Business owners often describe having a blog as an important channel for achieving marketing related goals. And the importance placed on blogs isn’t that shocking when you consider that they not only help to boost your SEO, overall site traffic, and online presence, but also assist prospective clients in learning more about your business, product, or service.
But, starting and running an effective blog that generates enough traffic to your website admittedly requires a lot of time and energy. And, if you’re a business owner on a tight budget, you might only be interested in marketing approaches that directly affect your bottom line. So you may be asking yourself, “will having a blog on my website really lead to sales?” To find out the answer, read on.
Do blogs lead to sales?
A study done by Research Now suggests that blogs can lead to sales, based on the following findings:
- 84% of online buyers have bought products based on descriptions they read in a blog.
- 25% of people between the ages of 25 and 34 read blogs on a daily basis.
- 2 in 3 people read blogs at least once a week.
- 1 in 4 people buy something each month thanks to a blog.
- 30% of those surveyed use blogs to confirm their choice.
- 33% use blogs to rule out options.
- 46% consult blogs to research a product.
- People between the ages of 18 and 34 consider blogs as the most important source of information prior to buying something.
The reason why blogs lead to sales
If your blog discusses your offerings, addresses and speaks to your reader’s pain points and creates some trust and credibility, all this combined could lead to purchases. Why? Because if someone trusts the advice given in your blog post, they are more likely to trust your product or service. Perhaps even see it as better quality when compared to competitors. When your business has proven that it knows what it’s talking about through blog posts, it proves that it knows what consumers want and the pain points that go along with it.
Blogs can help you to sell your products and services in ways that other content types can’t. For example, blog posts can offer extensive information without overwhelming the reader, unlike videos and social posts. And, while blog posts supply more in-depth information than other content types, they also help to increase your search ranking and provide more opportunities to link directly to a landing or purchase page.
Another benefit of having a blog is that you can embed videos, podcasts, and images within your posts to showcase your various other marketing assets, while still providing readers with information about your business.
Aside from mentioning your product or service where it feels natural in your blog posts, you can also use hyperlinks to link to certain product or service pages.
If your business sells a service or product that’s quite pricey, blog readers might need more than a few blog posts to trust your brand and invest in your product or service. In that case, you can focus on lead-nurturing rather than sending blog readers directly to a purchase page. This can be done by creating a free gated resource for readers to download, like an ebook, template, research report, etc. that can be included at the end of your blog post.
As a business owner, it’s important to keep in mind that readers will likely find your blog because they are looking for helpful information related to the industry that they work in, wish to learn more about their hobbies or because they need a solution to a pain point they are looking to resolve.
They’re more than likely not looking solely for promotional content when scrolling through your blog. And be warned, if your posts are filled with nothing but product shots and cheesy sales language, they will lose interest fast! As a result, your content won’t do the important job of creating the much-needed trust from the reader in order to make a purchase.
Conclusion
Every business’s target audience has different interests and content needs. For example, a blog strategy that involves free resources will work well to generate qualified leads for a B2B business. Whereas another strategy that involves linking a product in blog posts will work better for consumer-facing brands.
As you begin turning your blog traffic into revenue, consider the following questions:
- What information does my audience find valuable?
- Does my product or service require lead nurturing using gated offers?
- Are my blogs over-promotional to the point where they become disengaging to my audience?
