Blog Marketing – Why Successful Companies Use Blogs to Grow Their Business

Did you know that nearly 40% of US companies use blogs for marketing purposes?

Do you have a blog set up on your website yet? 

Here are some compelling reasons to consider it:

• Denver-area companies that blog receive 55% more website visitors than those companies that do not have a blog.
• B2C (Business-to-Consumer) companies that blog receive 88% more leads per month than those that don’t.
• B2B (Business-to-Business) companies that blog get 67% more leads per month than those that don’t.

Blog Marketing – Why Successful Companies Use Blogs to Grow Their Business

Why You Should have a Blog

Marketing data clearly shows that blogging is an essential piece of the inbound marketing success and directly relates to better business results.

But just talking about your dog or your drive in to work today won’t dramatically transform your marketing into blog marketing. Your blog has to be well-optimized and promoted, and most of all, rich with valuable content.

Benefits

A blog is a long-term marketing asset that will bring traffic and leads to your business. It introduces you as a thought leader in your industry and allows you to earn people’s trust.

The impact of business blogging extends to several major marketing benefits that many marketers often overlook.

First, business blogging helps you increase your success with search engine optimization (SEO). The more blog posts you publish, the more indexed pages you create for search engines to display in their results.

In other words, business blogging helps you rank higher in search engines and get found when people search for your industry-specific products or services. Thus, your blog helps you to attract “organic” (non-paid) traffic and to familiarize prospects with your business.

Frequency Matters

The frequency of blogging also plays an important role. In fact, research from HubSpot (an Inbound Marketing software company) shows that companies that blog 20 or more times in a month experience the biggest returns in web traffic and leads (over twice as much traffic than those that blog fewer than four times per month).  While you may not be able to blog that often, set your goal to blog at least twice a week in order to see a nice return on your efforts.

Tip: Make sure the titles of your blog posts incorporate those keywords that people enter in search engines as they look for the services or products you offer. This will help you get found higher up on the search engine results page.

Thought Leadership

Your blog is an asset that positions you as a thought leader over time. So when you have industry-specific information to share, your blog will help you earn people’s trust and help keep you and your company stay top-of-mind in your community.

What to Write (Blog) About:

The easiest way to get started blogging is to be a problem solver.

Think about the questions your customers ask you most often.  What are the biggest problems you hear about from your customers? What are your answers and suggestions to those issues?  With that in mind, write a practical and non-product focused blog that offers effective solutions to one of those problems. Solve your customers’ problems with your content.

Build Thought Leadership

Your blog can also act as a platform to showcase your expertise on an industry subject. It is the perfect place to demonstrate your knowledge of the industry and make a clear distinction between you, your brand and your competition.

Earn People’s Trust

FACT: 71% of respondents say that a company’s blog affects their purchasing decisions.

In another survey, HubSpot asked respondents how much blogs affected their purchasing decisions. (“How often does one proceed to a purchase decision with blogging research?”) 71% of respondents said that blogs affect their purchasing decisions either somewhat or very much.

The Take Away

Blogging is a simple and cost-effective way to increase your presence on the web and to increase your business.

If you have been hesitating about starting a blog, jump in.  It is important to remember that you will need to blog consistently for at least six months before you will start to see the real benefits of increased traffic and revenue from your blogging efforts, so hang in there!

Do you have other reasons why or why not to use blogs to grow your business?  Let us know by commenting below!  Go ahead!  We can take it!

If you need help setting up a blog on your website, give us a call at (303) 357-5757 or email us atdbc@dbcdigital.com , and we’ll show you how we can help.

Greg Sherwood is CEO of DBC Digital, a marketing agency based in Denver, Colorado.  With over 30 years of marketing experience with traditional and inbound (internet) marketing, Greg helps mid-sized businesses get a better return on their marketing dollars.  

You can reach Greg at (303) 357-5757 or at dbc@dbcdigital.com