11 Benefits to Blogging Other than Increasing Your Website Traffic
Everyone thinks blogging is all about getting found online. Inbound marketers like to refer to that traffic as “top of the funnel”, or for short, “ToFu”. Studies show that companies who blog frequently receive 55% more traffic than those who don’t.
While blogging can certainly help your SEO rankings on Google, that is just one of its many advantages. In fact, I would advocate that you should be blogging even if you were never found on Google. That’s right. You heard it here first.
Top 11 Reasons Why Blogging Isn’t Just for SEO
1. Your Sales Percentages will Improve
It’s getting harder and harder to a close a sale right on the spot these days. I don’t care if you are selling home improvement, legal advice or truck parts. Chances are your customer is going to check out your website soon after your sales call, if they haven’t already. The better you educate them, the more comfortable they become. The more comfortable they become, the likelihood of you making the sale increases many times over.
2. Your Marketing Costs will Drop
First of all, blogging and related internet marketing costs a whole lot less than traditional outbound techniques like TV and radio, print ads and outdoor (61% less to be exact). Also, once you’ve started to increase sales, you won’t need to spend as much money chasing after new business. As an added bonus, your newfound success online is a great negotiation tool to use with your other marketing vendors.
3. You’ll Be More Engaged with Your Customers
Blogs are meant to be social. They can be easily shared on major platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Linked In. They are also a great place to build a community of followers. Just make sure to ask for comments. Being social is a two-way street. For example, do you have something to add to this list? Let us all know about it in the comment box below.
4. You’ll Become a Thought Leader in your Business or Profession
Once you’ve established yourself as the blog to read for customers who are interested in your products or services, word will spread. Once it does, your competitors, suppliers and people will link to you organically (Google loves that!). Pretty soon, you’re the authority.
5. You’ll Get Free PR
Something magical happens when you start putting your thoughts online. Suddenly, you become the expert of your industry. Just one of many examples is when one of the country’s leading TV superstations called me to talk on-air about a topic they had read about in my blog.
6. You’ll Energize your Employees
While the decision to embrace inbound marketing starts at the top, it’s your employees that will keep the torch burning. After all, they’re the ones fielding questions from your customers all day long. At my basement waterproofing company, our sales reps play an integral role in generating topics and creating content for our blog. This elevates their profile and turns them into evangelists of our brand.
7. You’ll Improve Your Communication with Customers
As my friend and colleague Marcus Sheridan would say, the worst thing you can do when following up with a customer is say “I’m just checking in…”. My first response to those types of emails, if I even bother responding, is “Check back with me later. I’m tied up for the next 4 weeks on other projects”. Don’t give your potential client such an easy way out. Share with them some thought-provoking content from your blog and ask them for their thoughts. You’ll be amazed by the responses.
8. You’ll Get More Repeat Business
Repurpose those blog posts into newsletters or targeted mailings to past customers. You might just spark some interest in your new line of products or an enhancement to a service they might not have wanted earlier.
9. You’ll Save Time
Think about how many times you’ve been asked the same exact question by different customers. Now, think about how much time you could have saved by sending them a link to a well-crafted blog post on the topic. For example:
- Want to know how long I think it will take for you to rank on the first page of Google?
- How about if I think your industry is too boring to blog about?
If you haven't already, click on the links for the answers. Make sure to take note (a) how much time I just saved and (b) how much more comfortable you are absorbing the content at your own pace without me forcing it down your throat.
10. You’ll be Ahead of the Curve
I know I’m going out on a limb here, but my crystal ball says it’s here to stay. You’ve probably been buying airline tickets and music online for quite a while now, maybe doing your holiday shopping as well. Maybe you haven’t yet started searching the net for major products and services but millions of others have and many of them are looking for you! Stop hiding.
11. You’ll Have Fun…and a LOT of it
Signing checks, conducting interviews, approving budgets, and reviewing financials are things most business owners like myself are commonly tasked with doing. We don’t, however, get the thrill of the chase as much as we did when we used to go on sales calls (you remember those days, don’t you?). Writing content is fun. Reading comments is fun. Generating leads and converting them into sales is even more fun.
Look, I know some of this almost sounds too good to be true. There aren’t many bigger skeptics than me, especially when it comes to marketing (just ask my ad agency). I was once in your shoes.
You have a choice. You can be an early adopter and start reaping the benefits now. Or you can wait…until your competition has produced so much content you’ll never catch up.
I’m drawing a line in the sand. Which side are you on?
