Many people dislike bloggers. Whether it’s members of the media, companies or celebrities, there always seems to be someone out there spewing some venom at the blogging community. But this is mostly a case of misunderstanding. When the average person thinks of a blogger, they imagine someone writing about their own personal experiences, and promoting unfounded, salacious claims about people they don’t even know. Basically, they think most bloggers are gossipy.
But the reality couldn’t be further from the truth. There are hundreds (and maybe thousands) of bloggers out there who are writing about helpful, interesting topics – especially those who are blogging for businesses. The average business blogger is closer to a journalist than a gossip monger. They source their information, provide facts free of bias, and aim to educate and inform their readers, rather than stir the pot.
If you’re trying to use inbound marketing to drive sales for your business, blogging is an absolutely essential part of the formula. You need to be posting multiple blogs per week on your company site, on topics related to your market/field. These blogs need to be valuable to your ideal customers, because they are going to bring those potential customers to your website.
Writing so much content may seem like a hassle, but I guarantee it’s worth it; I’ve got some numbers to back it up:
Blogs are popular – 46 percent of people are reading blogs multiple times per day.
And businesses are noticing – Almost 40 percent of US companies are utilizing blogs.
It brings in the customers – more than half of bloggers who only post on a monthly basis have attained customers through their blog.
Especially if you do it often – For those that blog daily, 82 percent reported acquiring a customer as a result of their blogging.
Seriously, increase the frequency of your blogging – HubSpot shows what happens when you blog more often. Blogging 3-5 times per month is good, but when companies increased that to 6-8 times per month, it caused their leads to double.
More blogs = more traffic – On average, if a company with 11-20 blog entries upped that total to 21-50, they saw a 45 percent jump in traffic.
It’s worth it – Among companies that use a blog, 79 percent reported a positive ROI for their inbound marketing efforts.
It increases your online footprint – blogging gives your website 97 percent more indexed links. And it increases your number of indexed pages by an average of 434 percent (not a typo).
Your leads will skyrocket – Among B2B companies, those that blog have 67 percent more leads every month over those that don’t.
I told you the leads would go up – Overall, companies that choose to blog generate 126 percent more leads than non-blogging businesses.
Topics: Inbound Marketing
