Why Your Website Won’t Deliver Returns without a Blog?

Once upon a time, any company would produce products and services and customers would buy since they have problems and they need solutions.

While the problems and solutions still persist, it’s the way consumers are “buying” that has changed considerably.

Today, consumers don’t just need solutions for their problems. They also want to know about companies before they buy. They’d love it if the rest of the world things that their potential purchases were a good one. They’d like to know if they could trust you. For some products and services faced with tough competition, the “buy” decision also has a layer of love attached to it.

Do you think a graphic, a flyer, a brochure, or a simple static website could bring in all those requirements when a customer comes visiting?

Not likely.

That’s why blogging is hot. It’s the core of “inbound marketing” process. It’s the reason why some companies seem to be doing so well online compared to many others. In fact, according to statistics from HubSpot, here are a few findings:

• The more frequent you are with blogging, the more you acquire customers. More than 92% of companies that blog multiple times a day acquired a customer through their blog.
• At least 81% of marketers rated their own blogs as “useful” or better.
• Nearly 40% of companies in the U.S use blogs for marketing purposes.

Not convinced? Here are more reasons why you need a blog for your business:

Establish trust

A piece of advertisement can do nothing for your business. A single blog post, however, can do a lot. As customers seek to gain information, get to know companies better, and make informed decisions, your blog posts work as trust barometers for your customers.

As you publish more information about your niche, the industry, the business, and about your own products, you are taking a more open and honest approach to marketing. Customers can ask questions, leave comments, and think about whatever it is that you published about.

In some cases, blogs actually become an authority publication for a respective niche. You just can’t beat that kind of a trust-building exercise.

Drive engagement

The content you publish on your blog becomes fodder for all your social networking channels. As you publish regularly, you’d also push out your content to your social networks and hence give your network fodder to read, comment, discuss about your content. Your content is also shared and distributed via your social networks – think of it as an added benefit.

Open for feedback

Usually, companies hide behind glass-enclosed towers. If you ever had to reach out to a company you are doing business with, it’s next to impossible to actually reach out to them. Social media channels and your blog changes all that. Customers can respond and comment. Your customers can now easily open a dialogue with your (or your team). They can openly leave feedback for you. You do know that feedback is precious to change the way you do business, don’t you?

Your blog is the lead bridge

As your blog dons the role of a magazine or as an information hub, it also helps bridge your social media accounts and your main business website. Customers drift from your blog to your social accounts and then to your home page. Coming from the other way, they’d reach your home blog but would want to read what you’ve published on your blog. Your website, the blog, and your respective social accounts are all inter-connected.

Your blog and your active presence on social networks is the bridge that lets customers drift as they please, connect as they like, and learn or engage until they are ready to buy (it’s even better if they continue to engage even after buying).  Blogging, if you do it right, actually gets you leads. Henneke Duistermaat of Crazy Egg has a post showing you how it’s done.

Blog helps establish expertise

No one wants to buy from a business that doesn’t know what it’s doing. In B2B, for instance, a lot of importance is given to expertise and credibility. Your blog works as a thought leadership platform where you share insights, offer tips, and give food for thought for your prospective (and incumbent) clients. If we ever buy a thing, it’s because we believe that you know what you are talking about.

Nothing else in the world comes close to the kind of thought leadership you can establish with your own company blog.

Free PR, SEO, Traffic, Inspiration, and other perks

Blogging is fun, and it helps you to adopt a voice. It keeps you ahead of the curve. A blog helps you to get some free PR, allows your company to get noticed, brings in some traffic through SEO, and it opens a window for other blogs to link to your own blog.

It helps you make new connections, becomes the heart of your content marketing campaigns, and the perfect soundboard to tell your brand story. For all you know, your blog could turn out to be a source of inspiration for your customers.

For instance, if you were an email marketing services provider, you might curate and list interesting examples of email marketing campaigns by companies all over the world. That, by itself, could be a great way to inspire your customers to follow suit. You could even have your competitors and other related businesses talk about you.

The only thing your blog needs is a constant spread of great content. It can be set up and managed easily. If you have an in-house team or if you can write by yourself, you don’t even have any upfront costs to bear with.

Did we mention blogging is pure fun?

Do you have a blog for your business? Do you update your blog regularly? Do you have any stories to share about how your blog helped you for your business?

Tell us about your blogging achievements. If you are not blogging right now, what’s stopping you?

Jon Reiter is the Founder and CEO at Epic Web Results – A Law Firm Website Design Company focusing on website design, search engine optimization, law firm blogging, and local geo marketing.