Raise your hand if you would like to have more website visitors. (Yes, me, too!)
If, also like me, your job includes generating value from published content, you know that your business blog is an important owned inbound digital marketing channel for increasing visibility, credibility and leads. According to Content Marketing Institute’s 2022 Insights Report, 76% of B2B companies use blogs to publish their content. And FinancesOnline 2023 Data Analytics revealed that B2B marketers who blog gain 67% more leads than those who don’t.
Sourcing and reviewing blog content is the digital-first research part of the modern buyer’s journey. We know that people trust advice and information from blogs – whether it’s innovative ideas to solve a specific problem, to figure out how to do something or to stay informed about a certain topic. In fact, HubSpot’s 2023 Marketing Trends Report shows that 56% of respondents purchase products from a brand after reading their blog posts.
Let’s look a little deeper into some of the most important benefits of blogging to help propel business growth.
Showcases your thought leadership
When you understand your audience and their needs relative to your business offerings, there is no better way to build trust, credibility and authority than by offering real-world actionable advice and insights. In addition to demonstrating your subject matter expertise around relevant topics and implications for your readers, it helps to humanize your business in a way that encourages engagement. Trusting your unique points of view and capabilities will help in leading them to trust your product and service solutions. It’s a direct and winning correlation.
Serves as a SEO powerhouse
The ever-changing search engine algorithms can be challenging to keep up with, even for the most seasoned content creators. Targeting relevant keywords and topics helps to optimize blog posts for search engines. However, quality content – relative to your audience, our industry and your business – is the most important success factor to avoid the wrath and receive your blessings from the search engine gods.
Drives traffic to your website
Every time you develop and publish a blog post on your website means another indexed page, which is another opportunity for your business to show up on search engine results pages (SERPs) and drive organic traffic to your website. And when your optimized post ranks, it’s a gift that keeps on giving new traffic for years – just keep tweaking it with updates. Search engines and searchers reward freshness.
It also helps to be aware of and manage your domain authority (the quantity and quality of links your website URL receives relative to your competitors.) While not an official ranking factor for Google, it does help strengthen your overall discoverability in search engines.
Generates more leads
Now it’s time to convert all of that traffic into leads. When your post strikes a reader’s nerve in just the right spot, it makes them crave more. And if your content consistently feeds their needs, they become addicted and convert into leads by clicking on your call-to-action, which all blog posts should include. They feature something your readers are willing to trade their contact information for, such as promotional offers, ebooks, landing pages with additional resources, white papers and webinars. Their appreciation of these value-based content assets is the potential doorway to mutually beneficial partnerships and new customer business opportunities.
Maximizes cross-channel pollination
Sharing a portion of your blog post on social media with a link to your website for accessing the full article works wonders. Even if you’re actively publishing posts on your website, creating variations, recaps or exclusive content for LinkedIn can be extremely beneficial. You may also give your post some additional legs by including a teaser and link to the full post in your newsletter and relevant email campaigns.
Business blogging is a compelling key to unlocking tremendous revenue opportunities. When planned and deployed with strategic intent, your blog will perform like a mighty digital marketing magnet, attracting and cultivating valuable relationships while growing your professional network and business. Reap these benefits, and happy blogging!
Need a little inspiration? Visit Konica Minolta’s blog page, where you can find valuable insights from executives and key contributors focusing on Managed IT and cloud services, intelligent information management, digital transformation, production and industrial print and more for your industry and practice. Our unique mix of innovation and expertise provides our readers with technology solutions to help their business run more efficiently.
