How Blogging Gets You Customers

You have to give to receive. These 6 words sum up “How Blogging Gets You Customers”.

You need to give and be present online to receive confidence and business from customers and the way that is done is through blogging.

Here are 5 reasons why blogging will net you customers through your Internet marketing efforts.

1) It Opens Your "Virtual" Doors

Just like a brick and mortar business unlocks their door every day, businesses that have more than a local reach, need to open their doors online. The first way that blogging gets you customers is it shows you are open for business.

You want potential customers to know that you are an active and engaged business and if you don’t have a blog with current posts, potential online customers may question if you are still relevant or even open for business.

We have all stumbled across websites where we wonder whether or not the business it represents is still viable. A blog with current posts proves you are open for business which means you’ve knocked down the first barrier to entry with potential customers.

2) It Educates Your Prospective Customers

The second way that blogging gets you customers is that it allows you to be seen as a trusted resource in your target markets. You’re reading the HubSpot blog so you are probably familiar with inbound marketing. My colleague Abby said it best in a inbound marketing explanation blog post, “With inbound marketing, it doesn’t matter which company has the largest budget, but instead the one who offers the best answer.”

A blog is the way to provide answers. Take your frequently asked questions (FAQs) and turn them into blog posts. Once a potential customer sees you as a resource, they are much more likely to consider you when they are considering buying the product or service you provide. Also a bonus, you may save your salesmen some time in the sales process because the prospect already knows the answers to your FAQs.

3) It Helps You Get Found (While Saving Advertising Dollars)

The third way blogging gets you customers is it improves your visibility on Google, also known as SEO. The search engine optimization (SEO) benefits of blogging make it a no brainer. Google and other search engines are constantly monitoring for new content and adjusting rank accordingly. If you don’t have fresh and relevant content on your website, you won’t keep a good ranking for long or get one to begin with.

As marketers we know that much of the buying decision is made before a potential customer actually contacts a business. Where do you think they are doing their research? Online! If you are ranked well for the keyword a potential customer is searching, you can be part of that buying decision research. The way to rank well for the keyword is to write about it on your blog.

A high ranking also means you can spend less money on search engine advertising such as Google Adwords. If you are showing up organically for keywords, you don’t need to pay to advertise on them. Get customers without spending more and maybe even spend less money!

4) It Fills Your Sales Funnel

Finally, blogging gets you customers by filling the top of the funnel. It is key that every blog post has a call-to-action (CTA). Use your blog posts to promote content for download, demos, etc. Convert those blog readers to leads; get them in the funnel. Give first through the blog so then you can receive permission to contact them when they download a piece of content or request a demo through the blog’s CTA.

Also, you can learn a lot about a prospect by the content they are reading on your blog. Use that data to tailor your communication and move the prospect down the funnel to a sale.

5) It Really Works

BrightPlanet is a data-as-a-service (DaaS) company specializing in harvesting and enriching Deep Web content. Because they do business all over the world and have a small team, they wanted to turn to Internet marketing to help market their products and services and generate leads.

What BrightPlanet does is complicated, and it needed to be made more accessible to potential prospects. BrightPlanet identified common questions they receive and began to write blog posts that would answers those questions.

In 12 months, visits to the website increased over 300%, visits from organic search increased 1,500% and BrightPlanet accumulated over 2,000 online leads from content they created. View the complete inbound marketing case study.

Get Started Today

Every website should have a blog. A blog allows you to open your doors and prove you’re open for business, educate potential customers, be found organically on search, and fill your funnel with prospects.

As we approach the holiday season, giving may be on your mind. Bring that spirit of giving to your marketing through a blog. Give through your blog so you can receive customer confidence and business.