Bite the Bullet: The Case for the Business Blog Part II

If you’re still uncertain about the wisdom of launching a blog on your business website, don’t think of yourself as stubborn; think of yourself as pragmatic.

After all, if an endeavor requires your time, money and effort – and creating an effective blog most certainly does – it should stand up to scrutiny and a stern look at the bottom line. In other words, you are smart to question: Will I realize a return on my investment?

If this is your mindset, you’re in for a pleasant surprise. Because when it comes to being able to quantify, count, measure and otherwise justify the creation of a business blog, you’ll find the proof comes in cold, hard, indisputable numbers. 

First, recall the “soft” benefits of a business blog from Bite the Bullet, Part I:

  • Establishes you as an expert in your field
  • Builds your company brand and reputation
  • Informs and educates your customers about your products or services
  • Opens a direct line of communication with your customers, thereby allowing them to tell you exactly what they like and dislike and what they need
  • Connects people to your business in a personal way by allowing them to share their thoughts, ideas and experiences. And if they Tweet or email their comments to others, it’s free advertising for you, too.
  • Provides important marketing collateral for your sales team and other goodwill ambassadors

NOW, let’s look at the “hard” benefits of a business blog:

  • Each time you publish a blog, you add another page to your website, which serves as a flag to Google and the other search engines that your site is active. And active sites that feature quality content are rewarded by the search engines with an automatic “bump” in status. Therefore, creating a business blog bolsters search engine optimization.
  • Once you’ve been elevated in the rankings – ideally, on the first page or two of a search engine results page (SERP) – your business is easier for people to find. And when it’s easier to find, it’s more likely that people will seek you out. Therefore, creating a business blog drives traffic to your website. 
  • Now comes the moment of truth: Once people find your site, you want to be able to convert them into customers – or at least prospective customers. You can reel them in with two simple steps: Integrate an effective call-to-action button in the blog with a free and enticing offer, then ask them to fill out a brief form with their contact information so that they can receive the offer. Therefore, creating a business blog can build your contact database and convert even casual web visitors into earnest customers.
  • Once people like what they see on your website, they’re more likely to spread the word to others on their social networks, including Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. So you’ll continue to drive more people to your website because creating a business blog exposes your company to more people

Each of these benefits can be meticulously tracked through website analytics that record the number of visitors, click-throughs, downloads, shares, likes, conversions, etc. So the success of your blogging efforts can be numerically proven and even illustrated with graphs and charts. 

Now, with all of these great reasons to start blogging, what are you waiting for? Make 2015 the year you get a big jump on your competition by either starting to blog yourself or getting some outside help.