Blogging is extremely important in modern day business because it’s a way for you to further establish your digital footprint in today’s connected world. Historically, business blogs have been used as a powerful tool to attract new visitors through search engines and social networks. It’s also been used as a great resource to obtain new leads. According to a Marketing Benchmarks Report done by Hubspot, companies that increase blogging from 3-5xs/month to just 6-8/month almost double their leads.
I’m always stressing to my clients the importance of having a business blog. Unfortunately, this is not always an easy task as many of them think I’m just blowing smoke. The reason being, most businesses have a difficult time understanding the value of a blog since you don’t usually see a return overnight…or even after the first month for that matter. That scares the hell out of clients.
More often than not, clients are caught up in the “now” and don’t invest enough attention on their brands sustainability for the future. One of the biggest takeaways I tell of my clients about blogging is that having a blog is an investment. You may not see a noticeable difference in website traffic and leads right off the bat, but as long as you regularly post content which is informative, interesting and inspiring, you WILL see returns – I guarantee it.
Your website is a valuable marketing asset, if it wasn’t, you wouldn’t be online. However, what good is a website that nobody can see? Only so many people know who you are as a business (sorry, but it’s true) and you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you weren’t attempting to make yourself visible to everyone.
A great way to increase the visibility of your website is through blogging. The more pages your website has, the more chances you have to rank in search engines. Every time you publish a new blog post on your website, you create one more opportunity for your site to be found. This will allow you to start appearing for the queries your customers are entering into search engines related to your industry – thus giving you a greater opportunity to filter leads toward your site. So when you ask Google something like, “Ad agencies in Boston,” hopefully one of Mittcom’s blog posts will show up!
Blogging also gives your company the opportunity to showcase its human side. As a result, blogging helps to build trust with your potential customers and can increase their brand affinity. People are more likely to trust something that comes from a blog than from a sales message as long as you are transparent and offer value.
A business blog that consistently produces amazing content has the opportunity to establish themselves as an expert in their industry. People are constantly asking search engines questions about issues related to your field, so why not be their resource! One of the main objectives for any business should be to provide value to their consumers. Show your customers that there is no need for them to look anywhere else to find the value they seek –- you can provide it all.
Conclusion
Blogging is more important today than ever before – just ask Google. In today’s internet-based society, it’s crucial for your business to have an online presence in order to stand out from all of your competitors. When someone searches for a product or service related to your industry, don’t you want your website to show up on the first page, right at the top of the list? Blogging is a great way to accomplish this with effective search engine optimization. Google, as well as other search engines, have evolved their algorithms over the years. Their formulas have advanced to the point where they can recognize and reward websites that are constantly producing unique, relevant, and quality content on a regular basis (this is where a blog comes in handy).
It makes sense, too. Nobody wants to search for something that brings back results from a few years ago – no thanks. We want fresh, relevant content! You’ll notice that most of the results you receive from a search inquiry are now days, to even minutes old. We now live in a world where we can consume our media in real-time — whether that be via the radio, TV, Twitter or our Facebook news feed. Google’s algorithm has adapted to this trend, and as a result, has made blogging extremely valuable.
And I’m going to shoot you straight here, with content marketing taking off, there will be a lot of competition. Everybody will be trying to produce content and it may be harder for your voice to be heard. With that being said, there will be a lot of crappy content circulating around the web. A lot of marketers think that they can just ride the wave by pumping out a ton of lackluster articles — but they will have a rude awakening. You don’t want to just be a content farm; you want to build GREAT content. There is a difference between building a great content brand and just building an efficient content machine. If you’re doing the latter, you will need to revisit your strategy pronto — you won’t stay afloat. On the Contrary, the brands that invest in a blog that regularly produces amazing content will become the pacesetters.
Blogging isn’t the future, it is now.
What are your thoughts on the current age of blogging? Does your company have a blog? If so, have you seen positive results with it? Share your answers with us below!