In the fast paced world of online marketing we are told that consumer attention spans are diminishing rapidly. In fact they could now be as low as 1.2 seconds. This is good news for social media sites like Pinterest, YouTube and Twitter which are based around either visual stimulus or speedy information. As much as these sites are great at presenting your creativity, company message and information in a different way can they replace the beauty of blogging?

In short, it seems the answer is no. Currently 86% of leading influencers are blogging, and 60% of consumers are making “big-buy” decisions without ever having seen a sales-rep. What does this mean? Essentially it means that most consumers are now finding out everything they need to know about the company and product online and by the time they actually contact the company they are “sales-ready”.

Blogging is a great compliment to your website. The essential information should all be on your site but what blogging does is allow to provide your customers with added-value content i.e. something great and useful for free that will secure you in their minds as knowledgeable and the “go-to” company for that area. However, it is vital to point out that blogging is not hard-selling. Absolutely none of your online audience is interested in spending their time reading an elaborate sales pitch disguised as a blog.

There are many advantages to blogging for your business. On the technical side blogging will help your ranking with Google for a few reasons. Firstly, because you’ll be blogging on your subject area or products and services you are likely to keep hitting your key terms for SEO, therefore helping your site to move up the rankings for those terms. Secondly, blogging provides a consistent stream of fresh content, which is another tick for Google. Thirdly, blogging encourages link-building both back into your own website and out to other sites. Your blogs in turn may well be referenced by other websites and this is a big plus for Google and counts as high-value link building.

Technical bits aside having a blog is great for you and your customers. It gives you the capacity to show your knowledge and expertise therefore allowing your customer to read a bit about what you can do before they choose to do business with you. You can use blogging to tackle some FAQs surrounding your area and provide potential customers with answers to their questions. Making things easy for your audience and providing them with valuable content will ensure that they bear you in mind when they are ready to buy. Another great way to use your blog is to offer expert opinion on current affairs that are relevant to your area. These types of blogs can prove incredibly popular as people will be searching for the key terms in Google that will flag up in your blog.

There are almost no disadvantages to blogging for business. As our networking, sales, marketing and business transactions all move increasingly towards being online it’s important to make sure that your voice is getting heard. Having the time to blog can be a hurdle and you may benefit from outsourcing the blogs – but don’t worry this doesn’t mean that you lose the integrity of the blogging, you will be able to brief the author as to what you want and still be able to provide your customers with great high-value content.

If you would like to find out more about blogging services click here

Find out how to start your company blog in our next blog post “How to start a Business blog”.