The benefits of blogging for business in 2022 are often either ignored, missed, or just neglected.
Go on, Netflix and Chill on your couch while your competitor skyrockets their businesses via “blog posts”. Literally.
Why believe my words? You shouldn’t.
How about a real-life case-study of a company called Marconet, which got itself over 2500% traffic boost just with blogging and SEO! (Marco’s competitors be beating themselves, right?)
So what? Marco got lucky. Or, “it was easier when Marco did it”. Common excuses some of you must already be telling yourselves.
How about Snacknation? Their case-study went viral when it was published in 2017. However, I’ll get you fresh, 2020 data, right?
Today, the company derives 800K monthly traffic and over $100K recurring revenue, all thanks to its blogging habits.
Ah, did you notice what happened here? Because of their blogging decisions, they just got themselves mentioned here, getting marketed to you, and that wasn’t even my intention!
These are just two of the case-studies, out of the thousand others.
As we talk more of the benefits of blogging for business in 2022, I’ll be sharing many other real-life, verifiable examples throughout this piece.
Let’s get started then?
What is blogging for business?
I’ll keep it utterly simple.
You own a business. Any business. A “blog” is your very own magazine, on the internet. You can publish anything you want, anytime you want.
A business blog generally includes details about your products, your future plans, maybe your history? Anything which you see fit to promote your business in any way.
What are the benefits? Well, there are too many. I’ll get you a basic idea throughout this piece.
Top Benefits of Blogging for Business in 2022
The most common benefits you can reap off your business blog include:
- Pitch yourself
- Trust
- Control
- Establish authority
- Make free sales
- Get more backlinks
- More exposure
- Collect E-mails (and turn them into money)
- Reconnect with lost leads
- Personalization
- Lifelong benefits, all of them
- Gather feedback
1. Pitch yourself
What if I said you can instantly increase the number of your local leads/sales by over 50% if you used blogging?
According to Netcafy, 88% of users who search for a local business online visit the store or call them within 24 hours. Don’t you want to increase your walk-ins?
So, imagine you own a local plumbing company. Or, even an international jewellery business, “blogs” will give your business a chance at being found.
Also, according to Statista, 48% of users begin searching for products on a search engine before actually buying it.
So yes, users totally use the internet to find companies and products. Why not make them find yours?
2. Trust
What if I told you all your other marketing efforts are nearly going to waste without a blog?
So, you’ve put up big hoardings and neon lights around the city? Throughout the whole country maybe? Well, you do know what’s the first thing people do when they hear about a new brand/company/service, right?
They Google it! Obviously. Without a blog, chances of you being found on the web are slim. That’s just how SEO works. Less blog posts equal less keywords, less keywords equal less ranked pages which equals you being found less!
So, imagine you search for “company X” on Google, and nothing comes up. Or, a one-page website pops up. Will you trust the company? Purchase something off them? Probably not.
I did read somewhere that websites with a “blog” generate 126% more leads than those without one. Now, if that’s not a major reason to have business blogs, I’m not sure what is.
3. Control
Did you know 55% of people search for reviews and recommendations before making a purchase?
So, when they search for “Your product + review”, would you let independent reviewers control the fate of your company? Or, would you bring those searches to your own blog, and then redirect them to reviews handpicked by you?
Do note that it’s of utmost importance that you only show the real reviews, from real users. But, at least you can choose which reviews your users see, right?
On a more serious and common note, it also helps with minimizing negativity. Imagine one of your products or services fail. Or, just get a lot of backslash in the media/social media/news or just on other blogs.
A blog post is actually one of the easiest way to share your side of the story. Put forth your points, solutions, suggestions or reforms. And, because it’ll be on your official business blog, it’ll often be quickly picked by news agencies and magazines.
This in turn results in more publicity, even though somewhat negative. A wise man once said, “there’s no such thing as bad publicity”.
It’s cheaper than a press conference, and often more effective.
