Blogging is not a new phenomenon but it can be a powerful guerrilla marketing weapon. If your business isn’t blogging, it should. If you have a blog and you are regularly posting to it, you may be neglecting an important aspect of your marketing program.
If you don’t have a blog, get one. They’re easy to start and, in true guerrilla fashion, there are many, many free blog platforms and templates that are available. You don’t need a webmaster. All you need is a computer and Internet access. Do this: Conduct a Google search for “create a free blog.” Some of the more popular blog hosting sites include wordpress.com, blogger.com, blogspot.com and typepad.com.
But why does your business need a blog? A blog provides a great channel through which you can communicate with your customers. It provides a forum where you can establish yourself as an expert and also as a resource for your customers. Today before they buy, customers are more likely to do Internet searches and research to learn about products and services. A blog with a good quantity of business-relevant content will give your customers and prospects another reason to check into your products and services.
The blog also helps you to establish a relationship with your marketplace. Marketing is about relationship building. You need regular and frequent contact with your customers and prospects to build that relationship. It has been shown that people are more likely to buy from people they know and trust. Your blog is one marketing weapon that can be used to develop that relationship.
If you still aren’t convinced about the importance of blogging, there is some statistical evidence that shows blogging can actually increase the number of leads for businesses. According to HubSpot’s blog, the more pages that your business has indexed by Google, the more leads will be generated. In fact, Hubspot claims that “an incremental 50 to 100 indexed pages can cause double-digit lead growth.”
How do you increase the number of web pages? Post articles to your blog.
Another Hubspot blog article asks, “How Many Posts Does Your Business Blog Need to Grow Leads? At Least 20“. Blogs with 20+ articles show more commitment to content creation. HubSpot states that blogs that hit a critical mass of 20-50 articles generate more traffic from referring sites while sites with 52+ articles see leads increase by 77%.
The number of blog articles is key to generating leads. In fact, HubSpot states that companies with 10 or fewer blog articles generate the same number of leads as companies that choose not to blog.
If you are just getting started blogging, you can’t expect to plow 50 articles into your blog in a week. It will take time and commitment. Start out by writing maybe one or two blog articles a week. Be sure to let your customers know about the article by email or by Tweeting it to people. You can also let people know about your blog through LinkedIn and Facebook. The key is to get started. Over time, you may be able to begin cranking out an article every day. If that is just too much, you can go to sites like elance.com and hire someone to write blog articles for you for a reasonable price. You may have an employee or family member who can write effective articles.
Creating blog articles adds website pages which allows you to grow the number of indexed pages in Google. The more pages that you have indexed in Google. More indexed pages in Google means more leads for you. More leads mean more sales.
