“Blogging for business isn’t dead,” marketing expert Sarah Arrow wrote on Inbound.org recently.
We happen to agree. (If we didn’t, you wouldn’t be reading this.)
Not only do we think blogging for business still alive, we see it as a crucial part of your marketing strategy. Here are a few reasons why.
1. It’s Space That You Own, Rather Than Renting
Your blog “is the only place on the web that you own,” Arrow said. “You don’t own Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or anywhere else you generate leads from, you only own your blog and your e-mail list.” It’s not that social media isn’t important, but you need to let potential customers know where you’re based.
2. It Can Help Your Colleagues Better Understand What You Do
We write this blog to tell the world about the benefits of inbound marketing. But we’ve also used these posts in-house, as a way to help our team think about new and creative ways to do what they do. You can do the same with your company’s blog. You might be able to paint your business in a light your employees have never seen before.
3. It Establishes Your Authority
Our clients include businesses as diverse as candy makers, specialized manufacturing companies, and private schools. It’s a pretty wide range of companies, but they all have one thing in common: they know what they’re talking about when they talk about their businesses.
We’re willing to bet that description applies to you as well. You’ve been successful enough to talk about what you do with some authority. Why not use your blog to share that knowledge? You can answer the typical questions you get from customers and leads and establish yourself as an expert.
As Hubspot notes, blogging presents businesses with some pretty significant sales opportunities. Prospects are more likely to enter the sales process trusting what you have to say if they’ve read a helpful blog post. They’re also more educated on your company and what you do. And as we indicated in the previous section, your blog can give your sales team an archive of information to answer questions that need a detailed explanation.
4. It Brings Traffic To Your Website
You could try to bring traffic to your website through a traditional advertising campaign, but as we’ve said before, that’s an outdated way of doing things. And anyone typing your name into their browser already knows about you.
Blogging helps you reach people who don’t know they need you yet. Every post you create gives search engines notice that your website is active and worth checking for new content. Blogging also gives you the chance to share what you do on social media, and for people who see your posts to pass it along to their friends and followers.
5. It Turns Traffic Into Leads
Every post you write gives you a chance to generate new leads. It’s simple: you’ve given your readers something – a helpful, interesting blog post – and now it’s time to get something in return. You can do this by including a call-to-action at the end of your posts.
This can let readers download additional content – whitepapers, e-books – or sign up for services like free trials or webinars. In order to do that, they’ll need to give you their contact information, which means you’ve given leads to your sales team.
6. It Keeps Traffic Coming Long After You’ve Posted
So you’ve written your blog post, included a call-to-action, posted on social media and gotten leads to your sales team. You’ve pretty much squeezed all the juice from that post, right?
Wrong. Because the blog post has gotten the attention of search engines, you’ll continue to get hits on it for weeks and months – even years – down the road. Hubspot says 90 percent of the leads it generates each month come from blog posts they had created in previous months.
We realize not everyone has the time to blog. Or maybe you have the time, but writing isn’t your strong suit. In either case, let IQnection help. Our content marketing experts can assist you in crafting blog posts that can get you found and help cement your place as an authority in your field. Blogging isn’t dead, and we can make sure it’s alive and well on your website.
