With all the hype around video content, it’s easy to think that blogging is dead, right?

But think about this for a moment:

Globally, there are over 600 million active blogs today. Equally important, Huffington Post’s blog earned $14 million in monthly revenue in 2018.

So there you have it. Blogging is alive and kicking. And yes, it’s still an important technique for your construction business.

You see, business blogging is a marketing tactic that helps your business get more online visibility, attract leads, and engage with an audience. Have no worries, we will dive deeper into the benefits of blogging.

What’s unsettling is that the majority of the people who take up blogging get dismal results.

The reason?

These individuals completely misunderstand what blogging entails. To get started, let’s first bust some of these myths.

Myths About Blogging

Blogs have been around for a while now but people still have misconceptions about them. And as you might expect, it’s time to help set the record straight. Let’s dive in.

#1. Blogging is just a fad

Blogging has been around for decades. It’s not something you do just because everyone else is doing it. A blog can have an impact on your company’s bottom line. And if you’re still in doubt, remember that marketers who prioritize blogging get 13 times the ROI of businesses that don’t.

#2. You have to post daily

First off, it’s okay to post daily provided you have plenty of valuable content to share. On the other hand, don’t publish everyday just because someone said you should do it. This approach encourages the sharing of poor content because publishing is just another thing to cross off your daily to-do list.

A better strategy is finding a publishing schedule that suits you and stay consistent with it. By focusing your energy on answering your prospects’ questions, you will start to see traffic pouring in. The idea is not to wait too long between posting blog posts because there’s the risk of falling off the radar. All said, the aim is to stay top of mind with your prospects.

#3. If you can’t see immediate results, you’re a failure

Blogging is a long game and you have to manage your expectations. When you start, you will publish and hardly get any traffic or social shares. And that’s okay. Eventually things will pick up and traffic will grow steadily.

#4. There’s a magic number of words to target

Don’t write blog posts just for the length. Yes, having in-depth articles on your blog can help your search engine rankings. The catch is, ranking on a search engine is not just a matter of length, there are other factors such as the relevance of the topic to a given audience.

Instead of worrying about the word count, focus on providing value to your prospects in whatever length it takes to comprehensively cover a blog topic.

Moving forward, shedding light on the half-truths about blogging is only half the story. Let’s now look at some of the rewards for publishing articles on your blog.

Benefits of Blogging

Maybe you have been wondering why your construction business needs a blog? Well, according to WordPress, over 409 million people view more than 20 billion pages every month.

And here’s something to remember:

It’s easy to assume that the majority of people read blogs to learn about brands or products. But that’s not the case.

According to the results of a survey by Hubspot, 34 percent of the respondents are driven to read blogs that teach them how to do something new, 20 percent said they read to be entertained, 12 percent read blogs to learn about trends or news in their job industry.

Let’s now look at the reasons why a blog is a valuable addition to your organization’s marketing arsenal. Ready?

#1. Improves brand awareness

Let’s assume you’re just starting from scratch. No traffic. No customers. Simply, no one knows about you. What do you do to get your brand name out there?

It’s simple. After putting up a website, you can then start publishing informative content consistently. Consequently, your ideal customers will start seeing your brand name when they search for content. For instance, it could be on Google when your content shows up in their search results.

As you keep publishing more relevant content, your target audience sees your brand more often. The result? Brand awareness. In other words, your blog posts remind prospects of your existence such that whenever they need to make a purchase, you’re the company that comes to mind.

And here’s the really cool part:

According to Demand Metric, 80 percent of internet users interact with both blogs and social media sites.

#2. Builds trust and credibility with your audience

Blogging not only builds trust with your target audience, but also with other organizations in your industry. For instance, who would you buy construction machinery from...someone that has taken the time to educate you about the equipment by providing free, unbiased educational content, or someone you have never met or spoken to in your lifetime?

The former, right?

The best blog posts answer the questions that the potential customers have. By helping prospects find answers to their problems through your blog posts, they will likely do business with you since they trust you because you helped them in the past.

Additionally, blogging will help save time for your sales team since you will be dealing with an educated prospect.

#3. Drives traffic to your website

Let’s be honest. You want more traffic for your firm’s website. And not just any traffic. You want visitors who have the potential to be your customers.

If you think about it, there are a couple of ways people can find your website. First, they can type the name of your company into their browser. The downside? That’s the audience that already knows you and your aim is increasing your tribe. Second, you can opt for paid ads, but that’s expensive. And when the money runs out to pay for ads, then the traffic dries up.

Blogging when combined with SEO (Search Engine Optimization)  increases your chances of sending organic traffic to your website if your post shows up in Google search results. What’s more, you can also be discovered through social media since your following now has content to share with their networks on the various platforms. In that case, you’re exposed to an audience that wasn’t familiar with your company.

But remember this:

You can publish lots of content and get tons of traffic, but if no one is taking the action you want them to do such as actually reading the post, then the content is useless. In that case, you need to go back to the drawing board and rethink your content strategy. On the other hand, you can publish content and not many read it. But if the few who read it happily proceed through your sales funnel, then your content is valuable.

Likewise, there’s a chance someone could be consuming and never engaging with your content. No likes. No shares. No comments. This individual is just lurking in the background getting informed, entertained or inspired by your blog posts. Eventually, in the future, this person will approach you for business since you will have established trust, and proved yourself as an expert through your content.

Now that you have traffic flowing to your site. How can blogging help convert the traffic into leads? Let’s find out.

#4. Helps in lead generation

Did you know that companies with blogs have almost 67 percent more leads than companies without blogs?

You can too. Simply add a lead-generating call-to-action to every blog post. The call-to-action could lead to things such as free ebooks, free trials, free webinars, or free whitepapers. The idea is to share content that someone is willing to exchange their information such as their email address.

Just remember that not every website visitor will become a lead. It’s not possible. You only need to set yourself a visitor-to-lead-conversion rate, keep publishing and aim to improve on that figure monthly.

The best part is that you only pay for a blog post once, but it can keep driving traffic to your website forever provided the information is relevant. As you can see it’s possible to publish content today and keep earning from it way into the future.

And finally...

#5. Sharing company information

Although not the primary use, blogs can be used to communicate important information such as event details or press releases. If you have already built your audience then it becomes easier to get attention compared to pitching journalists.

Are You Ready to Level Up Your Blogging?

When you think about it, text is the backbone of Google search. And if you want a piece of Google’s organic traffic then blogging is the way to go. But that’s not all. Blogging was the primary tactic used in marketing strategies in 2019. It was only narrowly beaten by video content in 2020.

You can’t just publish a couple of blog posts on your website, sit back and watch your traffic and leads soar. No, it’s a long game. You have to strategically and consistently publish informative posts that are relevant to your target audience. There’s no shortcut to success.

On its own, blogging won’t be the magic you’re looking for. It should be part of the marketing strategy. Publishing posts makes your marketing effective resulting in sustainable, strategic and long-term growth. And isn’t that what you want?

So if you want to increase your brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, generate leads, build trust and credibility with your audience, you should start blogging today.

Are you ready to take the plunge?