Blogging is like the anchor. You have your website with your blog post, then you’re going to pin it on Pinterest, share it on every platform you have, pull quotes from it for captions, get stats for posts. One good, solid blog post can serve you well everywhere.

Businesses that publish regular content receive eight times more traffic and achieve three times more leads. Stats say blogging reduces overall marketing expenses by more than 60 percent. If you’re using your blog for anchor content for your own social media, you don’t have to take that time to go create new content. That time you save is money in the bank.

If those numbers alone aren’t enough, here are 11 reasons you should be blogging.

Establish yourself as the expert

I’ve found that, because I’m so busy worrying about everyone all the time, the best way for me to generate content for a blog is to transcribe one of my trainings. I train for a private group a couple times a week, which I can then turn into a blog and add graphics for good, written material.

I research each of the presentations I give like crazy and give solid information, then forget about it. When they’re transcribed into blogs, I can just link to this one great resource and really solidify myself as an expert in my field. It really works, you just have to do it.

Create value

You can’t share enough free information. People will pay you for your opinion on their specific situation and bring it together into a single unit, but as far as questions or snippets or pieces of information, you just can’t share enough free stuff.

It creates a lot of value for your audience. And people are more likely to buy from you, because it establishes that know, like, trust factor. For Jenna Kutcher fans, it’s like a savings account: you give, give, give and then you ask for them to buy something.

Grow SEO rankings

You have long-tail keywords (that work!) that you can build into your blog. You can write them into your content, you can put them in your tags – either way, they work. People find you.

We have prolific, local wedding planners who get found on a national level because their blog posts are so amazing and they’re tagged so well. That’s huge.

Collect emails

At the end of your blog, you can add a freebie offer in exchange for readers’ email addresses – it totally works. Especially once you’ve established that know, like, trust factor by giving them free information, when you ask them for something like their email, they’re much more likely to share that with you.

Increase brand interest

Some people still don’t understand what we do, so by explaining it in live videos or publishing information in blogs, people become more interested in our business. All the time people will mention or ask me about something I said in a video. They’re more interested and drawn in because they have closer access and actually know what we do.

Convert leads

Let’s go back to that know, like, trust factor. Only two percent of your website visitors will purchase on their first visit. They don’t just jump onto your website and say, “Oh, I’ve got to have that.” (Normally.) Most people have to look at it, think about it and then go back to it. It helps when you’re giving out solid, consistent information. That’s what helps convert leads the best and get you from that dating phase to the commitment stage.

Gain exposure and visibility

People can’t share your information if there’s no information to share. If nothing else, that’s what makes blogging so critically important.

Build your network

Networking is everything. Last fall we had a local presentation and three nationally recognized speakers came. I had the opportunity to speak with them and ask for their opinions on an upcoming project I’d thought up. I got the coolest referrals and greatest leads from these nationally recognized speakers because I actually said something about it. If you don’t have an opportunity out there – like your blog – for people to see, nobody’s going to know you need that network.

Generate backlinks

This kind of goes back to the SEO point; it allows you to be found. The more relevant links your content has built in, the better Google considers it to be and the higher you’re ranked in searches.

Allow your audience to give feedback

Not everybody is cool with turning on a camera and talking and putting themselves out there for a live Q&A. A lot of people just don’t like to do it, and I totally get that. It can be daunting. Blogging offers a much more structured way to bring your expertise so people can ask you questions in a moderated and controlled environment. Answering questions on a blog allows you to put in more time and thought before writing back.

Scope out the competition

It really goes both ways: if your competition is blogging, you really need to be blogging. If they’re not, then stomp them into the ground. Seriously, a solid blog can generate much more positive results on SEO than paid advertising. I’m not going to click on a paid advertisement; I want the content.