Chances are, you’ve read a blog this week: a how-to-guide on opening tricky jars, a comparative analysis of new smartphone cases, or some article shaming Millennials for their very existence. Blogs are everywhere. In fact, Quora believes there were somewhere around 173 million blogs back in 2011.
But did you know blogs are also one of the most cost-effective marketing techniques for businesses? They consistently drive traffic, build authority, and engage prospects.
In fact, blogs have been shown to lead to as much as 67% more leads.
B2B blogs improve your SEO
Do you want your business to rank higher on Google? Follow in the footsteps of Tint, a startup that increased its search engine traffic by 2,600%. What was one of Tint’s main strategies? A blog. And a very well-written one.
Google’s Penguin algorithm favors sites with blogs when choosing how to rank them on a results page. Businesses with blogs score significantly higher than those without. This is because blogs…
- …create brand new pages for your website, which keeps it SEO-fresh,
- contain links to relevant information that improves your ranking,
- feature a wide range of keywords for your target buyers,
- and helpfully engage your leads, guiding them down the first stage of the buyer’s journey.
The more your visitors engage with your blog and comment on or share posts, the higher your site will rank. That’s why quality writing matters.
B2B blogs generate more leads
Sure, recurring customers are fantastic—but how about drawing in some new business? Finding fresh faces in the online crowd can be an uphill (and expensive) battle. Unless, of course, you blog.
How much of a difference can a blog make when it comes to generating new leads? A recent study found that businesses that put out 15 blog posts per month see around 1,200 new leads each month.
What would you do with 1,200 new leads this month?
What’s stopping you from trying?
Your blog is your company’s written portal to the outside world, an organic and affordable way to portray the image that you want for your brand. And all it takes to start writing it is one good idea. But actually writing it is the hard part.
Even if you understand who your target buyer personas are, what their pains and gains are, and what the lifetime value of a customer is—all that information is useless if you can’t get them to the “Attract” stage of the buyer’s journey.
That’s where great writers come in. They rope in your readers with compelling reasons to reach out to your business, or at least investigate further. By offering advice and helpful tips for free, you’re building trust with your prospects.
And that, of course, is the real value of a blog. It’s where you and your leads can sit down and have a conversation.
