Blog posts have long been touted as a worthy weapon to have in your marketing strategy. However, is this still the case or is it time to stop blogging and look for different ways to improve your marketing? 

A 2020 study on HubSpot found that 40% of people surveyed didn’t read blogs, whilst another study carried out by a Marketing Advisory Firm found that, in fact, 80% of online traffic has read a blog at some point and that they like this way of learning about a company. In the long term, blogging is still a powerful way of building up your business. So, in short, you really should still include blogging in your marketing strategy. 

What has fallen by the wayside is personal blogging. These are the blogs where people talked about day-to-day things, and chronicled their lives, their travels and their work. These have been replaced with micro-blogging on social media, so in effect, casual blogging has gone, but there is still very much use for business blogging. 

Blogging isn’t dead!

It is worth considering that whilst we mentioned above that 40% of people surveyed didn’t read blog posts, that still leaves 60% who do. They may not read every blog post a company writes but they do read some. 

People don’t necessarily follow a company’s blog posts religiously. However, when they find good writing on a subject that interests them or is relevant to their business, they will often check to see what has been blogged about. Blog posts are often a source of information and opinions that people simply can’t find elsewhere. 

Blogging as a concept has simply evolved over the years, like many other marketing strategies. It has become a new and better form of content marketing. Blogging for your business isn’t a way of making money. However, it is a way of interacting with your customers and potential customers in a way that is informative. Plus, it can often open up avenues of conversation. It is a way of showing the human side of your company that customers may not always see.

A few rules to consider for your blog posts

Make sure there is a strategy for your blog posts. This is the mainstay of any good marketing strategy and one that companies should certainly be using. When you are blogging simply for money rather than engagement, then you may find that the quality of your content simply isn’t there. You might also not be posting on a consistent basis and actually might not have enough blogs published on your site.

Don’t just have one person creating all of your blog posts, either. Your company is full of experts, so utilise some of them to create posts that will bring value to the content on your site. This might be blog posts about new products, or interesting new techniques in the industry. Just make sure that you are keeping your content fresh and vibrant.