There has never been a better time for businesses to include blogging in their marketing strategy. Not only do blogs drive traffic to your website and help you promote your products and services, it also helps you build trust with your target audience.

In this post, we’re going to highlight 6 benefits of blogging for business and how you can get started with creating relevant content that drives more people to your site than ever before. Check it out below!

1) It helps drive traffic to your website.

This is probably the most important benefit to blogging that you need to know about. Let me guess, you want more people visiting your site, right? Of course you do. Now think about the ways people find your website:

• They could type your company name into their internet browser, but that's for an audience you already have. They know who you are, you're on their radar, and that doesn't help you get more traffic on top of what you're already getting.
• You could pay for traffic by placing tons of paid ads, which can be very very expensive. And the second you run out of money, your traffic stops coming, too. Not ideal at all!

So, how can you attract new people to your website? You can through blogging and optimising your site for search engines.

So, how can you attract new people to your website? You can through blogging and optimising your site for search engines. Think about how many pages there are on your website. 5, 10, 15, 20+... And think about how often you update those pages. Probably not that often, right? Well, blogging is a great way to solve both of those problems.

Every time you create and publish a blog post, it's one more indexed page on your website, which means one more opportunity for you to show up on the search engine results page and drive traffic to your website in organic search. We'll get into more of the benefits of blogging on your SEO a bit later, but it's also one more thing to show Google and other search engines that your website is very much active and provide value on the internet.

2) It helps convert traffic into leads

Now that you have some traffic coming to your website through your blog, you have an opportunity to convert that traffic into leads. Every blog post you write is another indexed page and each post is a new opportunity to generate leads. The way this works is straightforward - you add a lead-generating call-to-action to every blog post. As you will see at the bottom of every blog we publish, we have a 'Start Your Free Trial' button for people to create an account on our site and start building their bespoke website for FREE.

Often, these calls-to-action lead to things like free eGuide, webinars, course access, free trials (like ours) , or basically, any content for which someone would be willing to exchange their information for.

Note: Not every reader will become a lead, and that's okay. No business converts 100% of the people who read their blog into leads. Just get blogging, put calls-to-action on every blog post and strive to improve the number of leads that convert each and every month.

3) You can repurpose blog content for your social media

Every time you create a new blog article, you're creating content that people can share on social networks — Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest — which in turn helps expose your business to a new audience that may not know you yet.

Blog content also helps keep your social media presence going. So instead of asking a social media manager to create brand new content for your social media (or creating that content yourself), use your blog as a repository of content. After all, you want to strengthen your social reach with blog content and drive new website visitors to your blog via your social media channels.

4) It drives long-term results

The best blogs answer common questions the readers have. If you consistently create valuable content for your target audience, it'll establish you as an authority roll in their eyes. Can you imagine the impact of sending an educational blog post you wrote to clear things up for a confused customer? Or how many more deals a salesperson could close if their leads discovered blog content written by their salesperson?

Think about it:

• Your target audience find answers to their everyday questions via blog posts written by you or your team. This is where they're much more likely to come into your sales funnel, as they are trusting what you have to say because you've helped them in the past — even before they were interested in purchasing the products and/or services from you.
• Salespeople who encounter specific questions that require in-depth explanation or a documented answer can pull from an archive of blog posts. Not only do these blog posts help move the sales process along faster than if a sales rep had to create the assets from scratch, but they position the salesperson as a helpful resource to their prospect. Thus helping to build trust.

5) Blog posts help with link building

Inbound links (or backlinks) are among the top factors the Google algorithm considers when ranking a website on its search engine result page. Many believe backlinks to be the 3rd most crucial factor in search engine optimisation. But although generating inbound links is essential, 41% of SEO experts say link building is the most challenging part of search optimisation. When you create blog posts that are not only valuable to your potential customers but also to other companies within in your industry, it’d be easier to gain relevant links.

Links for authoritative websites in your industry can serve as a vote of confidence or recommendation from other websites. And it tells Google and other search engines that you’re trustworthy and an expert in your field.

And another benefit of link building is that they help you create your domain authority, which helps improve your overall discoverability in search engines. BONUS!

6) It helps you share company news.

And the very last benefit of adding a blog to your website is the fact it gives you a clear medium to share any company news and stories your target audience would be interested in. Blogs can contain not only articles but also news that highlights what the company is up to, what changes are being made, how it is progressing etc etc.

• Have you employed a new member of staff? Share the news in your blog.
• Have a brilliant testimonial that showcases how your products and services help your customers? Tell your audience about it in your blog.
• Are you hosting a local event for those in the area? Why not drum up attention for the event through your blog?

Not only does sharing company news on your blog humanise your brand, but it also helps your audience see that you’re not always about selling. People buy into people - so show that human side of the business. Add some personality and character by sharing the goings on.

How to Start Blogging for your Business

Now you’ve seen the benefits your blog can get you — more traffic, leads, authority, and a better relationship with your audience. And you’re undoubtedly itching to get started. But how? Our guide on How to Write a Blog Post has everything you need - go check it out and get started ASAP!