4. Establish authority
How can a “blog”, create “authority”? Right? Hey, I get it. That’s a legitimate question. Well, I’ll get you real-life examples to answer that very question.
Take a look at this blog post from Visme. It does quite a few things. For starters, it educates readers on Infographic creation. Then, it promotes itself subtly, in a very professional, non-pushy manner. And finally, it used graphics created using Visme throughout the article, to showcase the possibilities and potential.
It even offers an “embed link” which will get it tons of free backlinks. We’ll talk of that later.
For now, any reader reading the post will likely be tempted to start using Visme right away. Because? Visme taught them how to do that!
Now, imagine you own product X. Creating blog posts on the topic will establish you as an authority in the industry.
It may not be right away, but, eventually people will tend to respond more to your brand than your competitors. Because? They’ve learnt something from you.
5. Make free sales
I’d like to continue the point above.
Visme established itself as an authority, and gave readers a solution to their problems in the blog post, right?
Now, this post individually receives 500+ organic traffic from search engines each month! That’s 500 hits without paying a single penny.
(How do I know that? SEMrush! It’s a magic wand which shows me almost any information, for any domain, including its ad campaigns, budget and everything else, for free!)
Now, even in the worst months, I bet at least 10 people sign up for Visme out of those 500? That’s the minimum, right?
Now, that’s 10 customers/month Visme would’ve missed if they didn’t have this blog post.
And hey, that’s just 1 blog post. The actual Visme blog gets nearly 1million hits/month! Again, even at a 1% conversion rate, that’s 10,000 new sales/signups everyday!
That gets you an idea of why blogging is important, right? If you agree, even with 0 blogging knowledge, you can setup your blog in the next 15 minutes with this step-by-step guide on how to start a blog.
Need more reasons to start blogging for business in 2022? Well, keep reading.
6. Get more backlinks
So, a blog only works if people find what’s posted there. People only find what’s posted there if the blog post ranks. And, it only ranks if it has backlinks (although, nearly a hundred different factors matter as well).
Backlinks are basically “links” to your blog/website/URL, from other websites.
Also, backlinks matter for your overall reputation. Meaning, without the right number of backlinks, you may not even rank for your brand keyword (company name).
Now, people hate handing out free backlinks. Why would someone link to you for free?
This is where a blog saves your life. Need real-life examples? You’ve already seen them! I’ve linked to quite a few reports, blog posts and stats right on this page, haven’t I?
Why did I do that? Because, they published quality content. Content that deserved sharing, was well-researched and helped me establish my points.
Long story short, blogs help you get more backlinks = rank for your keywords = reap all the other benefits of blogging for business in 2022.
7. More exposure
By “exposure”, I mean people getting to know your brand/business or company. Again, it’s linked to the backlinks (no pun intended) we just discussed.
So, when another page links to you, you get introduced to the audience of that page.
It’s almost like free marketing. Just like you’ve seen happen multiple times on this page. I assure you I’ve not been paid by any of the companies mentioned above in any way.
Their blog posts, articles, links were just useful for this article, and hence I linked to them.
As a result, you got introduced to Visme, Hubspot and other companies, didn’t you?
The same can happen with you. If your blog posts contain quality content, others will link to you. It’ll not only help you rank your own keywords/blog posts, but also get direct traffic/exposure.
And, this isn’t just about backlinks. If you really write a quality article, it’ll get shared multiple times over. Direct article sharing means everyone it’s shared to will see the article.
Now, these shares have a much better click-through rate. Simply because anyone who shares them anywhere, generally has a social circle.
Wouldn’t you click on a link if your friend shares it on social media or DMs you on Whatsapp? Not always maybe, but, mostly you would, right?
8. Collect E-mails (and turn them into money)
This is me putting it mildly. The “Emails” I’m referring to here are actually a lot more than “just emails”.
Anyway, for starters, a blog will help you collect E-mails of your visitors. Almost every blog, be it for business or pleasure tries to collect E-mails (even I do).
