Most business owners think blogging is a waste of time.
And they are right because it is only when done correctly that blogging for a business can be a great strategy to attract, educate, and convert strangers into clients without leaving the comfort of your home (or office if you don’t work from home).
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Common myths about blogging for a business
Here are some of the pitfalls that might lead you to think that blogging is a waste of time and money:
Blogging is easy: Just because you are an expert at what you do doesn’t mean that you know how to communicate so in a way that is easy for people to understand. Writing blogs is a skill that even most good writers don’t possess. It’s a whole different game, and you need to learn the rules if you want to have a successful blog.
Blogging is outdated: Yes, the “boom” of blogging has likely passed. It’s likely that the hottest form of content marketing right now is video. Yet, that doesn’t mean that there is no value in blogging. It just means that you must create higher-quality blogs to stay relevant (especially with the growth of AI tools like ChatGPT).
Blogging is expensive: Only when your expectations are not aligned with reality. If you think that a $150 blog is going to help you attract clients, then I can see why you think it is expensive. You’ve probably paid for a bunch of cheap blogs, but you are not getting results, which is why you think it is expensive.
My baseline rate for a blog is $1,500; paradoxically, the $150 is more expensive. Because all my blogs deliver a positive ROI, and the $150 blogs usually don’t.
Blogging is only for writers: Blogging is for people who want to serve the reader. Period. And yes, you need to develop a certain skill set to write great blogs. But as an expert in your field, you might not have the time to start from scratch and learn how to blog. That’s where a ghostwriter comes in. Many of the best business blogs you read were not written by the experts featured as the writers (just as some of the best speeches are not written by those who deliver these, and some of the best songs are not written by those who interpret them).
Keep in mind that a blog is basically any form of written communication that is published online. When you hear the word “blog,” you might picture a college student writing on their website about their favorite video game, or a fit dude traveling around the world and blogging about their nomadic lifestyle, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Some of the most relevant professional organizations in the world, such as the World Economic Forum, have a blog. Articles, opinion pieces, essays, white papers, ebooks, and case studies could all be considered “blogs,” depending on how these are formatted online.
If you are willing to invest in blogs, it could change how you do business. I know because it has done so for my clients and for myself.
In this blog, I will share with you how you can use blogs to save time and make more money by implementing a content strategy that helps you attract, educate, and convert strangers into clients.
Yes, I know, it’s like the Inception of blogs—a blog about the value of blogs.
We will focus on three key steps.
- How to pick the best topics for your business blog
- How to write great business blogs
- How to measure and track the performance of your business blogs
Is blogging good for business?
Blogging is good for business when done correctly.
In my case, it helps me save at least $10,000 each month on advertising that I would have to pay for if I wanted to generate the amount of organic traffic I get for my website.
It also helps me save a ton of time because I don’t need to do any prospecting. I only schedule calls with people close to deciding about investing in content to grow their business (If you ever schedule a call with me, you’ll see how I use blogs to help determine if we are a good fit).
This is the exact same result I generate for my clients. You can learn more about these types of results by reading Phi’ls testimonial, or many others on our testimonials page.
But don’t take my word for it. Here are some stats that show the value of blogging:
- “Companies with blogs produce an average of 67% more leads monthly than companies that don’t blog.” (DemandMetric)
- “Businesses that blog get 55% more website visitors than businesses that don’t.” (HubSpot)
- “Blogging is the third most common content marketing strategy, after video and eBooks.” (HubSpot)
- “Marketers who prioritized blogging received 13X more ROI than companies that did not in 2019.” (HubSpot)
10 Blog Benefits for Business
Making more money is only one of the top blog benefits for businesses. A great blog strategy can allow you to:
- Shorten your sales cycle
- Start selling digital products
- Drive the growth of your email list
- Train new employees on existing processes
- Get invited as an expert to speak at podcasts
- Generate clients in different states or countries
- Become the go-to expert in your industry or niche
- Help you answer frequently asked questions asynchronously
- Minimize the number of calls needed to convert prospects into clients
- Turn your website into an asset that can be given a valuation if you ever decide to sell your business
How often should you blog for business?
Marcus Sheridan, the author and creator of the “They Ask, You Answer” methodology, recommends writing at least 3 blogs weekly for your business.
Depending on the size of your business, 12 blogs per month might sound like too much or too little. My recommendation is always to write blogs with a clear goal.
Every blog should help you in attracting clients or opportunities, educating prospects or employees, or converting readers into clients.
You should always have a clear success metric for each blog you write and a way to measure it.
This brings us to the three steps I promised at the beginning of the blog.
1) How to pick valuable blog topics
When you are getting started blogging for a business, I recommend using blogs to attract, educate, and convert your ideal clients.
Later on, you can use them for other purposes. But it’s key to start generating a positive ROI on your blog investment so that you can create momentum.
Here are the three questions I ask my clients, and myself, before writing a blog:
- Is this topic relevant to my buyers?
- When in the buyer’s journey would someone need this information?
- How would a buyer search or ask for this information?
- Is a blog the best format to share this information?
As you can see, I use the word “buyer” instead of “audience.” Unless you have a ton of money in the back, you need to turn your readers into clients as soon as possible. This is why I focus on buyers first.
