Much has been said about the importance of business blogging and yet some still question whether or not blogging is an investment worth making. Understandably so, considering that it takes a whole lot of work and dedication to maintain a blog.
But numbers can’t go wrong. When it feels like your blog is not showing any immediate results, or you don’t feel like your business needs a blog at all, it’s always good to look at actual industry data to see what you’re missing out on.
We talk about the importance of business blogging quite a lot in this space but it’s impossible to run out of things to cover, considering how increasingly relevant blogging continues to become.
Dare we say that blogging is important for any company wanting to expand their market online? Absolutely! In the words of millennials, FOMO is real.
Even though your business is already doing well without a blog, you’re also missing out on major opportunities for growth.
Let’s make this simpler.
Remember few years ago when you thought blogging is just a fad?
Or remember when you thought you don’t need a blog because social media works just fine?
Well, here we are in 2017, and blogging is more important than ever. In fact, 89% of US companies think blogs will be more important in the next five years.
Apart from the more obvious blogging statistics, here’s what you’re missing out on when you don’t practice a bit of business blogging.
1. You miss out on exponential organic growth.
So you’re not seeing your recent blog posts on the first page of Google. That’s okay. In fact, it’s perfectly normal. It takes a while to get through the first page (at least 3 months, if you do the work), and that’s a unique characteristic of blogs to be honest.
Unlike social media and paid advertising where you see immediate results, blogs grow organically over time, giving you long-term and lasting results.
And also unlike social media posts and paid ads that disappear as fast as your fingers can scroll, blog posts remain right where you published it, indexed on Google and accessible within the pages of your website.. forever. (I mean, as long as you want them to exist. Of course.)
This long-term growth has been proven time and time again by those who’ve benefited a lot from blogging.
Consider these statistics:
- Once you write 21-54 blog posts, blog traffic increases by up to 30%
- Once you write 52 or more blog posts, blog traffic generation increases by up to 77%.
- Once a site has over 300 indexed pages, traffic generation increases by 236%.
- 1 in 10 blog posts are compounding, meaning organic search increases their traffic over time.
- Companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got almost 3.5X more traffic than companies that published 0-4 monthly posts.
- B2B companies that blogged 11+ times per month had almost 3X more traffic than those blogging 0-1 times per month.
- On average, companies that blog receive 434% more indexed pages.
Bringing it closer to home, here at Spiralytics, we once stopped blogging for 3 months (unintentionally, for the record) and found that even through our “blog hiatus”—
- we still gained subscribers
- old blog posts went viral and continued to gain traffic
- our social media and referral traffic naturally decreased, but our search traffic was stable for the most part
In other words, our blog continued to work 24/7 even when we momentarily stopped publishing content.
More than the increased number of indexed pages, blog posts are also great for one other thing: link building. An average company that blogs gets 97% more inbound links, and we all know how much links impact SEO.
This is why we feel strongly about using blogging not only to increase trust and establish authority, but more importantly, to be an important catalyst in the overall SEO strategy.
2. You miss out on gaining 60-80% more leads.
This goes for both B2B and B2C.
It’s a common misconception that blogging lends itself well to B2B marketers who aim to establish thought leadership and build trust over a period of time, as opposed to consumer brands whose buyer’s journey is a lot shorter and faster.
Not true. Consumer brands that blog apparently get a lot more bang for their buck with blogging, in fact, a lot more than B2B companies.
Here are some stats:
- B2B marketers who use blogs generate 67% more leads per month than those who do not. (Fact Browser)
- B2C companies that blog generate 88% more leads per month than those that do not. (Rick’s Tips)
- 68% of businesses attribute their lead generation success to blogging. (Hubspot)
- Businesses that post at least 15 blog posts a month generate on average 1,200 new leads per month. (Hubspot)
While traffic and lead generation can be achieved through other means (social media or paid advertising, for one, are great in generating leads), one cannot ignore the stability and security of a blogging platform.
You own your blog! Remember when Friendster and Multiply disappeared and took away all the years of hard work you put into publishing content on their platform? (Multiply what?) Remember when Facebook, Twitter and Instagram changed their algorithms just because they can? How about when people stopped wanting to use Flickr?
When something is as important as lead generation, you’d want to have complete control over your channel. And that’s one of the reasons why a blog is such an important investment. It’s not only cost efficient, it’s also completely yours.
3. You miss out on closing more sales and gaining more clients.
Whether it’s another blogger recommending your brand or you blogging about your own product and services, blog content is an important part of the buyer’s journey.
- 61% of online consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations from a blog.
- 79% of online shoppers spend 50% of their shopping time researching products online.
- 51% of business owners consider content management as “very important” or “absolutely critical” in their buyer journey creation.
- 94% of blog readers are willing to share blog posts if they think the information in the posts can be useful and valuable to their peers, friends and other connections.
Business transactions online have grown in massive ways and along with this growth, consumers have also become more thorough in researching about products and services online before making a purchase.
With the amount of content available to your average consumer, it’s important for businesses to make sure that their target market’s questions are answered right within their very own pages.
Sources: Hubspot’s Marketing Statistics | 38 Content Marketing Stats Every Marketer Needs to Know | Blogging Statistics: 55 Reasons Your Company Blog’s Worth the Time
Are you still over the fence about blogging and how to make it work for you? Download this free guide to B2B Blogging and start digging in!
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