Over 409 million people view more than 19.4 billion blog pages each month. If you don’t already have a blog for your business, you should. If done well, blogs will drive traffic to your website, attract prospective customers, and ultimately get you more sales.

1. Boost Your SEO
Search engines love when you regularly add fresh, quality content to your website. The more content you have on your website, the better your chances are of being found on search engines. Forbes says, “The more hooks you have in the water, the more likely you are to catch a fish.” Your rankings will improve further if you create internal links on your blog posts to other important pages of your website. Note: none of this matters unless your blog is hosted on your primary website domain (i.e. yourwebsite.com/blog).

2. Show Your Brand’s Personality
People buy from people, so why not show your customers the human side of your business? The tone of your blog posts can be helpful, inspiring, funny, revealing, or authoritative…whatever you decide, make sure it’s authentic and true to your brand.

3. Establish Yourself as an Expert in Your Field
Set yourself apart from your competitors by becoming the go-to authority in your field. Give tips and how-tos, help resolve issues, share important industry-related information, or give your opinion on current topics. You want your business to be the first one that comes to mind when people have a question. (And now that your rankings have improved, those people are more likely to stumble on your business during their online search).

4. Support Your Product
Although you don’t want to use your blog to exclusively pitch your product or service, your blog can support your sales efforts. Write about the process of how you make your product so people know how much work goes into it. Share recipes that use your product, and be sure to include a link back to the product pages on your website.

5. Enrich Your Social Media Posts
Yes, it’s a good idea to share a variety of content on your social media profiles, including links to content on other websites. However, people follow you on social media because they want to hear what you have to say. So, give it to them with links to your blog posts!

6. Create Content That’s More “Shareable”
Shared content is a version of word-of-mouth marketing. Great content can spread exponentially if re-shared over social media. Make it easy for your readers to share by adding a social networking share icons to your site, and don’t forget to post great pictures!

7. Initiate Two-Way Conversation with Your Customers
Allowing readers to comment on your blog posts lets them know that you’re open to feedback, good and bad. And knowing what’s on your customers’ minds can be very useful.

8. Improve Conversion Rates
According to HubSpot, companies that blog are 13 times more likely to generate a positive marketing ROI. You can see the correlation between businesses that blog frequently and increased customer acquisition.

9. Build Your Subscription List
Building a bigger email subscription list is important. According to Social Triggers, it’s even more important than building your social media following. Blogs drive more traffic to your website, and your list will grow if the opt-in for your subscription list is placed where people can find it. Readers will want to sign up for your newsletter if they see that you’re writing quality blog posts that they find interesting.

9½. It’s Fun!
Why only half? Truthfully, because writing a blog might not be fun 100% of the time, but don’t let that stop you from taking this step to better website traffic and increased sales!

About Sara Lancaster

Sara is The Condiment Marketing Co.’s founder and creative director. She oversees client relationships, strategic marketing plans, as well as a bit of copywriting and social media management.