My first client who hired me to write blog posts for him was the father of one of my roommates at the time. I had just found myself between jobs and he offered to give me things to do around his office until I got back on my feet. One of those things was blogging.
I was desperate for anything to help pay the bills, and I thought he was just doing me a favor.
After six months of writing regular blog posts for his law firm he told me my blogs had brought in $75,000 worth of business for the firm.
That’s when I realized this wasn’t just busywork.
This was having a real impact on his business.
Not all my clients have had that kind of success, and there are a few different reasons for that, but when done strategically and consistently, blogging can provide incredible benefits to your business.
So let’s talk about some of the tangible the benefits of blogging for business:
Table of Contents
- Is Blogging Dead
- Boosts SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- The Opportunities to Repurpose Blog Posts Are Endless
- More Website Traffic
- Builds Brand Awareness
- Lead Generation
- Lead Development
- Capture Leads in the Early Stages of the Buyer Development
- Builds Relationships
- Engages Leads
- Educates Your Prospects
Is Blogging Dead?
Let’s start by addressing the elephant in the room, because the idea that “blogging is dead” is not new, and it has only gained ground with the release of ChatGPT, and certainly SearchGPT.
But those things aren’t killing blogging. They’re just forcing it to evolve.
If anything, the rise of AI-repurposed content is making thoughtful, insightful content more valuable than ever because it cuts through all the noise.
Blogging can also improve your ability to get the AI search engines to mention your brand and even cite your blog as a resource, but only if you’re consistently creating high-quality content that answers the questions your target audience is asking.
Boosts SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Any time people search for anything online, they’re looking for content.
It could be content in the form of:
- A blog post
- An article
- A product description
- A social media post
- A video
- A podcast
The list goes on, but the point remains: you need content to make Google happy and show up in relevant searches.
While people do look for sales pages and product pages when they’re getting ready to buy, a lot of searches are conducted when people are looking for information. They’re not ready to hire, they just want to know more about a topic … blogging for example.
That means you need to have content that provides information on those topics if you want to attract those leads.
Maintaining a blog also gives a lot more content for Google to work with when it’s trying to figure out who you are, what you do, and whether you really know what you’re talking about.
Even if you just publish 1-2 blog posts per month, you’ll still have much more content on your website a year later than a standard 5-page or even 10-page website. You’ll have 12-24 articles in addition to all your landing pages.
Add to that the fact that blog posts are generally longer than landing pages, and that gives Google much more content to work with — not to mention the real, live prospects who make their way to your website and want to know what you’re all about.
Google also prefers more recent content over older content because it assumes newer content is more relevant.
And, no, making a few tweaks on an existing page of your website doesn’t count as “new” content.
You need to consistently create new content that provides answers to the questions your target audience is asking, giving Google the chance to rank your website for those searches. That’s where a blog comes into play.
Over time, you also build a library of content so Google can put your service pages into context and determine whether you really do know what you’re talking about.
Builds Backlinks
Backlinks are when you get another website to insert a link on their website that leads to a page of your website. It’s incredibly important for SEO, but I won’t get into it here, because I already wrote this article about it.
I will say the best way to get backlinks is to have content worth linking to, a.k.a. “linkable assets.”
The best linkable assets are both entertaining and educational, and your blog is a great place for that content.
Not only is a blog a great way to build external backlinks (when another website links to a page on your website,) it’s also a great opportunity for building internal backlinks (when you put a link on one page of your website that leads to another page on your website.)
While Google does give more weight to external backlinks than to internal backlinks, internal backlinks are still an important part of your SEO strategy, especially when you want to drive traffic to a particular piece of content.
A great content strategy is to create 3-4 really long, in-depth pieces of content, each on a core topic in your business. These are your “pillar content.”
For each core topic, you create shorter pieces covering subtopics of the core topic. Each of those shorter pieces contains a link to the pillar content.
Not only is it great for SEO, but it’ll naturally point your audience towards more information on a related topic they’ll probably appreciate if they enjoyed the shorter content.
