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10 Reasons Blogging is the Most Critical Component of Your Content Marketing Strategy

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Blogging is one of the most effective ways to increase awareness and recognition of your brand, strengthen your brand’s relationship with consumers, and generate sales and profits for your business.

If you’re not already blogging for your business, then you’re missing a significant opportunity – one that your competitors are more than happy to steal from you.

Don’t let that happen to you and your business!

10 Reasons You Should Be Blogging

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Why is blogging so important to the success of your business? The list of reasons is actually quite long, but here are 10 of the most compelling, all of which are backed by data.

1. Meet Consumer Expectations

Today, consumers expect companies to publish blogs. They look for that “Blog” link in business websites’ top navigation bars, and many of them are frustrated when a company’s blog isn’t easy to find.

One of the fundamental rules of branding is to always meet consumers’ expectations for your brand, or they’ll leave your brand in search of another that consistently meets their expectations in every interaction.

That means if that “Blog” link isn’t already in your blog’s navigation and your blog doesn’t already include useful posts targeted to your brand’s audience, then you’re losing opportunities to connect with, engage with, and sell to people who are interested in the products and services you provide.

Bottom-line, if you’re not already blogging for your business, you have some catching up to do. The good news is it’s not too late.

2. Increase Consumer Trust and Provide Proof

Blogging is a guaranteed way to increase consumer trust in your brand and business because it enables you to prove your claims and show people that you know what you’re talking about.

You can even use your business blog to establish your thought leadership and prove that you’re an authority on your industry and related topics.

According to data from Demand Gen Report, nearly half of buyers (47%) view three to five pieces of content before reaching out to a salesperson.

In other words, when people believe what you say, it’s a lot easier to sell to them.

Research shows that blogs are a trusted source for accurate information. Five years ago, blogs were ranked as the fifth most trusted source for online information, and that trust has increased in recent years.

3. Improve SEO and Website Traffic

The more high quality blog posts that you publish on your business website, the more traffic you’ll get, and more traffic means more leads and sales.

Think of it this way – every blog post that you publish creates another entry point that Google can use to find your site. It’s been proven that websites that have blogs typically have 434% more pages indexed by Google and other search engines than sites without blogs.

What does that tell you?

It’s simple. Without a blog, there are significantly fewer ways for people to find your business online.

But how often should you publish content on your blog to really move the needle in terms of organic search traffic? I answered that question in detail here.

The most important data you need to know is this – companies that publish 16 or more blog posts per month get 3.5 times more traffic than companies that publish four or fewer articles each month.

4. Boost Social Sharing and Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Not only do high quality blog posts lead to more traffic from search engines, but they also lead to more sites linking to your posts and increased social media sharing.

All of that linking and sharing creates more entry points to your websites, more ways for people to learn about your brand, and more opportunities for them to visit your site, like what they see, and buy.

Research shows companies that publish blogs get 97% more incoming links to their websites than companies without blogs.

Let’s put that statistic into perspective. If your competitor publishes a blog and you don’t, your competitor’s website will have twice as many incoming links to it (all else being equal) than yours will.

Which business do you think will generate more leads and sales?

If you guessed the competitor, your right. Blogging expands your brand’s reach wider than you can achieve on your own for the same time and monetary investment.

The more people who share your blog posts, talk about them, and link to them, the better your chances to increase traffic, sales, and revenue.

5. Generate More Leads

Did you know B2B companies that publish blogs get 67% more leads than companies without blogs? Moreover, B2B and B2C companies that publish 16 or more blog posts per month get 4.5 times more leads than companies publishing four or fewer blog posts per month.

Blogging is extremely effective at filling the top of your marketing funnel with leads who opt in to receive information and offers from your business.

For example, you can create an ebook, checklist, or another useful piece of content that your target audience will want (referred to as a lead magnet), and offer it for free in exchange for their email addresses.

Write a blog post about the offer, include an opt-in form, set up the lead magnet delivery method (most likely through your email marketing tool), and promote the blog post and lead magnet.

It’s a proven way to boost subscribers and build a marketing list filled with people who are actually interested in what you’re selling.

6. Increase Consumer Engagement with Your Brand

Blogging is an excellent way to keep your brand top-of-mind and nurture consumers in the middle of your marketing funnel. By consistently publishing useful content, you’ll continually strengthen your brand’s relationship with them and reaffirm their trust in your brand.

Remember the statistic from #2 above that said consumers typically view three to four pieces of content before talking to a salesperson? That number could go up depending on the type of product or service you’re offering and the price attached to it.

With that in mind, focus on publishing meaningful, high quality content that helps to solve your target audience’s problems, educates them, or entertains them.

This type of content is highly shareable and can serve a dual purpose of increasing consumer engagement and traffic to your website.

7. Boost Conversions and Sales

Not only can blogging help you fill your marketing funnel and push people from the top to the middle of the funnel, but it can also push people to the bottom of the funnel and to a final purchase (or another type of conversion based on your goals).

Since blogging is so important to your SEO strategy, it’s essential to understand that researchers report SEO leads have a close rate of 14.6% compared to a close rate of just 1.7% for outbound leads generated from tactics like print advertising or direct mail.

That means all of the work you put into creating high quality blog posts will pay off. The data doesn’t lie. The reality is blogging increases conversions and sales.

8. Improve Customer Satisfaction

Blog posts are a perfect place to share information with consumers and get feedback from them through comments either directly on your business blog or on your Facebook Page or other social media profiles where you share your posts.

Blogging can spark conversations, and your company should be listening and engaging. This type of communication helps to build an emotional connection between consumers and your brand that leads to loyalty, word-of-mouth marketing, and additional sales.

9. Drive Long-Term Benefits

One of the most unique and powerful aspects of blogging in terms of helping your business grow is the potential to drive long-term benefits from it. When you publish high-quality content on your business blog, you’ll likely see a bump in short-term traffic as people share and discover it, but those posts live on your blog indefinitely for people to find and share again and again.

Your old blog posts have value and can drive both traffic to your website and leads for your business. For example, HubSpot reports that 75% of its site’s page views and 90% of its site’s leads come from old blog posts.

Blog posts with long lifespans generate traffic that increases over time are referred to as compounding posts. These posts are your best and highest quality, and according to research, they’ll generate 38% of all traffic to your website.

For most sites, 10% of their blog posts are compounding, so you have a significant opportunity to drive long-term benefits from your blogging efforts when you make sure your editorial calendar includes them.

10. Generate Measurable ROI

One of the best parts about blogging is you can track your results and measure the return on your investment. Using a web analytics tool like Google Analytics and integrating it with your other marketing tools, such as your email marketing software, Facebook Page and digital advertising accounts, you can evaluate your efforts, make changes as necessary, and optimize your results.

According to HubSpot’s inbound marketing research, businesses that prioritize blogging are 13 times more likely to have a positive return on their blogging investments.

The important thing to remember in order to generate a positive ROI from your blog is that you need to consistently publish high-quality content that is relevant to your target audience.

Your Next Steps to Prioritize Blogging in Your Content Marketing Strategy

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To leverage the power of blogging and reap the benefits it can deliver, you need to publish high quality content that is useful to your target audience on a regular basis.

That means you need to identify who your target audience is and what type of content would be most useful to them. What are their problems that your business can help with? What do they want from your brand or brands like yours?

Do your research and develop a blogging strategy and editorial calendar that ensures your blog posts consistently deliver value to your audience. Promote your posts and leverage them for SEO, lead generation, and sales conversions. In time, your efforts will pay off with increased web traffic, sales, and profits.

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