The blogosphere isn’t just a passing trend – it’s a universe of intriguing information, relevant news, and content that gets today’s customers talking. If your brand isn’t on the map in the blogosphere, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to reach your target audience. Blogs are a main source of information to today’s consumers. They provide what people need to make informed purchasing decisions, drive traffic to a website, and keep existing customers loyal to a brand. If you aren’t blogging to grow your business, here are five reasons to start today.

Earn Search Engine Optimization Brownie Points

As we head into 2017, search engine optimization (SEO) is more important than ever. Google is coming up with new algorithms to make the search experience easier for consumers, penalizing websites that don’t take the time to obey the rules. While having a blog isn’t mandatory, it works wonders on bringing up your site’s search engine ranking. Blog posts give you an opportunity to incorporate key search terms and phrases organically, link to authoritative sites to vamp up your reputation, add images to improve your website, and give readers a reason to subscribe. Blogging is an ideal way to master SEO.

Open the Door to Social Media Marketing

If you struggle with your social media presence, starting a blog can work perfectly alongside your efforts. A blog gives you content to link to in your social media posts, boosting the relevance of your accounts and driving traffic back to your site. Promoting blog content on a social media site increases your web exposure and gives you more opportunities to get your message across. Use a tool such as Hootsuite to schedule social media posts in accordance with blog posts.

Boost Site Traffic and Brand Awareness

While main site content is important for generating traffic, blog posts can multiply the number of hits your website gets. Blogs help new customers discover your website. For example, a search for “How to get wine stains out of my carpet” might not come up with your wine company’s site, but if you wrote a blog post with a similar title, this search would lead customers to you.

According to research from HubSpot, companies that post 11 or more times per month get almost three times the amount of traffic than those that don’t blog at all. Posting 16+ blog posts per month leads to about 4.5 times more leads and 3.5 times more traffic than companies that post zero to one times per month. With statistics like that, it’s no surprise savvy marketers are boosting their blogging efforts.

Master Lead Generation

Generating new leads requires consumers to interact with your brand and submit personal information. Blog posts give you another opportunity to communicate with your customers via the comments section. Visitors can pots their questions on your blog post after submitting their names or email addresses if they don’t want to use your contact form. Use your blog as an opportunity to interact with consumers, reply to comments, and demonstrate your knowledge and customer service skills.

Establish Your Authority

The Internet has given consumers millions of businesses at their fingertips. Most people are patrons only of the brands they find the most trustworthy, pertinent, and authoritative. Mark your company as a master of its craft by posting engaging, informative, and well-researched long-form blog posts. Evergreen content, or content that stays relevant for a long period of time, can boost SEO and make you an expert in your field. Let your blog serve as a testament to your brand’s respectability, influence, and consistent high-quality information.

Starting a company blog will benefit your business in a variety of ways. Include blog posts as part of your content marketing strategy this upcoming year and discover all of its advantages for yourself.