The reason is simple. You then have a way to reach your visitors. Obviously, not every visitor on your blog will purchase your products.
This is why, you can pitch them later. With the right outreach campaign, you can turn those E-mails into a million dollar business. Am I exaggerating?
According to a survey, E-mail lists generate $38.00 for every $1.00 spent! I’ll be honest, this is an old report. But, even in 2022, I’d say E-mails still have an easy 10-12x return, as long as they’re done right.
In fact, those who receive E-mails are happier with mails than with ads themselves! See? No love lost there.
Now, E-mail marketing is a whole science in itself. But, for now, I’ll just say that collecting E-mails will help you make more money, period.
9. Reconnect with lost leads
With traditional marketing, you can’t “reconnect”. This is one of the biggest benefits of blogging for business . And, of E-mail collection.
There’s tech today that can help you identify users who (almost) converted. Those who looked at specific products, or clicked at specific sections of your website. Even those who added items to cart and left without a purchase.
Point is, you can target these leads directly via E-mails. If your product is of quality, and you do the E-mail right, these users who may have forgotten about you, may actually come back and convert!
Will users engage? Does E-mail marketing still work in 2022? Well, here’s something for you:
This data is from Hubspot, and it clearly proves E-mail marketing isn’t dead! If anything, it’s just getting “better”.
10. Personalization
A blog lets you reach your visitors on a personal level. Every comment that’s posted on your blog generally has a name attached to it.
You can directly tag the person. Or, if you do your research right, you can actually find the person’s special dates and other personal info, and use it to connect better and make them feel special.
It’s 2022. No one cares if you’ve launched the cheapest, best time travel machine. You need to actually care about your customers. And, a blog makes just that possible.
On another front, remember those E-mails you collected? You can craft a single, conversion-optimized E-mail template, and send it to millions of users. It’ll be auto-personalized with the right data for each receiver. (You may need to use E-mail marketing tools for this).
If you’re still not convinced, well, 68% of business firms have actually prioritized personalization. So, it can’t be all a waste now, right?
11. Lifelong benefits, all of them
One of the biggest benefits of blogging for business that I can share with you is, it’s “permanent”.
Meaning, you publish a blog post today. This blog post will keep earning you traffic, and leads and sales forever.
Just like I explained in the VIsme example, traffic from multiple blog posts will grow. First into the hundreds, then thousands, then hundred thousands and then millions.
The blog posts require almost no maintenance. However, updating them over time sure helps retain your ranking position or rank better. Point is, it’s a “one-time” investment, with lifetime returns. Quite the deal, wouldn’t you agree?
12. Gather feedback
Suppose you do a blog post for every new product/service/feature launch. This will let your customers offer their feedback on each of these elements.
The feedback will no doubt help you improve. However, for the user, the fact that they can voice their opinions and will be heard is what matters.
Would you go with a company which doesn’t care what you have to say? Or, a company which offers you a platform to share your experiences and concerns?
I mean, there aren’t many other feedback-gathering modes you can use which are as easy as a blog, right?
So, those were some of the benefits of blogging for business right off the bat. Now, let’s get to the practical, eh?
What (and how much) you need to have a business blog?
Actually, almost nothing!
You only need a domain registrar to start! Buying a domain is easier than shopping on Amazon or Walmart, it truly is.
Worried about the cost? Well, a blog wouldn’t cost more than $1.50/month if you do it right! That I believe is almost the same as being “free”. Right? Here are some of the best cheap web hosting providers to help you do that.
Final thoughts- benefits of blogging for business in 2022
By now, I hope you have atleast some idea of what are the benefits of a blog for business, don’t you?
Well, a blog is basically an asset by itself. How you use it is totally up to you. Imagine this like owning a piece of real estate, on the Internet. Cause, that’s exactly what it is.
Do note that these were only a fraction, a minor fraction of the actual business blog benefits. There’s no limit to how you can use a blog to your advantage.
All in all, without doubt there are countless benefits of blogging for business in 2022. And, you should start right away.