7 Top Benefits of Blogging And Why It’s Important to Building Your Brand in 2021

The benefits of blogging to build your brand are numerous. A sound blogging strategy will increase brand awareness, search engine optimization (SEO), social media engagement and customer counts.

If your brand does not already have a blog, it’s time.

HubSpot reports B2B marketers who use blogs receive 67% more leads than those who do not, and marketers who have prioritized blogging are 13x more likely to enjoy positive ROI.

While all of this is positive news, many brands have trouble with determining how to start a blog.

The benefits of blogging come from sharing your knowledge and experience.

Get Focused – Your Target Audience is Important

The first step is to establish your target audience. This way it will be easier to generate content which resonates and increases followers. Start by writing about a niche category — something you know and are passionate about that is related to your business. Use your knowledge and experiences to create interesting posts.

Write about a topic that will appeal directly to your audience. Don’t be afraid to take risks and try new things. The key is to be adventurous and to write with personality. Compelling content is one of the top 3 reasons people follow companies on social media. Relatable writing is what attracts readers.

7 Benefits of Blogging When It Comes to Building Your Brand

Not only does blogging build brand awareness, it drives traffic to your website through researched keyword content that increases engagement. Blogging drives growth by giving your brand the ability to:

1. Improve your website ranking with Google.
2. Use keywords that include questions and topics that resonate with your prospects and customers –  embedding this keyword research in the the copy will drive traffic to your website.
3. Post content regularly and often – this increases organic traffic by giving your customers and prospects a reason to keep coming back to your website.
4. Establish your brand as a thought leader in your category —  sharing useful knowledge that is beneficial to your target audience’s needs and motivations, will create a loyal following.
5. Integrate with your social media channels –  compelling posts highlighting your blog will drive your following back to your website – those backlinks will help your SEO rank.
6. Attract audiences that may have not heard of your brand – blogging is powerful and is rated as the 5th most reliable source of information on the internet.
7. Increase sales – research shows that 63% of consumers have purchased items because they were recommended in a blog post.

There has been discussion that blogging may be dead, but a look at these 2021 blogging statistics from Optinmonster, say otherwise.

Benefits of Blogging Statistics 2021

1. Each month, approximately 409 million people view more than 20 billion pages.
2. There are about 70 million posts being published each month by WordPress users.
3. 77 million new blog comments are generated by readers each month.
4. Websites that also have a blog are shown to have 434% more indexed pages.
5. SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads (such as direct mail or print advertising) have a 1.7% close rate.
6. 72% of online marketers describe content creation as their most effective SEO tactic.
7. Companies who blog get 97% more links to their websites.
8. Blogs have been rated as the 5th most trustworthy source for gathering online information.
9. 66% of bloggers today are publishing a few times per month (it was a few times per week in 2014).
10. 77% of internet users read blogs.
11. Internet users in the US spend 3X more time on blogs than they do on email.

Don’t Rush Your Blog – Quality Not Quantity

Writing can be a lengthy process. Don’t feel the need to rush through a post to produce more content. Quality always comes over quantity. Whether it’s a few times per week or twice a month, your posts should be written with care. Make sure you also take time to edit and proofread your work for any spelling or grammar mistakes.

Once you are posting, set up a realistic schedule where you can maintain readers, but aren’t restricted by time. If you feel that you can’t post on your scheduled time, make sure you let your audience know.

Captivate Your Audience

Engaging with your audience can tremendously boost your growth by showing readers that you care. Taking the time to respond to comments and answering questions can help establish a great relationship between you and your community.The title and introduction of your posts are very significant to gaining interest. Try to find ways to produce a headline that would appeal directly to your target audience. Complement the headline with an intriguing introduction to your topic.

Fill the beginning of your posts with interesting vocabulary, literary devices, jokes, or anything to lure further interest. Follow up by introducing your topic in a meaningful and impactful way. Configuring your ideas effectively into the first paragraph will be the deciding factor in whether a person stays or bounces off your page.

Break up your paragraphs. Anyone that sees one long paragraph will be instantly put off. Use subheadings to organize your points and other content. Writing formatted into wide columns is hard to follow and doesn’t look good.

Researching your topic will maximize the content available. Add links for readers to follow, providing context or examples that reinforce your points. Adding in pictures and videos is also a great way to make your blog more visually appealing and will enhance the reader’s experience.

Research shows that colour and visuals, including graphics and video in content are shown to have increased viewers’ interest by 80%. Anything relevant to your topic can be included in your post to complement your work. You should want readers to leave your site with a sense of satisfaction and enthusiasm.

Leverage Your Blog Benefits

Use your blog to attract more customers! Creating leads and promotion in your posts can greatly influence your brand. Don’t write posts that come across as a sales oriented. This is a big mistake. Instead offer information that is not only useful to the reader, but can also be entertaining or inspiring.

Over 70% of people learn about different companies through articles instead of ads. Putting out reasonable and effective leads while maintaining your relationship with the customer is much more effective than featuring commercial advertisements.

A call-to-action (CTA) is a very useful method in generating leads and customers for your business. At the end of every post, insert a suggestion or CTA button for the reader to take next steps. Take into account that an effective CTA should be beneficial to you as well as your reader, and should also stay relevant to the topic at hand.

Test and measure your blog through tools such as Google Analytics and social media to figure out what content works best.

Getting Your Blog The Traction It Needs – SEO 

After your blog has been set up you need to post regularly. Planning your release times to captivate your target audience is also important. You won’t be able to realize the benefits of blogging in terms of gaining traction unless you promote it on social media, especially if you already have a large following. Posting updates and news about your blog on social media will dramatically increase traffic to your site.

SEO also plays a big part in how successful your blog becomes. As much of the internet is accessed via mobile devices, making your website mobile-friendly will significantly increase accessibility. According to Oberlo, Google processes over 3.5 billion searches per day. Well over half of those searches come from mobile devices.

Add relevant keywords and links to your posts to improve SEO and make it more likely to have prospects stumble across your page. Don’t hesitate to feature guest contributors on your site; the more well known, the better. Networking with other writers or social influencers can create higher engagement rates, leading to better notoriety to build your brand awareness.

When it comes to the long-term benefits of blogging, it is important to create “evergreen content.”  This is content that doesn’t have an expiry date. This will become timeless information that is helpful now, or years from now, and will also help with search and rank.

Now that you have all the tools you need to produce a successful and beneficial blog, you can get typing!  Be creative and have fun with it!

To learn more about how the benefits of how a blogging strategy can help build your brand, please contact us here.