In the new age of online consumer behavior, blogging is an essential part of inbound marketing. Blogging has become one of the simplest ways to get your business more visibility online. A business blog is more than just quick updates on your company. It’s rich content that will answer questions for your site visitors and teach them something new. In the scope of inbound marketing, think of your business blog as a marketing tactic. A blog is another marketing channel, just like social media and email marketing, and it helps support your business growth. Philly inbound marketing practices have helped businesses succeed and grow, we want help your business achieve this as well.

1. It helps drive traffic to your website.

For internet users who are unfamiliar with your name and brand, a blog can be the key to awareness. Blogging allows for increased visibility because it adds fresh content and pages to your website, which Google loves. Websites typically do not have a ton of pages and do not get updated that often. By adding new blog posts, you’re more likely to appear in organic search results, so you’ll have more site visitors!

2. It helps convert traffic into leads.

Now that you have more traffic coming to your website, you want to take those visitors and convert them into leads. Your blog should not be used as a sales pitch, but it should provide your visitors with information and knowledge that will excite them enough to want more. With each amazing and exciting blog post, it’s simple to turn those strangers into leads. Just add a call-to-action at the end of each post. These CTAs can lead to things like free ebooks, free webinars, or something small but effective that would make someone willing to exchange their information. Once you have their information, that’s a lead.

3. It enforces your brand as an expert in your field.

The best blogs answer questions that leads and customers have. If you’re successful in answering user questions, they will keep coming back for more. If you keep producing informational content, in your readers’ minds, it will establish your business as an expert in your field. If you’re not sure you’re answering target customer’s questions, ask your sales department. If your sales team is getting questions from potential customers where the answer can be pulled from an archive of blog posts, you’ve done well. If not, then you’ll have some new topics to write about!

4. It improves your SEO.

Google loves and rewards fresh content and relevant keywords. Therefore, a well-managed blog will increase your SEO, giving you greater visibility. Filling your blog posts with relevant keywords encourages search engines to rank your post higher in results.

5. It helps you gain knowledge and look smarter.

Blogs don’t only benefit your website visitors, they can benefit you as well! By actively doing research and writing about your services, field, or industry, you’re constantly engaging with new information. The more you and your employees write about a topic, the stronger the knowledge and communication of that knowledge becomes.

6. It’s easily shareable.

Blog posts and social media go hand-in-hand. In the midst of inbound marketing campaigns, it’s good to have content to share on your business’s social media platforms. It’s a simple way to get some clicks on your blog posts and attract followers to your website. Additionally, blogs will aid in user-generated content. If your blogs are helpful or interesting enough, your followers and website visitors will share your content on their own social media page.

7. It creates a two-way conversation with potential and existing customers.

Blogs can help humanize your brand, so you’re not just some faceless corporation that asks people to buy your product. Comment sections on blog posts and calls-to-action like “Let us know what you think” encourage readers to engage with your business. Unlike traditional marketing, inbound marketing opens up a two-way conversation to have with your potential and existing customers. From there, you can begin to create lasting relationships and build trust.

8. It helps generate inbound links.

Similar to followers sharing your content on their social media pages, when you create interesting blog content, others will want to link to it on their own websites. This is fantastic for your business because it encourages visitors of that business to become visitors of your business.

9. It drives long-term results.

This is one of the few cases where saying “the internet is forever” is a good thing. You can sit down for an hour or two and write a blog post and get a handful of views. You can also boost traffic to your post with social media and email marketing and that will generate views. However, once your post ranks on search results you’ll see long-term traffic growth. If your content is helpful and relevant, how old your post is will not be a big deal.

10. It’s easy to use and extremely low cost.

Blogging doesn’t have to be difficult. Most likely, you’re already very knowledgeable about your industry and can crush a few blog posts in a day. The best part about a blog is there is usually little to no cost. It’s a cheap and easy way to gain awareness, leads, followers, and promoters of your brand.

Blogging is just one piece of the puzzle of inbound marketing. If you’re looking to strengthen your knowledge of inbound marketing and build out an effective campaign, register now for our FREE Digital Marketing 101 webinar. Afterward, you’ll be confident enough to get started writing effective content and building out inbound marketing campaigns. View upcoming courses here.