In our experience, we noticed that most companies and organizations that are in the B2B industry UNDERESTIMATE the value of having a company blog. Why? They say: "My customers and/or prospects don't read blogs." Is this the case? Let’s consider some facts about blogging:

• Companies that blog have 55% more website visitors (Hubspot)

• B2B companies that blog get 67% more leads per month than those that don’t (InsideView)

• 81% of US consumers trust advice and information from blogs (ignitespot)

• 61% of US consumers have made a purchase based on a blog post (ignitespot)

Do you still think B2B companies shouldn’t blog? A blog is a long-term marketing asset that will bring TRAFFIC and LEADS to your business. It introduces you as a thought leader in your industry and allows you to earn consumer’s trust. Your blog has to be well-optimized, promoted, rich with content and most importantly constant.

In this blog, we seek to draw the big picture that highlights the benefits of B2B blogging and the reasons why you need to STOP IGNORING these stats. We will elaborate on 3 different ways through which your blog can bring you marketing success, from expanding your visibility on the web, through creating a strong influence in the industry, to effectively capturing new leads.

First, Be Found.

The frequency of publishing blog posts is an essential element in having a successful blog. According to the State of Inbound, businesses that blog 16 to 20 times per month get over two times more traffic than those that blog fewer than four times per month.

The other essential element of attracting more traffic through organic search is optimizing your blog posts. Make sure your blog titles incorporate industry keywords that people enter in search engines as they conduct research.

Business blogging helps you in respect to search engine optimization (SEO). The more blog posts you publish, the more indexed pages you create for search engines to display in their results. Thus, allowing you to ATTRACT ORGANIC TRAFFIC and familiarize consumers with your business.

Second, Be a Thought Leader.

Use your blog as a platform to showcase your expertise on a given subject. Inject your knowledge of the industry into your blog posts, and make a clear distinction between your brand and your competition.

Name the biggest problem your customers have. With that problem in mind, write a detailed blog post that provides practical and non-product focused solutions. Solve your customers’ problems with content.

Your blog is an asset that positions you as a thought leader. So if you have some industry-specific information to share, a blog will help you earn people’s trust and stay top-of-mind for many in your community.

Third, Generate Leads.

A blog gives you valuable real estate to place calls-to-action (CTA) in order to GENERATE LEADS.  You can place calls-to-action within the blog post itself, at the beginning, middle or end of the article.

Another possible placement of calls-to-action is the sidebar of your blog. You can create banners to advertise some of your top-performing offers (valuable content assets) and add them around your blog for visitors to click on.

At this stage, you are trying to retain your blog readers and engage them further with your website and your content. So you might ask them to attend your webinar or download a free guide that you have. Calls-to-action introduce your prospects into the buying process and start qualifying them.

Blogging is a marketing asset strongly related to attracting high-quality traffic and generating new leads. Yet the impact of business blogging extends to several major marketing benefits that companies often overlook.  But, how often should you blog? How do you optimize your blogs? How do I create and place CTAs? As any other marketing initiative, blogging is time consuming and requires not only time, but also creativity and strategy.  Consider partnering with an online agency to ensure you are creating the RIGHT CONTENT and optimizing for the RIGHT KEYWORDS to attract the RIGHT TRAFFIC.

Do you have a blog? What impact has it had in your business? We welcome your comments and opinions below! Stay tuned for our next blog on how you can brainstorm ideas to generate content for your blog posts.