Back in 1994, the first blog in the history of the world was posted by Justin Hall, a freelance journalist, who launched his page Justin’s Links from the Underground. This was used to talk about his life, mostly with fellow students at Swarthmore College, and it became the precipice for something much greater than just sharing details of one’s life.
Since then, the blogging world has exploded, and now there are over 600 million blogs on the internet.
If you are not blogging for your business, you are doing yourself (and your company) a great disservice. According to Hubspot, there are nearly five billion internet users each day, and about 60% of them are reading blogs daily. 55% of businesses with blogs get more traffic to their website – and 67% even earn more leads! This practice also works in getting some newer eyes to your business that might not otherwise find you. Did you know that blogging increases your chances of being ranked on Google by a whopping 434%?
Of course, some work needs to be done on your part because these blogs don’t just write and make themselves look pretty. Content is key, and you want to make sure you have an engaging message, specifically in the headline. It is a bit disheartening that only 20% of people will ever read past the headline, and the average time for reading a blog is 96 seconds. But you can beat these odds with an engaging message, and some eye-catching photos. According to OptinMonster, blogs with photos will get 94% more traffic, and blogs with 7+ photos will get 104% more traffic. While this may apply more to food/travel blogs, you can still post photos of informative graphs, medical devices, or anything else that may apply.
Getting back to the readers, they play such a crucial role in how successful a blog will or won’t be. Most blogs will indeed be found through social media, LinkedIn, word of mouth, and generally shared methods. But what is interesting are the reading habits of people, and how they play into the overall scope of blogs.
One of the most intriguing findings from the Hubspot article is that 70% of people prefer reading blogs in the morning (9-10 AM), while only 40-50% of them like reading them at night. And it makes sense, considering most people are starting their workday at that time and begin their day by seeing what’s happening online.
Perhaps, the most interesting find was that most people leave comments for blogs on Saturday early in the morning. So, what does this mean? Is it that people don’t want to have a back-and-forth conversation during the workday, or is it something else? Is it a more comfortable time to interact, or are they just more relaxed? These are questions that you may have to ask yourself as a business owner – because conversation and interaction are ultimately what you’re looking for.
Business owners should take great solace in the fact that 37% of blog readers are 40-60 years old, with the average age of a blog reader being 41. Assumingly, this is the age range of most decision-makers in business, and you could make an impact in this demographic in a way that would be great for your business.
Hopefully, these findings from Hubspot and other outlets help you make an informed decision on how to capitalize on blogging for your business. Reach out to us at Sales-Link and we can help you even further along on your journey.