It's 2021: Should Your Business Bother To Blog?

The fight for traffic is real. If your business wasn’t marketing online before the pandemic, you’ll have to change your strategy if you’re going to make it.?

Your website has to be ranked by search engines if you’re going to get any visitors. Without it, your business will be invisible.

See: you’ve got to give search engines reasons to rank your site. Like:

• Quality, relevant, updated reviewed content.
• The more pages Google can index, the better your chances. You can achieve both by investing in a good blog.?

Bottom line: A business blog is the new normal.

Using your blog for content marketing is a sound strategic decision. This is because there are 3 benefits of blogging for companies:?

1. Drive traffic to your site (SEO).?
2. Build credibility as an authority in your industry (reputation building).??
3. Convert the user into a lead or a customer (lead generation).

However:

Business blogging isn’t for everyone

Business blog writing isn’t for everyone. It takes skill. It takes time … 3 hours and 21 minutes for 1000-words to be exact.

And yet … blogging for companies is a necessity for everyone, whether your business is new to online conversions or an old hand at lead generation through content marketing.

You qualify if:??

• You have a brick and mortar store or business that must go online to survive lockdowns.
• You’ve been struck by A Brilliant Idea that you have to start-up right now.
• You’ve been online for ages, but have never got around to organic content marketing.
• Your business has been writing articles, but your writers are exhausted or moved on to greener pastures and you’re thinking of letting it drop.

Does business blogging work?

The top-ranked result on Google’s search results page gets 33% of all clicks.

Enough said.

What’s a business blog for?

So:

Google’s goal is to present the user with relevant content. If you aren’t ranked, you’re nowhere.

On the other hand, from your customer’s perspective, quality blog articles make you an authority and lend you credibility.

This is just another way of saying: your blog is an online visibility and trust-building tool.

Trust means leads, sales, word of mouth marketing, and customer loyalty. Trust is one of the top benefits of blogging.

So, how can you make blogging work for your business?

An effective blogging strategy

This is our rule of thumb: Start now. Start slow.

I’ll tell you why:

• Start now: Hubspot’s analysis found that 75% of their blog views and 90% of their blog leads came from old posts. This is one of the benefits of blogging. In other words, your SEO articles are a good investment, and it is never too soon to begin.
• Start slow and build up: Companies publishing over 16 blog posts per month get 3.5x more traffic than those who post 4 or less.?However, there isn’t a universal magic number. A cautious start is recommended until you have honed your content marketing strategy and allocated your budget. But, it’s a start nonetheless.

This is where I add a word to the wise: it is essential to manage expectations. It can take between 3 to 6 months for a new blog to get any search engine traction.

The best blog article length

There’s a lot of hullabaloo about blog article length. The secret is that Google loves long articles, so you’ll get better ranking. If this is one of your key conversion measures, you can give it a check by blogging articles of 2000-words.

However, traffic doesn’t mean that your blog will be read.?

Steady traffic that bounces doesn’t do you any good. One reason for bouncing is that the article doesn’t deliver on the promise on the search engine results page. In other words: this is not the content I’m looking for.?

Another is when the article is difficult to read. This is where the short article comes into its own. In fact, when blogging for business one third of readers prefer 200-500 word articles.

What blog readers want

See: there’s no time.

• Users want a quick-and-easy read. This translates into either a short article, or breaking a longer article into bite-sized chunks with sub-headings, bullet points, lists and images. This makes it seem easy, but it doesn’t fool everyone.?
• Skimmers want stepping stones. A good article writer tells the story in subheadings. This gives the skim reader the basics; if they’re interested, they’ll actually read the article. Now, or bookmark for later when they have more time.

Do you concentrate on longer articles for more traffic? Or shorter articles for more readers and more chances of lead generation??

Do you want the short story or the long one?

So, what’s the compromise? Start here: one short and one long blog article each week. It doesn’t sound like a lot, does it??

However: very few businesses can manage this output.

Why??

Once again, it is about expectations vs reality. Many people think that business blogging is free, or very cheap. They believe it is something anyone in the organisation can do on top of their regular job.?

It’s just a case of throwing something together. How hard can it be??

But, isn’t blogging free?

Let’s see:

Time is money:

It takes time to write, edit and post articles. It also takes time to deliver results. So, months with no return. Then there’s the time that must go into analysing your results and adjusting your content marketing strategy as you go.

You get what you pay for:

It takes specific skills to produce blog articles. Your writer must be proficient in the craft of blog writing, be intimate with the nuances of the language of your blog, and know and apply SEO best practices.

?

Most importantly, your writer must have content marketing experience.?

Good article writers know how to make your blog work. Bad content will stop the flow of traffic and also damage your online reputation.?

Note: There’s no shame in having your content created by a professional article writing service. In fact,?64% of B2B marketers outsource to experienced writers rather than put pressure on in-house staff.

Blogging for business is serious. It takes commitment, discipline … and a specific skill set. It can be an expensive exercise.?

So, your business can’t afford to blog. Really?!

If there’s just one thing you need to know, it’s this:

Your business blog is an investment.?

Let’s look at the numbers:

• Get more traffic: Add a blog to your existing website to increase traffic by as much as 434%. More pages for Google to index means more chances of ranking.
• Get more leads: Companies with blogs produce an average of 67% more leads each month than companies that don't blog.
• Get more sales: 47% of potential buyers read 3-5 pieces of content before making a purchase decision.?

Of course, to achieve any or all of the above, you need quality, relevant blogs. Just another reason to consider hiring an SEO article writing service.

So:

Should your business be blogging in 2021?

Yes! Start now. Even if you start slow.?

Thank you for reading.

Chirene