As a digital marketing and design agency, we work with a number of businesses to not only create stunning visuals, but also to grow their internal marketing strategies. Many of the businesses who seek out our marketing services are focused on growing their digital footprint: How do I increase my Google ranking? How do I attract more leads? Once we take a look at their website and social media presence, we get a clearer picture of why they may be falling behind their competition — they’re not consistently producing quality content. Many don’t have a blog, and if they do, it hasn’t been updated in months or possibly years. Their social media accounts are also stagnant.

“Have you considered blogging?” we’ll ask them. Most have thought about it or heard they should be blogging, but don’t understand why it’d be beneficial to their business, especially if they’re a small local business with a very niche product or service. But let’s get back to their original questions about increasing their Google ranking and attracting more leads. In order to have success in these two areas, businesses must first increase their website traffic. And in order to increase their traffic — outside of buying ads (expensive) and buying email lists (illegal) — businesses need to incorporate all three of the following: blogging (content), social media, and search engines (SEO). Blogging is a key factor in increasing your organic search results, which will directly affect the number of leads you have. So, does your business need a blog? If website traffic is an important factor in your success, then yes, you need to blog.

As digital marketers who incorporate inbound marketing strategies, we could talk about the benefits of blogging and creating content all day. But there are a few key benefits that should encourage all businesses to at least give blogging a try. But remember, building an audience through blogging can take time — but it’s time well spent. You’ll be building an audience that values your business, and who’s looking toward your business for more and more information they’ll ultimately use in their buying decisions.

Still not convinced? Let’s review some of the most important benefits of blogging for your business:

Builds brand awareness and establishes you as an expert in your field

The first rule of blogging is to write what you know. By writing about your business, your services, your products, your successes (and failures) as well as what you’ve learned since you’ve been in business, you’re allowing potential customers (and current customers) an opportunity to learn more about your business and all of the things you offer. Blogging consistently about these topics shows that you know what you’re talking about and establishes you as an expert in your field. Your blog is also a place where you can help your business stand out from competitors — what sets you apart from other similar businesses? Let people know in your blog!

Helps SEO performance

Think about your current website. How many pages are there? How often are those pages updated? There’s only so much you can update on your team or services page. Search engine bots need more pages to crawl in order to see your website as a valuable option to include in its results. When you create a blog, each new blog post acts as a new page for those bots to crawl. The more pages they have to crawl, the better. More pages also means more opportunities to include important keywords throughout your site. And by regularly updating your blog, it shows search engines that you’re a valuable resource. The more traffic your blog receives, the more likes and shares it’ll receive. And that means it will rank higher with search engines and more people will find not only your blog, but your products and services, too.

Keeps your website fresh and updated

In addition to adding pages for SEO purposes, a blog will also help your website stay updated. It will give people a reason to come back to your site because you’re continually offering new information. Not only will it keep your website content fresh, it will also give you original content to post to your social media accounts, which is another opportunity to grow website traffic.

Now that we’ve established why a blog is beneficial to business, let’s talk about how to get started. Here are a few tips that will help you on your way to blog domination:

• Preparation is key: Research topics your potential customers are searching for. What questions are they asking related to your business? Answer those questions.
• Focus on offering content that is well-written and relevant to your business. Don’t worry about SEO too much in the beginning — though there are certain SEO foundations you should implement from the get-go — concentrate on just getting started!
• Start somewhere: Once a month is better than nothing, and the more you blog the easier it’ll get. Over time you can begin to post more frequently, and work up to a recommended once-a-week schedule. The important thing to remember is quality over quantity.
• Once you’re ready to add the blog to your website, create a separate page just for your blog. Then add a link to your blog in the main navigation bar so that it’s easily accessible.
• Every time you publish a blog post, share it on all your social media accounts!

To find out if you need help with your blogging strategy, schedule a free 30 minute, no-strings-attached marketing consultation with our team.

Related: Do I need a content strategy?

Blogging is arguably the most critical component of content marketing when it comes to generating organic traffic and being found by online search engines. Today, blogs are one of the primary ways that research is conducted and that information is consumed on the web. Cranking out content on a consistent basis is key, but just remember: while blog posts do not necessarily need to be lengthy, they do need to be relevant and serve as an informative source that your potential customers will find valuable. Here are four reasons why blogging needs to be part of your marketing strategy:

1. Blogs Are Inexpensive

Blogging is an inexpensive way to interact with current or potential customers. Most likely, you have already invested in a website and are actively engaging in social media, two things that are necessary to get your content in front of the right audience. And, if your website is built in WordPress, it will come with the capability to start blogging right away – as WordPress is the largest blogging tool in the world.

2. Blogs Help Drive Traffic to Your Website

Think about how many pages you actually have on your current website. How often are you actually updating those pages with new content and on a regular basis? The answer is probably not that often. Users regularly visit websites for new content and search engines consider a website that is regularly updated as a more valuable source to show in the search results page. Well, blogging tackles both these issues! Each time you update a blog post, it typically shows up as an indexed page on your website. This means that with each blog post you have the opportunity for your site to show up in more search engine results, in effect driving more traffic to your site. Blogging also helps to drive traffic to your site through the use of social media. Every time you create a post, you are creating content that can be shared on social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter, which exposes you to yet another audience, widening your reach.

3. Blogs Can Convert Website Traffic into Leads

With all this new traffic coming into your website you want to make sure you’re capturing those visitors and converting them into leads (actual, potential customers.) You’re probably wondering how? One way is by adding a lead-generating-call-to-action to every blog post. A “call-to-action” is a button for a free offer such as an e-book, a how-to-guide, free trial, etc. By placing a call-to-action button on your blog page, visitors will read the great content (wanting more valuable information from you) and click the button, which will send them to a landing page where you will request information such as their name, phone number and email address. They will then hopefully fill out their information to receive your offer, in the process becoming a lead for your sales team to follow up with.

4. Blogs Drive Long-Term Results

After a blog post is published, it may generate a hundred views and a few leads in the first month, but as it becomes more popular, is shared through social media and begins to rank on the search engine results page, leads will continue to grow. If the content does not age – or is not time sensitive information, you may continue to generate leads for many months to come. Blogs serve as an important way to offer information and answers during the initial awareness and consideration stages in a buyer’s journey. It is important to identify who your target audience and customers are before you start blogging. By identifying your target audience, you’ll have a better understanding of what type of content to create, what tone to use, what your customers’ pain points are and how your business helps solve them.

It can be difficult to start the blogging process and know how to create relevant content. Consult with a marketing professional to come up with a content marketing strategy that targets your individual goals and needs.