Over time, as you create more shorter pieces supporting your pillar content, you build more and more backlinks, all leading back to your pillar content.
Not only does that naturally drive traffic to your most valuable piece of content, but Google will take note of all those internal backlinks and figure there must be some really valuable content there.
Pro tip: you should also get as many external backlinks to your pillar content as you can. There’s nothing wrong with getting external backlinks that lead to supporting articles, but because the pillar content is more in depth and provides more value, it’s more likely to get backlinks, and you’ll get more out of those external backlinks, especially as you continue to build internal backlinks that also lead to your pillar content.
The Opportunities to Repurpose Blog Posts Are Endless
If all you do is post a blog post and let it sit on your website without doing anything to promote it, you are missing out on so many opportunities to drive traffic to your website and let people know how awesome you are.
One of my favorite ways to repurpose content is to record a video and publish it on YouTube (or video streaming service of your choice.)
Then take the audio and turn it into a podcast.
Then transcribe the audio and turn it into a blog post.
Because I’m a writer, I tend to do this backwards. I write the blog post first, then use the blog post as my notes for the video, but not everyone thinks this way.
If you’re one of the many people for whom speaking comes easier than writing, you might prefer to talk about a subject and then use the transcript as your blog post (or at least the rough draft of your blog post.)
Either way is fine. Do what works best for you, but don’t think you need a video about one topic, a podcast episode about another topic, and a blog post about a third topic. There’s no point driving yourself crazy when you can just click a few buttons and have three complete pieces of content.
Once you have your blog post, other opportunities for sharing it include:
- Posting a link to the blog post on social media (multiple times because once is not enough)
- Including a link to the blog post in your newsletter
- Including a link to the blog post in an email to a prospect who needs more information to help them make a decision (as long as it’s relevant)
This last one is one of my favorite ways to reuse an old blog post because it solves so many problems:
- It prevents you (or your salesperson) from having to write out the same answer to the same question over and over again. It’s so much more efficient to just include a link to a relevant blog post.
- It builds credibility with that prospect because having that content on your website makes you look like a true authority on the subject, even if they know it’s your own website.
- It gives the prospect a chance to browse your other blog posts, which can also help convince them you’re the one they need to work with.
More Website Traffic
Of course, the end goal of boosting your SEO is to drive more traffic to your website, and blogging certainly helps you achieve that goal through improving your SEO. But blogging helps drive more traffic to your website in other ways.
Social Media
Sharing links to your blog post on social media is a great way to drive traffic from social media to your website.
Newsletter
If you want people to click through to your website from your newsletter, including a link to your latest blog post is a great way to do that.
External Backlinks
External backlinks aren’t just a great way to improve your SEO. They can also organically drive traffic to your website.
Builds Brand Awareness
No one will buy from you if they don’t know who you are, which means building brand awareness is always the first and most important step in building your business. But it’s easier said than done.
Blogging is a great way to build brand awareness and position yourself as an authority in your industry through a few different avenues:
- Boosting SEO — People know how much work Google puts into determining whether a website is truly an authority on a subject before ranking it at the top of searches, so if you can get your website in the top 10 (ideally top 3) search results of Google, not only will people see your brand more, they’ll also be more likely to see it as a credible source of information.
- Creating Shareable Content — If your content does its job in providing value to its intended audience, people will share it with their friends and family, either directly via a link in a text or email, or by sharing your social media post in which you promote a certain blog post to their social media followers. They might even include a link to your blog post in a blog post of their own, which not only drives organic traffic, it also mentions your name on their website (hopefully), and boosts your SEO.
- Positioning You as an Authority — When people keep seeing your brand name in online searches, on social media, on their favorite websites, etc., it will eventually work its way into their consciousness as THE authority on your subject. That will make you the go-to resource any time they have questions about your industry. When that happens, then you become the only one they think of when they or someone they know is ready for your services.
Lead Generation
Whenever we have questions about something, our first instinct is usually to go online to look for information about it.
By consistently creating high-quality blog posts that answers the questions your ideal clients are asking, you improve your chances of being the website they click on to get the answers they’re looking for.
