3 Benefits of Blogging Every Business Should Know

Post #1 of 3 in the series: The Importance of Blogging

The marketing landscape can be difficult to navigate, becoming and staying omnipresent in the digital space is critical for any company. The best way to stand out from the herd is with fresh content. Regardless of your business size, blogging is integral to your online marketing strategy. In the following article we will discuss the 3  benefits of blogging every business should know.

Search Engine Optimization

With the constant changes and updates to Search Engine algorithms, a key strategy for Search Engine Optimization is continually creating new content.  Two key benefits of blogging are an increase in internal linking as well as having your site indexed more frequently by search engines, both of which aid in search engine visibility.

Businesses that include a blog on their site, have statistically seen more traffic than companies who do not engage in content creation.  It’s not enough to produce great content and hope that people find it, being proactive with your content will reap additional rewards.

Content Distribution is another crucial component to blogging for SEO purposes.  Utilizing your email list and including your recent blog posts in newsletters will aid in distribution as well as additional reach when customers forward your email.  Lastly, distributing your content on your social media profiles, as well as social bookmarking sites, will aid with SEO.

Establish Your Business as an Industry Leader

The easiest blog posts to write are those that share company information, whether it’s personnel changes, new products, or announcements.  Your company is in a unique position to have more knowledge about your industry than the general public or even your competitors.  Industry blog posts can cover a variety of topics such as new innovations, industry benchmarks, or whitepapers.
By providing this added value to your current and potential customers, you are leveraging your industry knowledge by becoming an industry thought leader. Writing industry blog posts requires internal resources and can take time away from other marketing channels, however you will reap the rewards in the long term.  According to an industry report published by Hubspot, B2B companies that blog only once or twice a month generate 70% more leads than companies who don’t blog.

Develop Relationships Potential/ Existing Customers

The last benefit I’d like to discuss regarding blogging is the ability to build relationships with your customers.  By enabling comments on your blog posts you further extend the conversation you started with the initial post.  In our post, “5 Ways Social Media Listening Can Benefit Your Business”, we covered 5 ways you can engage in positive discussion with customers.  Applying the same methodology to your blog comments will help you bridge the gap between business and customer, creating long lasting relationships.

Blogging can be a significant investment for any company, but the long term benefits outweigh any digital marketing strategy that does not include blogging.  Whether you blog for the Search Engine Optimization benefit or to stand out as an industry leader, developing relationships with customers should be a focus of any business.  To ensure a positive experience for your readers, remember to leave the sales pitch out of the blog post.  An increase in sales and leads will be an indirect benefit of blogging.