Is a Blog the Right Move? 9 Benefits of Blogging for Business

Depending on who you ask, blogging is dead, or it's very much alive. Maybe it's half and half—like a zombie.

If you asked me, I'd tell you that blogging is neither of these things.

It works for most businesses, but not for all. It's just a tool, like a hammer in your garage.

With the right process, it'll turn into something useful for your business. Used haphazardly, it won't do much of anything.

As far as HOW to make blogging work for your business, that's a topic for another post.

For now, let's talk about 9 benefits of blogging for businesses that you can expect to see... IF you're committed to seeing it through.

#1 - You own all your content.

A blog is a type of content, just like a TikTok, Pinterest pin, Instagram post, or tweet. The only difference between a blog and all these other content types is where it's hosted.

Your blog lives at the address you've given it, on the website you pay for. All your other content is hosted on someone else's domain, subject to the whims of their business.

If TikTok bans your account or Instagram closes its doors, your content is still safe on your blog, right where you left it.

#2 - It's easy to repurpose and share a blog.

Your blog is the place where you cover topics in depth, organizing your thoughts with headings and making it flow from top to bottom.

Once you’ve got a finished draft, you can break it into smaller ideas and create social media posts from each thought.

Or simply share the link to other platforms with a short summary, and direct people back to your blog.

It’s much harder to do this the other way around.

#3 - Your website looks more credible with a blog.

You may have put together the most persuasive website with the best design, but without content, it’s hard to tell if your business is active or not.

Your blog gives your websites signs of life. We can all see that you're actively creating content and updating your site.

And not only that, but your content serves to back up the claims you make on your website. Each post proves your expertise and knowledge about your industry, which helps convince visitors to buy.

#4 - There's no length limit.

Maybe you've never hit the Instagram caption character limit (2,200 characters), but you're probably aware that all social media platforms limit the length of post you can make.

Of course, there's always YouTube, where you can upload 24 hours of video, but is your target audience really going to watch all of that?

A longer blog allows you to go way in-depth on a niche topic your readers want to know about, rather than having to break it apart into multiple posts.

Plus, the next point makes it even better:

#5 - It's easy to skim.

If you organize your blog content well, each header tells your reader what's inside the post. They can quickly skim the headings and find the information they're looking for.

And if your content is broken into short paragraphs with plenty of white space, they can scan the sections that pique their interest and get the main points in a matter of minutes.

That's just not possible with tons of short-form videos to wade through, or by watching a YouTube video. Sure, you can try to pull up the transcript or click through each section of the video, but it's just not the same.

#6 - Google can bring you more readers.

Google's in the business of connecting people with web pages they're looking for. And it just so happens that blog posts are also web pages.

Now, that's not to say that posting random content to your blog will automatically win you search traffic from Google.?

It takes strategic thought, smart keyword research, well-structured content, and some other behind-the-scenes work to get your website recognized by Google's algorithms.

But having a blog puts you in the position to get free traffic from Google.?

And the next benefit is the best part:

#7 - Your traffic will grow over time.

With most other forms of content, your content will age and fade away.

Traditional social media posts, like on Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook will lose their newness and fade into the background. Short-form videos are known to make a comeback, but it's always short-lived.

Ads are also a sure-fire way to build traffic. But they're only active as long as you're paying for them, which makes them an expensive resource.

Blogs have the opposite problem. They don't show up in search results for quite a while.

But once they do start to rank for certain keywords, they'll continue to show up every time someone searches for it. Which might happen thousands of times a month, every single month.

Sure, blog posts can become outdated and drop in rankings, but a little bit of maintenance can keep them on the first page of results for years.

#8 - It's easy to build a mailing list from a blog.

One of the first things you want to do when people start consuming your content is invite them to your mailing list.

Your mailing list gets you into their inbox on a regular basis, and whether they actually read the emails or not, the regular mailings can help them remember your business and what you sell.

The most popular way to build a mailing list is by offering a free download in exchange for an email address.?

Sure, you can offer a free download through your link in bio, but that takes a little bit of work. And most social media scrollers are just that—scrollers who are just looking to consume lots of content.

On the other hand, if someone's already clicked on your blog post, you can place a popup, an embedded form, or links in the context of your post to tease your opt-in.?

It's a way more effective way of getting the sign-up.

#9 - It gives structure to your content calendar.

This last benefit is more of a logistical thing.

Personally, I find it hard to plan out 3 or 4 social media posts a week if I'm working from a blank slate.

It's difficult to visualize how they all work together and make sure I'm covering all the content I want to include.

But when you structure your content calendar around long-form blog posts, it becomes a lot easier.

Each week, you'll write one long-form blog post on a single topic, then you can break it down into social media posts for the next week.

Everything works together, and it all fits into your overall content strategy. I can't do it any other way.

Is a blog your next move?

If you're not ready to invest the time to do it yourself, or the money to hire someone else to do it for you, then don't sweat it. It's not the right time.

But if your business is growing, and you have the resources to invest in a blog, it's a smart choice to get started.

The question is, are the benefits of blogging worth it to your business? Enough to do the work to see them?

I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Next week, I'll share some business blogging mistakes you want to avoid when starting your business blog. Follow me to get notified when that goes live ?