Once on your website, it’s up to you to capture that lead, because not everyone who reads a blog post will be ready for a sales call.
But they might be ready to sign up for your newsletter, or your next webinar, or follow you on social media.
Once they do that, you can continue pushing content in front of them that explains to them how your industry works and the value you provide for your clients. And at least some of that content can be blog posts.
Not only will that ensure they’ll hire you when they’re ready to hire, it will also ensure they’ll be a higher quality prospect once they reach out because they’ll already understand what makes you so awesome.
Lead Development
Blogging is also great for nurturing leads who may have found you in the real world and want to know more about you.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve met someone at a networking event, then had a one-on-one meeting with them and they mention they went to my website and read some of my blog posts.
Regardless of how people find you, if anything you said or did interested them, they’re going to want to learn more about you, and a blog is a great opportunity for that.
People who find their way to your website from an online search, a social media post, or a link shared by a friend or family member, will also want to see content that gives them confidence you really know what you’re talking about, and most people will go straight to your blog for that content.
Capture Leads in the Early Stages of the Buyer Journey
You can have the occasional blog post that’s promoting a new service or bragging about an awesome win you recently achieved for a client, but most of your blog posts should be informational.
What is this?
How does that work?
What do I need to know about the topic of XYZ?
These are the kinds of searches people tend to conduct in the early stages of the buyer journey. They’re not ready to buy yet, they just want information.
But, if you can capture those leads early on and get them into your funnel, you have the power to position yourself as their trusted authority on the subject.
If all (or even most) of the information they see on your industry comes from you, they’ll see you as the authority on the subject.
That means, not only will you be top of mind when they have a question, but they’ll be more likely to use you as a resource, reach out to you when they have a question, and let you know when they need your services.
Builds Relationships
We all know people work with those we know, like, and trust.
Usually, we tend to think about that in terms of networking, and it’s certainly true in networking.
But it can also be true online.
Don’t make the mistake of assuming you can’t build trust online, because you absolutely can. All you have to do is show up, provide value, and not be one of the many scammers out there haunting the internet.
A regular blog is a great way to build trust by consistently creating high quality, valuable content that helps your audience in some way. And you provide all that juicy knowledge while asking nothing in return.
When you keep doing that over and over on a schedule, you become predictable in a good way. It makes you trustworthy, because they know they can rely on you to create valuable content, and they know when to expect your next nugget of wisdom.
If you have a comments section on your blog, respond right away to any comments that aren’t spam. If someone is legitimately interested in what you have to say, and they took the time to publicly state how much they appreciate it, respond in kind. You might be surprised how much they appreciate the interaction.
I’ve also had complete strangers email me and reach out on social media about my blogs, just telling me how much they appreciate the content. It always feels good when people appreciate it so much they feel the need to reach out and tell you.
Engages Leads
According to research 47% of buyers look at 3-5 pieces of your content before reaching out for a consultation or a sales call, and most people go straight to your blog for that content. Yes, they want to know about you and your services, but they’ll want to make sure you really do know what you’re talking about, and that’s when they’ll go to your blog.
Without a blog, website visitors are much more likely to click away and find a more engaging website elsewhere.
Educates Your Prospects
We’ve all had the frustration of trying to explain to a prospect why we do things a certain way, or that, yes, we really are worth the rates we charge.
Or, worse, they think they know better because they got some (wrong) information from someone else’s blog.
If they had been reading your blog posts instead of someone else’s, you wouldn’t have that problem because you would have provided them with accurate information about how your industry works and the things they do and don’t need in certain situations.
The easiest sale I ever made was with someone who saw me speak at an event, signed up for my newsletter, and read my newsletter (and blog posts) for months before reaching out to me about working together.
She upsold herself on the call after quoting one of my blog posts.
And that never would have happened if I hadn’t been blogging regularly and sharing those blogs in my newsletter.
If you’re ready to use blogging to turn your website into a magnet that draws your ideal clients to you, let’s talk.
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