Later on, you can expand and start creating blogs that target top-of-the-funnel topics about people who are not even aware they have a problem you can help them solve. But you should only do this after you’ve been able to bring in new clients through your blogging efforts consistently.
Also, after all of these questions have been answered, I use a content sandbox and keyword research to prioritize blog topics. For example, when I was writing this blog I had several options.
One option was to write about “blogging for a business,” and another was to write about “blogging services for small businesses.” Both of these are similar topics. Below are the stats for each keyword:
Blogging for a business
- 1,900 monthly searches
- Keyword value of $2.95 per click
- Search difficulty of 11
Blogging services for small businesses
- 10 monthly searches
- Keyword value of $21 per click
- Search difficulty of 43
From these stats, I can see that those who search for “blogging services for small businesses” are likely closer to making a buying decision because of the $21 per click value. Yet, the lower search difficulty and much higher monthly search volume made me prioritize “blogging for a business.”
The truth is that I’ll end up writing about both. But these are the kind of decisions you will have to make if you have a limited budget to invest in blogging for your business.
2) How to write high-quality blogs
The best blogs out there are a combination of education, inspiration, and entertainment. Also, they are as thorough as needed.
A long blog doesn’t necessarily mean high-quality content. You always want your blogs to contain the minimum amount of information that is needed to cover the topic. In some cases, that might be 1,000 words. In other cases, it might be 5,000 words.
Also, you want to make sure that you are following the rules of online writing, which do not always align with the rules of general writing (and some people struggle with this, which is why their blogs don’t do well).
Here are some of the elements that you will likely see in high-quality blogs:
- They make a clear promise (what will you get if you read it)
- They organize the information in a digestible way
- Not many big paragraphs
- Bulleted lists whenever possible
- Include images whenever possible
- Clear calls to action related to the information that is being covered
3) How to measure and track blog success
There are different opinions on what makes a high-quality blog. The truth is that the best blogs are the ones that accomplish their objectives.
For that reason, you should have a clear goal for each blog you write and a way to track it. We create dashboards for our clients, and for ourselves so that we can track variables such as:
- Impressions
- Keyword ranking
- Clicks
- Engagement rate
Different blogs will have different measures of success. For example, the goal of this blog is to attract new potential clients. Essentially, I want this blog to rank at the top of Google searches related to “blogging for a business.”
If the blog doesn’t rank (I can check that through Google Search Console), it means that the other competitors are providing better information. So, until this blog ranks well, I will have to keep an eye on it and make edits.
Another example is our What to Expect from Your Complimentary Call blog. This blog will not have a ton of visits. But I want to make sure that it has a high engagement rate. Whoever checks that blog is someone who’s been thinking about scheduling a call with me.
One of the reasons people don’t schedule calls with consultants is that they think they are going to be pressured into buying. My goal with that blog is to build trust. So, if I lead people there through my book-a-call page, and the engagement rate is low, then I need to tweak the blog because I’m wasting all the efforts I’ve put into getting someone close to booking a call with me.
I know that blog will not have a ton of visits. But I want to make sure that those who do visit it, stay there, and a high percentage of them take action and schedule a call.
The key to a successful business blog is to be clear about its goal and how to measure and track its progress towards achieving its goal.
Why do many blogs fail?
Many blogs fail because the work is half-assed. This is the plain truth.
I know this because, most of the time, we look like rock stars when we start a client engagement, given that they have a ton of blogs that are underperforming.
Some of the signs of a low-quality blog are:
- 500 to 800 words
- Long URLs
- Tons of big paragraphs
- No bullet lists
- Are not optimized for SEO
- Are ranking on the second or third page of Google
And these are all great signs for us.
Because we come in, make a few edits, and the blog almost instantly starts generating results. This scenario is a low-hanging fruit because the blog was already indexed by Google and it’s faster to see results with a blog that is already indexed than starting a new blog from scratch.
The challenge with blogging is that people think that because anyone can get on their computer, write a few words, and hit publish, it’s easy to do it. And they don’t realize they are competing with professional bloggers.
Just as you wouldn’t bet on yourself if you were to jump in the ring with a professional boxer, or compete in a dance-off with Shakira, you shouldn’t bet on yourself when competing with professional bloggers.
Blogging for a business works when it is done professionally.
Why is blogging important for business?
Blogging for a business can help you save time and make more money. When you create high-quality business blogs, you can use these to attract, educate, and convert strangers into clients.
I know because blogging change the way I do business.
I used to attend a ton of networking events, conferences, be part of many professional organizations, and do coffee chats with as many people as possible to try and grow my business.
And it was exhausting. As an introvert, I can play the extrovert for a bit, but if I do it too much, all my energy is depleted.
Now, without leaving the comfort of my home office, I have been able to get new clients from different states in the United States, and different countries, all thanks for blogging.
I’ve also been able to change the trajectory of my clients’ businesses.
This is what Candyce Edelen, a social selling expert, had to stay shortly after we started working together:
“Today, we got our first fully organic registration for the Accelerator that is entirely from Google, and the conversion came directly and exclusively from the sales page. The new enrollee is a 3rd-degree connection on LinkedIn who has never interacted with us before today and was not even on our email list.”
Whenever you are ready to get started blogging for a business and want to learn more about what an investment in a high-quality blog would look like, take a look at our blog content packages.
And when you are ready to implement it for your business, book a call with me.
