Does your business need a blog? Most marketers would say yes. That answer is likely true for most companies, but the truth is that you don’t need a blog, per se.
What businesses need are the benefits of a blog.
If you can get the market exposure, lead generation, and brand platform elsewhere, then by all means keep the blogging budget to a minimum. But, as you look at the upside of a blog, you’ll quickly see that it’s hard to find the value of this platform with other marketing or brand-development efforts. And while a blog is by no means free (it will cost time, money, or both), it is probably far less expensive than the alternatives.
So, the question isn’t whether you need a blog. A better question is whether you need a blog for the return on investment (ROI). Here, we cover the benefits of a blog for your business to help you evaluate its value to your business. Let’s jump in!
A blog feeds search engines like Google and Bing
We can go into the weeds on search engine optimization (SEO). But, what matters here is that your blog is the best tool to publish fresh content on your website. Product pages are critical. Company information is great. But, a lively blog is going to be an organic traffic engine that keeps on giving. Over time, you’ll see your website jump up search engine rankings. With that progress, you’ll earn more website traffic and sales opportunities.
Wondering how much content you need to produce or how to track success?
Check out our Content Marketing Report for statistics and insights you need!
A blog is your content marketing hub
As a content marketing agency, we couldn’t help but mention that blogs are the center of most businesses’ content marketing strategies. Brands are looking to content marketing as a long-term strategy to build trust, authority, inbound traffic, and online audiences in their respective markets. Then they take these audiences and nurture them into lifelong customers.
A blog is a perfect place for content marketing because:
- You own the platform – When the blog is on your website, you have access to analytics to examine user behavior (such as what they’re clicking on), and you control the flow of information.
- Your website needs traffic – Fresh blogs = fresh website visitors = more chances to find customers. Product pages are critical. Company information is great. Your blog is the best tool to publish fresh content on your website. A lively blog is going to be an organic traffic engine that keeps on giving. Over time, you’ll see your website jump up search engine rankings on Google and Bing. With that progress, you’ll earn more website traffic and sales opportunities.
A blog and social media go hand-in-hand
Healthy blog content offers your social media channels materials that are ripe for the picking. It’s a strategy you see all the time: Businesses share their latest blog on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or other social media channel. This increases the reach of your materials and helps you build a social following.
We don’t recommend that your social media feed consists solely of links to your blog. But, it’s a best practice to try to bring your social followers to your site, and blogs are a great way to do it.
If you're wondering how to put together a great blog strategy, check out our deep dive on Lulu Press's content strategy.
A blog augments marketing campaigns
Synchronizing your blog calendar with these other activities gives you more materials to raise awareness for larger initiatives. Whether you’re getting ready for a tradeshow, about to launch a product, or are just trying to keep leads warm, a blog is a great place to support marketing campaigns.
A blog supports the entire business
Usually, the blog is maintained by marketing. But, that doesn’t mean it should only serve marketing. Virtually every department can get value from blogging.
- Human resources – Posts introducing new hires, philanthropic pursuits, work anniversaries, and career opportunities make for great blogs.
- Sales – Often, the sales team is looking for materials that make for better follow-up calls or materials they can take to meetings. Developing some blogs for your sales team not only helps close deals, but it also brings marketing and sales closer together.
- Customer support – Tips, troubleshooting, and patch announcements are all great blog topics for existing customers.
- Product development – A blog is a great place to build anticipation for product launches, new features, or other stories from product development.
When a business uses its blog as a podium for the whole company, you’re driving a lot of traffic from prospective, current, and former customers. This helps you attract all sorts of useful engagement within your buyer’s journey and keeps your blog from getting repetitive.
Media and influencers gobble up content
Blogs create conversations. If your brand is considered a leader or has a unique position in a market, others may lean on you for your perspectives. By creating thought leadership pieces, you may end up getting linked to by media in your market or influencers (this is also referred to as backlinks). This is one of the best ways to increase your search engine presence by building your domain authority, and the community gets to see your unique perspectives.
A blog is a platform for your brand and culture
Nothing sticks out quite like blogs written by executives and department leaders. Often, business leaders are at arms reach from the community. But, when a leader puts their name and face on a blog, the brand instantly becomes more personable, especially if the content speaks powerfully to brand and culture values.
Taking the time to create commentary around important issues gives your brand and leaders a shot of credibility and juice in your market and with other like-minded individuals. If you want to stand for something, show it!
The benefits of a blog are unique
You may be able to find the benefits of a blog elsewhere, but it’s hard to find them all on a single platform. Then there’s cost. A blog will only cost as much as your creators put into it. Try to find that value anywhere else!
The key is to have a content strategy for your blog. Fluff won’t get you far. If you’re struggling with finding the right blog strategy, we can help!
