Blog

We’re often asked how a website can be improved and one of the answers we often give is “Why not blog?”.  This is sometimes met with a sharp intake of breath and a reply along the lines of “Who wants to know what I had for breakfast?”.

There are plenty of good solid business benefits of maintaining an active blog.

1. 126% more leads

Research has shown that an active blog can increase lead generation by 126%

From a January 2010 study of 2,300 businesses by inbound marketing gurus HubSpot, it was found that businesses that blog experienced 126% higher lead growth than businesses who did not blog.   Read more about the research.

2. Search Engine Optimisation

Every article you write also gives you free SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).  If you write a blog article that targets niche search terms (also known as ‘longtail’ terms, versus the more generic ‘head’ terms) you’re more likely to attract visitors that are interested in what you do, and more likely to buy from you.

Do your keyword research so you always target the right keywords that will bring you qualified traffic.  Keyword research will help you determine what you should be writing about, what your blog categories should be and what language to use.

1. For example, targeting the generic term ‘coach’ if you’re a business coach might seem appealing because lots of searches are done for that term, but how do you know the person is looking for a business coach – not a football coach or to book a bus trip? Competition for the word ‘coach’ will also be very high, so it’s much harder for you to rank well for that term.
2. However, if you write articles that target more specific keywords or phrases – such as the term ‘small business coach’ for example – you not only attract visitors to your blog that are more likely to become clients, you also have less competition in Google, giving you a better chance of ranking well on page 1.

Yes, less people search for those niche “long tail” terms, but the search term itself pre-qualifies them as a prospect for your products and services, plus you’ll find it easier to rank higher in search engines much faster than targeting high-demand, high-competition generic terms.

3. Improved reputation and higher profile

A blog full of valuable content helps position you as the expert in your industry.  In fact, you’re also more likely to get free PR through media reading their blog articles and wanting to reprint them, or inviting them to write articles for their magazines and newspapers.

When people are in research mode, before they’re ready to purchase a product or service, and they find your article which answers their questions, your reputation improves compared to your non-blogging competitors. You become more credible and every article you write helps further prove your authority on your topic.

4. Competitive advantage

How many of your competitors are blogging?  In some industries blogging has been slower to catch on then others. If yours is one of them you can quickly gain a competitive edge by starting now. Even if some of your competitors do blog, are they doing so regularly?

As mentioned earlier, your blog helps prove to the world that you’re an expert in your field.  So even if a prospect finds your competitor first, when they’re still researching and they find your blog that answers their questions, you’ll get their attention and prove you’re the expert they should contact. The chances are if you’re running a blog but your competitors aren’t, the media will also contact you, not them.

5. High Return on Investment (ROI)

It’s rare to find a business tool like this that you can utilise for such a low-cost which provides your business with such impressive, proven returns.

What’s more, blogging platforms like WordPress are incredibly easy to use. Great news for the less tech-savvy among us. If you can use Microsoft Word or send an email, you can use WordPress.

Bonus tip

More articles = more leads, but how many more?

There is a correlation between how many blog articles you write and how well your blog will do at attracting leads. So how many blog articles does your business blog need in order to grow leads?

At least 20 says the research into Lead Generation Best Practices by HubSpot. Blogs need to reach ‘critical mass’ to make a significant enough impact on search engines.

Want to really boost results? HubSpot’s research also discovered business blogs with 52 or more articles generated on average 77% more leads than companies with blogs in the ’24 to 51’ article group.   Read more on this research.

This post is a cut-down version of this original post entitled 11 Business Benefits of Blogging … are you missing out?