Lots of businesses do it.
Southwest Airlines, Stonyfield Farms and Disney Parks are just a few big businesses that maintain blogs to keep their customers happy, interested and informed. What works so well for these giant, blockbuster businesses can actually work for your business, too. In fact, there are plenty of statistics to support your blogging decision.
- 81% of U.S. consumers trust information and advice from blogs. (Source: BlogHer)
- Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links. (Source: Hubspot)
- 61% of U.S. online consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations from a blog. (Source: BlogHer)
Okay. So, the statistics support blogging. What exactly does your business stand to gain?
1. Get more visitors to your site.
Blogging increases traffic to your website in so many ways!
First, writing a blog post adds another indexed page to your website. Every indexed page is another opportunity for your site to appear in your audience’s search engine results pages.
Second, readers share blog content on social media. It’s highly unlikely that one of your readers is going to share a link to your home page, portfolio or contact page on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Google+. But if you’re publishing valuable content, those readers are doing their friends a favor by connecting them with your site.
2. Convert traffic into leads.
A blog post on its own can be a pretty good thing.
But add a call-to-action to the bottom of every post and you’ve got a highly effective lead-generating tool. Make the call to action specific to the content of the post and your audience will be thanking you for serving them up with even more valuable information!
Very often the call-to-action is a button or form at the bottom of the post, encouraging your reader to follow the link for more information or fill in their email address to get on the mailing list. Calls-to-action are even more effective when they reward your reader with relevant bonus content. An emailed coupon, an informative guide (in the form of an emailed pdf) or a free trial membership are all effective ways to use a call-to-action to market to your audience. Ensure that this content is relevant to the content of the blog post and you’re sure to convert!
3. Establish authority.
Really great businesses find the best ways to help their customers. Answering their questions, giving them information and finding other ways to provide them with value is often the best way to do this.
A blog can help your customers come to see you as an authority in the field. Let them know you’ve got great ideas! Help them to see that you’ve got all the answers! Your reward will be that they’ll keep coming back to you for information and they’ll let their friends and family know about you, too.
4. Benefit from long-term results.
A well-written, valuable blog post can be one of your hardest working assets. In fact, years from now, your site will still be getting visits, leads and customers from that post your wrote so long ago.
Write a couple posts a week and the benefit doubles!
Most bloggers will tell you that most of the traffic to their site is generated by posts that were written a long time ago. Those posts have had time to age, gain attention and build authority. So think about the one hour of effort that is required to write a blog post as an investment in your future. While you’re on vacation or doing the hard work of maintaining your business, your blog posts are generating leads and ensuring your business continues to grow!
Still feeling stuck? Spot Color can help you get unstuck and on the road to blogging. Contact us today.
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