How a Blog Can Grow Your Business
Here’s a succinct, powerful tip for growing your business in 2014:
Blog!
And yes, I mean that as a verb.
If you don’t yet have a business blog, you’ve likely wondered if it’s worth the effort.
Well… I’ve seen the effects on my own business since I started blogging 9 months ago, and I’ve seen the results for my clients. I can say with confidence:
Blogging should be one of your top priorities for lead generation *if*…
- You can be generously helpful to your ideal customers, and
- You can commit to a regular publication schedule
I was inspired to write this post after seeing Friday’s very excellent blogging infographic from QuickSprout.
Go take a look and come back when you’re done.
Wow.
Websites with blogs:
- Get 2x as many inbound links
- Get 4x as many pages indexed with search engines
- Get nearly 2x as many monthly leads
- Engender good will and motivate purchases
If those numbers aren’t motivating enough for you, let me add my own…
To see results from blogging takes time and commitment, but the results are as powerful as the time you invest.
Here is a Google Analytics screen shot of weekly traffic to my blog posts from organic searches (non-paid search traffic) since I began blogging in March:
My blog traffic has been growing steadily and now delivers an extra 1,000 visitors a month to my rather humble, one-person service website.
Even more interesting, not all blog posts are created equal!
You’ll publish some blog posts that rarely get viewed. You’ll publish many that get a respectable number of views. And every so often you’ll publish one that hits the right combination of search terms and customer pain that it takes off like a rocket.
It’s nearly impossible to predict which will be which.
I published this post in August: “Should You Separate Your Blog from Your Website?” thinking it would have rather niche appeal. Â Shockingly, it delivered over half of my organic blog traffic for the past month and has now accounted for 1/3 of my all-time blog traffic!
This is why blogging regularly is so important. You need to build and maintain momentum, and you never know which posts will become rocket launchers for bringing new visitors to your website.
But that’s just traffic. What about business results?
I get one good new client from every two blog posts that I publish!
For my high-end service business, this is fantastic.
Granted, that is not just from organic search traffic. I also have an email list to which I send each blog post (and you should, too!). But regardless of the channel, it’s the blog posts that are helping close the deal.
So if you want to grow your business online in 2014, add this verb to your list of New Year’s Resolutions:
Blog!
Want to create your own successful blog? Looking for other ways to bring great prospects to your website and convert them into customers?
Contact me to find out how I can help you
That is a brilliant result Andrew. How long does it typically take you to write each one of those blog posts?
Hi Sam — I appreciate the comment. I’m always striving to get faster at it, but I still typically invest 3-5 hours in writing each new blog post. And I absolutely think it’s worth the payoff.
Best of luck to you.
Andrew
I tell my clients the same thing, there is no better tool for SEO, building engagement and building your reputation — and yet very few do it. People fear writing almost as much as public speaking!
Almost. 🙂 I would suspect what stops most people is simply not knowing what they should write about and/or how to make it engaging for blog readers. But both of these problems are very solvable with a little guidance.