How can a blog help with marketing your business online?

Posted: Jul 03, 2011
Author: WordJack Media

I'm sure it has occurred to all of us - what value can a blog possibly bring to a website? And how can it help with marketing my business? Let's talk about 3 areas where blogs can help your marketing efforts:

A blog can bring website traffic

I wanted to get some data to back this up, so I pulled together 9 web profiole pages we'd recently done for clients of Wordjack (called "Jackpages"). I looked at those that had a blog, and those where we were yet to commence these efforts. The results (as graphed on a page views-per-day basis) indicate a higher level of traffic to the Jackpages WITH blogs (blue) compared to the ones WITHOUT blogs (red):

In addition to more page views, JackPages with blogs, received 324% as many visitors on a daily basis than for sites without blogs. So this means more people visiting (visitors), AND more click activity (page views).

But why is this?

The first thing to note is that not every blog-page will get the same levels of traffic, but on the whole, the data suggests that sites with blogs will perform stronger. I attribute this difference in traffic to:

• more to see on these sites, so visitors are encouraged to "click around"
• The basic fact that there are more pages on the site, means more useful articles that can be found by people when they are doing their research through search engines

A blog makes your business's web presence more dynamic

Upon visiting a website for the first time, nothing is more discouraging than a site that has not been updated for months! A blog tells potential customers that you are keen to engage with them on the web, and most importantly, you are still in business!

When you blog, just by virtue of creating this great information on a regular basis, you are creating "conversation starters" with potential customers. There is a greater opportunity to share this info through channels like social media and discussions with customers. You have the opportunity to help them out in their "research" phase, improving your chances to do business with them when it's time to purchase.

Web traffic is great, but how can a blog actually get me more customers?

Having your brand on the page, or a special offer to encourage people to call with more questions is perfectly acceptable. The key is to remember not to make your blog into a shameless plug for your business. Consider what "free advice" you can give your audience to help build your credibility and goodwill.