Blog is one of the most compelling and cost-effective ways to reach your audience. Here are a few reasons to start a company blog or make the blog you currently have a priority.

 

1. Visitors to your site

Blogging used to be dominated by individuals, but it long ago hit the corporate mainstream—according to the Content Marketing Institute, 81% of B2B companies and 77% of B2C companies have blogs.

2. Increase visitor traffic to your site

Businesses that blog get 55% more website traffic than those that don’t. Some of your blog traffic will come from existing customers, but a blog is a great way to get new customers as well. If someone finds one of your blog posts by doing a Google search for that topic, you earn yourself a reader who might never have heard of you otherwise.

3. Demonstrate thought leadership

A regularly updated blog that offers relevant, interesting information shows you’re an expert in your field. When you blog about things that are important to your customers, you show you truly care about their problems and want to use your expertise to provide solutions. That makes your readers trust you, and people are more likely to make purchases from a company they trust.

4. Generate leads

B2B companies that use blogs receive 67% more leads than those that don’t. Once you’ve attracted a potential customer with an interesting blog post, a special deal or downloadable can get them to provide their contact information and move further down the sales funnel.

5. Increase conversions

Whether the desired action is signing up for an email newsletter or filling out a contact form, having a blog is a great way to increase conversions on your site. On average, brands that publish 15 blog posts per month convert 1,200 new leads per month.

6. Improve your SEO

Now that Google penalizes sizes for keyword stuffing, there are only so many keywords you can use on your website pages. Your blog, however, offers unlimited opportunities to create keyword-rich pages that are also informative, engaging, and helpful to your customers (which Google loves). Google also rewards your site for long clicks (when someone clicks through a search result and stays on the site for a significant amount of time), as well as content that is original and recently updated.

7. Social media presence

A quick social post announcing new blog content and providing a link is a great way to connect with your social media audience. In fact, interesting content is one of the top 5 reasons people follow brands on social media.

8. More inbound links to your site.

When you create interesting content on your blog, others will want to link to it. Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links than those that don’t. That means more people coming to your site and potentially becoming customers.

9. Can increase sales.

Your blog is no place for a sales pitch, but that doesn’t mean it can’t drive sales. Almost two-thirds of consumers have made a purchase based on a blog post, and 33% of millennials rely mostly on blogs for their purchasing decisions.

10. A Company’s voice.

Your website messaging is an important way to reinforce your brand, but a blog gives you more flexibility to tell your story and convey your company’s personality, values, and goals.