Content is (still) King. So, as one of the most effective components of any successful content marketing strategy, blogs continue to be very much on the rise in 2017. Whether B2B or B2C, companies are increasingly realising the importance of blogging and their value at each stage of the sales process. This blog explores the five key reasons why writing and publishing regular blogs is so critical to your business.
1. Improve search engine ranking
Search engine optimisation, or SEO (in case you have been living under a rock for the past few years), is at the very heart of blogging. High quality blogs are keyword focused and optimised to improve search engine ranking. And long story short: SEO matters. The first results page of Google typically receives around 95% of web traffic, so naturally, ranking higher on search engines increases organic traffic to your website, therefore generating more leads for your sales team.
In case you still need convincing, there’s more. SEO goes much deeper than keywords. One of the biggest contributors to search engine ranking is external links. In layman’s terms, this is when another website links to a page on your website. In fact, data has shown that external links are the single most important objective for attaining higher rankings. They are one of the hardest metrics to manipulate but are search engines’ best way to determine the validity and value of the information on your website. So, creating valuable and informative blogs significantly improves your chances of attracting these links.
2. Be known as an expert in your industry
Without digging too deeply into the research, over 70% of consumers will research a product or service online before they buy, looking at an average of 4 pieces of content before they make the decision to purchase. Well-written, regular blogs provide an opportunity for customers (both existing and prospect) to learn about your business, your services, your products, and the latest-industry news, identifying your company as an expert in that field.
3. Trusted source of information
We’ve already established that writing regular blogs gives your company an opportunity to keep your customers up to date with all the latest goings-on, but what blogs are really good at is giving your company a personality, allowing you to communicate with customers in a way that isn’t really otherwise possible online. The personal nature of blogs therefore makes them one of the most trusted and credible sources of information online.
4. Develop your lead generation strategy
It only takes a quick review of the latest literature to see a clear trend between blogs and sales leads: marketers that use blogs generate anywhere between 50% and 70% more leads than those that do not. But more notably, blogs provide an invaluable insight into these leads. Through relatively simple analytics, it is possible to understand who these customers are, what topics they are interested in, and what and how they are sharing information. All of this data can be manipulated to improve the efficiency of your company’s lead generation strategy (and of course to develop your content marketing strategy too!).
5. Increase Sales
It is quite obvious that this blog has been leading in one glaring direction: Regular, well-written blogs that contain engaging and valuable content help to drive sales. Between SEO, brand awareness, and lead generation, there are few areas that don’t benefit from blogging. And the statistics speak for themselves; blogs are 13 times more likely to achieve a positive ROI compared to outbound marketing techniques, and marketers that use blogs gets 67% more leads than those that do not.
With over 50% of marketers saying that blogs are their top inbound marketing priority in 2017, there is no avoiding the importance of blog’s in any company’s content marketing strategy. Blogs are yet another vehicle for sales, an opportunity to share valuable content with prospect and existing customers.
If you are considering writing blogs for your business but just don’t have the time, let us do the hard work for you! eWavelength have written blogs for global companies and start-ups business around the world, all from a range of different industries. For information on how our blogging service can drive sales for your business please contact Charlotte Hope on charlotte.hope@ewavelength.com.