubspot, blogging is the third most common content marketing strategy, and 82 percent of marketers who blog reported that they received a positive ROI from their inbound marketing endeavors (re: efforts to engage with their audience by connecting them with the type of content they find most useful.)

“But how much can blogging really help my business?” you might be thinking.

In just a few short minutes, you’ll have the answer!

Reason No. 1: Drives Traffic and Increases Visibility

The first reason why you’ll want to create a blog for your business is because doing so drives traffic to your pages and increases your online visibility.

Here are the stats:

• The more blogs you post, the more traffic your website receives. Once you have 21 to 54 blogs under your belt, your traffic can increase by as much as 30 percent (Traffic Generation Cafe).
• Websites that have blogs receive 55 percent more traffic (Hubspot).
• Over half of marketers say they’ve gained new customers just by blogging (Oberlo).
• Businesses who blog experience twice as much email traffic compared to those who don’t (OptinMonster).

The reason this happens is because Google gives a higher priority to websites who consistently create fresh, organic content, and having a detailed blog chock full of great information will keep visitors on your pages for much longer than if you didn’t have one.

Reason No. 2: Bolsters SEO Efforts

Creating a blog full of relevant information that provides tangible value to your visitors will easily bolster your SEO efforts.

According to Tech Client, just having a blog on your website increases your chances of ranking higher in search engines by a whopping 434 percent!

Just think of it like this: If you have a blog, you have pages and pages of keywords at your disposal — not just a couple buried inside your website descriptions that never get the chance to see the light of SEO.

In fact, Hubspot reports that 72 percent of online marketers describe content creation (which includes blogging) as their most effective SEO tactic.

A lot of SEO is related to links, and failing to include internal links that direct viewers from one page to the next is one of the top SEO mistakes you can make. However, blogging provides an incredibly natural opportunity for both internal and external linking — you’re able to link to other relevant information, and others are able to link back to yours. 

Reason No. 3: Offers In-Depth Information

There are thousands of businesses out there that are just like yours.

That might sound scary, but writing a blog will help potential consumers understand what makes you different on a more concrete and personal level — and that’s what’ll make their decision to do business with you that much easier.

This is because blogging provides an organic channel for you to offer in-depth information about your company, products and services, and what makes you stand out from your competitors.

In fact, Demand Metric reports that 70 percent of people said they’d rather learn about a company through articles rather than advertisements — and 60 percent of people cite purchasing a product after reading a blog post about it.

Rather than trying to cram all the reasons why you’re so great into a social media post or unsolicited advertisement, you can sprinkle them into a blog while also providing value to your viewers by teaching them something related to your area of expertise. This way, you’ll be able to share your greatness with the world without shoving it down anybody’s throat.

Reason No. 4: Poses You as an Expert and a Thought Leader

By writing a blog, staying on top of trends, providing analysis of occurrences related to your niche, offering how-to’s and demonstrations, you’re able to educate your audience while posing yourself as an expert and a thought leader.

Running a blog also provides an easy channel for you to educate yourself. After all, if it’s your duty to write about these things, you first have to understand them.

Reason No. 5: Provides Social Media Exposure

How many times have you sat staring at a blank text box, thinking, “Man, I have no idea what to post on social media this week.”

Just imagine if you had pages and pages of great ideas that were already researched, written, and ready to see the world. 

That’s just what a blog can provide for you!

It’s super easy to promote your blog on social media rather than trying to come up with organic ideas every single time. You can promote the blog directly with a quote and a link or you can cut it up into a series of shorter captions and create a whole series!

Content distribution is just as important as content creation, so you’ll want to do what you can to promote your blog on other platforms — especially when the NY Times reports that 94 percent of people share blog content because they think it might be useful to other people.

Just think about how much traffic you’ll drive if you post your blog on your website, promote it on social media, and have one or two people share it!

Reason No. 6: Provides Channels for Lead Generation

Having a blog on your website will also provide channels for lead generation.

Here are the stats:

• Businesses with blogs produce 67 percent more leads per month than businesses without them (Demand Metric).
• Small businesses in particular reported a 126 percent increase in leads when they incorporated blogging into their digital marketing campaigns (Demand Metric).
• Content marketing produces three times more leads than paid search (Content Marketing Institute).

Lots of businesses achieved this increase by incorporating some sort of popup menu within their blog that promotes their products and services or by creating a concrete call to action that guides their viewers towards taking some sort of action (like downloading a free eBook, signing up for their newsletter, scheduling a call, etc.)

We’d Love to Lend a Hand!

Thanks so much for reading our blog about blogging! We hope it helped you answer some questions about what this type of content marketing can really do for your business.

However, if you think you could use a hand in creating an expertly curated blog that increases your online visibility, connects you to your target audience, and brings in tons of sales, our team at OpticTour would love to lend a hand!

You can schedule a free consultation with us by heading to this link. We’re ready when you are!