5 Case Studies to Show Why Business Blogging Matters
Author: Astha Verma
Published On: 28-04-22
Last Updated on: 11-05-23
Estimated reading time: 10 minutes
If you run a business, you’ve likely grappled with this question—to blog or not to blog? Companies are faced with a pressing need to establish a robust online presence. Business blogging remains one of the best ways of going about it.
Get this—studies have shown that businesses that regularly indulge in some kickass blogging boast 13 times the ROI of the ones that don’t. Moreover, in 2018, nearly 50% of the Fortune 500 companies had their own business blogs. Now, that’s saying something.
Never underestimate the incredible potential of a business blog. From enhanced lead generation, improved value, solid brand awareness to sky-rocketing website traffic—a well-written blog can achieve all this and more.
However, the question remains: what does it take to create a business blog that literally everyone wants to read, share, and re-share? Well, that’s why we are here!
In this insightful read, we will help you unearth the absolute wonders of business blogging. And that’s not all—we have also thrown in six cracking business blog examples to get you inspired. So, let’s get started, shall we?
Why are business blogs in vogue?
You’ve probably heard a lot regarding the Huffington Post and what they do. But, did you know that in 2018, they raked in a whopping $14 million as monthly revenue solely off their wildly successful blog?
Apart from increased revenue, here’s what you can expect from your business blog:
Effective lead generation
This one is quite obvious. There’s enough research to indicate that blogging is great for lead generation. Consider incorporating the tips suggested below, and you can turn your business blog into a lead magnet in no time:
- Throw in a super actionable CTA in every blog post.
- Do you have a post that has the potential to go viral? Spotlight it.
- Promise rewards, like a free e-book or a resource, loaded with insights.
- Only post and promote content that is valuable and helpful to the readers.
Is your business blog frequently adorned with long-form posts? If yes, include a section at the beginning summarising the entire blog post’s content. This helps a lot in lead generation.
Take a leaf from the HuffPost Blog’s What’s Happening section. Pay close attention to the variety that’s on display:
Build a solid brand presence
Is brand presence high up your priority list? A business blog can help you ace all the goals. To begin with, it’s vital to get your SEO game on point. Tailor the keywords and the meta description to reflect your brand’s vision and mission.
If your brand has something unique to offer, ensure that your blog posts showcase the same. Don’t shy away from blowing your trumpet.
Another thing you can do is this: have a dedicated forum in your blog, where you can start conversations around your brand. The more you engage with the customers, the stronger will be your brand’s rapport with them.
The blog of Au Fit Fine Linens is awe-inspiring in every sense. From brand stories to curated gift guides, their business blog is Branding 101 in itself. Oh, and it has such a clever name!
Create value for your target audience
While helping you establish a solid brand presence, a business blog can also bring tremendous value to your business – thereby improving visibility. However, this is a two-way road: you’ll have to provide something valuable to the readers first.
Here’s a scenario to help put things in perspective. Let’s say that your business is based out of the retail industry. Apart from posts highlighting what’s new in your latest summer range, you can write a blog post on the latest fashion trends in the block.
By doing so, your readers will get access to informative content. If you can make your readers feel important, they will return the favour.
When it comes to creating value, the juice brand Press does it in style. They are all about healthy living, and they preach what they practise through their blog-cum-magazine, Squeeze, a treasure trove of valuable tips, heartfelt notes, and inspiring stories:
Increase traffic to your website
Lead generation, brand presence expansion, and value creation – all this cannot happen if you don’t have people visiting your website. This is where business blogging comes in handy.
By adopting a few healthy business blogging practices, you can turn things around:
- Be consistent, and update your blog regularly with valuable content
- Whenever a new blog post is up, promote it across all your social media channels
- Get creative – use images, videos, infographics, and animations to break the monotony of text
- Pepper your blog with high-quality links to boost your authenticity
Here’s another pro-tip: Don’t forget your previously published blog content. Reshare them with a few tweaks whenever the opportunity arises.
For example, by leveraging the power of business blogging to their advantage, Buffer’s blog got a massive 1.5 million views in 2017:
Flaunt your expertise and build thought leadership
Every brand or business has an X-factor that defines them and sets them apart from the others. It could be the products they sell, the vision that drives them, or the social cause they are passionate about. However, it need not always be the case.
Your business can also be defined by its expertise in a particular field or subject. In such situations, it will be best to share your knowledge with the world. That said, you can produce business blogs that contain whitepapers, educational resources, case studies, research findings, and the like.
Or, you can play it nice and cool by keeping things very informal. This is precisely what VineBox did. Their blog is a gallery of wine FAQs answered in the most engaging way possible.
