A lot of people are investing time and money into business blogging these days – we’re certainly a huge example of blogging devotion. So when we found this great business blogging infographic from Helen Nesterenko over at Writtent filled with great information and facts on blogging for business, we just knew we had to share it! Here’s why we think this blogging infographic is just the bees knees.
Blogging is one of the most widely used marketing techniques
That’s right, one of the most widely used! This relatively new trend has caught on quickly with marketers – business blogging budgets have tripled over the last 3 years from a meek 9% to a solid 21%. And not only is the budgeting team on board. 59% of businesses have invested in or started a new blog, 73% of businesses have used blogging as a marketing technique, and a whopping 81% of marketers consider blogging a useful marketing technique.
Popular things are usually popular for a reason. People love cheese because it’s delicious. Kids love Harry Potter movies because they’re magical. Society loves Rihanna because…well, I did say usually. There are definitely a few great reasons that blogs are so popular among marketers and business owners though.
How Blogging Influences Your Customers
Why do US internet users spend three times more time visiting blogs and social media sites than they do using their own email? Because modern consumers want to be educated. Gone are the days when companies and advertisers could simply assert a message and the public would immediately buy into it. With the growth of the internet, we now have access to expert opinions and reviews that were, in the past, far harder to come by. When your business contends that you’re an expert in your field by business blogging, not only do you increase SEO and web presence, you increase your ability to turn potential customers into actual customers.
As the Writtent infographic shows, blog visitors are pretty easily influenced by what they see online:
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19% of blog visitors refine their choices based on what they’ve read
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19% of visitors use blogs for support and answers to questions
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17% of visitors say they discover new products and services in blog articles
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14% say they get assurance to buy after reading about the product on a blog
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13% of visitors are inspired by blogs
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7% of visitors actually buy directly from the blogs they read
Having a blog of your own increases your chances of attracting and delighting visitors like those above! And the best part is that the time, effort, and money that go into producing company blogs are far more minimal than that of producing more intensive promotional materials.
Blogging and Traffic
Blogging is an easy way to grow traffic on your company’s website. The more sites you have listed by Google, the better opportunity you have for web searchers to stumble upon your blog and your product. If you need a boost in traffic, your best bet is business blogging.
Better yet, if you want a huge spike in internet traffic, blogging is also a great way to achieve your goal! The more blogging, the better. Businesses report receiving 59% more traffic on average after doubling their number of blog articles from 100 to 200. While those numbers may look really intimidating to a novice blogger, you don’t have to pump out 200 blogs overnight. If you can take an hour out of each day to blog, you’ll see a drastic increase in web traffic. Businesses who blog 20 times a month get 5 times more traffic than those who only blog 4 times a month, so make sure you really stick to your goals here!
Blogging and Leads
Business blogging is a great way for every kind of company to get more and better leads. Both B2B and B2C companies have seen a drastic increase in leads; B2B companies who blog receive 70% more leads and B2C companies who blog receive 88% more leads than those who don’t.
Also, when you choose to take the time to business blog rather than simply pay for clicks, the quality of your leads will be better as well!
Blogging and New Customers
Blogging can certainly help you to increase sales, but it can help you also to increase sales from new customers! 78% of businesses who blog at least once a day have acquired customers through their blog alone. And if you’re willing to really ramp up your productivity and blog multiple times a day, you can join the 92% of businesses who acquire customers through their blog.