They take it a step further by treating readers to fascinating tidbits of vine history now and then:
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Business blogging is a rewarding practice. If you haven’t started yet, you should. After all, it would be quite a loss to miss out on:
- Outstanding leads that convert
- A ubiquitous brand presence
- Value, value, and more value
- The crazy website traffic of the good kind
- A chance to tell everyone what your brand is excellent at
Decoding 5 business blogs: what makes them click
Yes, we know. You’ve seen the benefits of business blogging, and the urge to get started is spurring you, unlike anything. But, before you get cracking, take a moment and learn from these five senpais of business blogging. You’ll thank us later!
The Renegade Pharmacist
What they do: Started by Niraj Naik, The Renegade Pharmacist, is all about helping people embark on a journey towards healthy living. From healing centres, spas, wellness centres, meditation music, to online courses – every resource is available for whoever is looking to break free from the shackles of modern living.
The blog: What Happens One Hour After Drinking A Can Of Coke
Why this works: At the core of this blog is the infographic above. There are so many things that make this blog click. First off, all the points in the blog are backed by links to authoritative and authentic medical websites. So, every claim has been fact-checked.
Second, the succinct summing up of the blog’s content in the infographic is the perfect clickbait. The graphic is alluring and hard to resist. It comes as little surprise that the entire post went viral.
In short, this post by The Renegade Pharmacist not only created significant value for people, but it did so while openly flaunting its expertise and its vision. Now, that’s genius.
Starbucks Stories & News
What it is: An incredible blog run by Starbucks for everything coffee. Need we say more?
What makes the blog click: When Starbucks has a business blog, how can it go unnoticed? This blog is a happy mix of everything – posts covering various aspects of coffee, posts talking about what’s new at Starbucks, and recipes that every coffee lover would not want to miss.
But, it’s not your regular run-of-the-mill blog. Many posts showcase the social causes that Starbucks stands for. Their blog has three dedicated sections – People, Planet, Coffee & Craft – making it easier for readers to find content that resonates with them.
Starbucks Stories and News is not just a blog – it’s a platform that brings customers closer to the brand.
SnackNation
Who they are: Their mission is to make healthy snacking enjoyable. In keeping with the same, SnackNation supplies companies with gift snack boxes they can use to recognize and reward the employees who make a difference.
Why this blog is amazing: The SnackNation Blog is pretty cool in all respects – the interface is user-friendly, the blue, white, and pink colours are pleasing to look at, and the content is really useful.
From Zoom game ideas, farewell gift lists, team building activities to testimonials, their blog is chock full of such value generating posts.
One post of theirs, titled 121 Employee Wellness Program Ideas, Tips, & Activities For 2021 That Your Team Will Love was so thorough and well-researched that it singlehandedly increased their homepage traffic by 59%. To top it off, the post consistently got 10,000+ readers each month.
So, how did they do it? All their business blogs have these things in common: excellent keyword research, top-notch analysis, and intelligent backlinking.
The Keyword
Who they are: Can you write about business blogging without mentioning Google? We think not. That’s why The Keyword, Google’s business blog, made our list. From technology to arts and culture, the blog covers some of the most happening topics.
Here’s why this blog is excellent: On any given day, there’s a lot happening at Google, right? And most of these events have a direct impact on us and the umpteen Google services we use each day.
That’s when Google decided to use The Keyword to tell us everything first, before we hear about these changes from some other news outlet.
The blog’s two major segments, Product Updates and Company News also provide valuable insights into the various outreach and community support programs that Google is involved with.
We personally can’t get enough of the Doodles section of the blog!
KISSMetrics
Who they are: Basically, KISSMetrics is a tool that allows you to run a bunch of complex analytics on your website. The tool creates detailed reports on crucial aspects like customer engagement, and you gain really helpful information in the process.
Why they are on this list: We’re going to talk about an experiment. Way back in 2012, the folks at KISSMetrics decided to answer a question: are infographics the real deal? So, they invested approximately $28,000, and created 47 infographics.
Now, here are the numbers. According to their reports, these infographics have brought in 2,512,596 unique visitors, 41,000+ tweets, and nearly 21,000 Facebook likes.
When we mentioned creating value packed content through your business blog, this is what we were talking about. Today, the KISSMetrics blog welcomes over 2 million visitors each year.
Rest assured, we all know what KISSMetrics is the undisputed authority of!
And, it’s a wrap!
That’s everything we wanted to share with you about business blogging, and what makes it such a great practice. Let’s get real – maintaining a business blog is not an easy task. It calls for consistency, dedicated research, gold standard content production, and whatnot.
But, it’s not impossible either. Remember to always create value-packed content, conduct thorough research, have a no-holds-barred SEO approach, maintain consistency, and – most importantly – build a brand presence by connecting with your audience.
In this read, we gave a comprehensive lowdown on the benefits of business blogging, and backed them up with five wonderful examples to inspire your own journey.
Does all this feel too overwhelming? Just reach out to us at WrittenlyHub, the Content Marketing Agency. If business blogging is an art, we have the artists who can make it happen – walk us through your thought process ; we are listening.
