Business Blog Benefits: Why You Still Need a Blog in 2024

There are a lot of blogs today. It’s hard to give an exact number, but with estimates sitting in the 600 million range, you get the idea that blogging is neither unique nor revolutionary.

And it’s certainly not new for business marketing, what with just about every company having one!

That might lead you to wonder if it’s still worth it to have a brand blog in 2024. With so many competitors, crazy Google updates, and other marketing channels, is blogging still worthwhile? 

If you’re an existing business, the answer is yes! From improved discoverability (better brand recognition) to conversion funnel support (more sales), there are still business blog benefits. In fact, there may be more than ever – and we’ll show you why.

Getting the Elephant Out of the Way: Did HCU Affect Businesses’ Blogs?

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room before we go any further. There’s been a lot of doom and gloom from small or independent bloggers over the past few months over the future of blogging. 

Why? Because of two Google updates from September 2023 and March 2024. The so-called HCU or “Helpful Content (algorithm) Updates”.

If you’re not sure what algorithm updates are, think of these as changes to the way Google decides what results to show when someone searches for something online. 

Now, algorithm updates happen often. Still, they rarely have the type of impact these two did. After they rolled out, many niche blog sites and small bloggers lost a lot of traffic. 

That may not look good for blogging’s future, right? Look closer, though, because it affected a specific set of publishers.

This is because it was mainly niche bloggers who felt the Google earthquake. These are people who offer information on a niche and make money by serving up ads to those who access their informational content. 

Businesses or brands’ websites don’t work like that. If you’re a hardware store owner with a website, for instance, your website isn’t there to sell information or monetise it with ads. 

Rather, it’s there to promote your store and the fact that you sell hardware.

This matters because businesses’ and brands’ websites were by and large unscathed by those two updates we mentioned. Indeed, they even seemed to get increased visibility, especially in local search!

This means that while niche bloggers may now struggle to be seen in search results, things may be the opposite for you if you’re a business owner with a product or service to sell. 

Google now seems to favour real businesses (people who obviously truly operate in a field or industry) over bloggers, in other words.

The Answer to the Question of Value in 2024

Going back to the topic, these are the reasons we said blogging is still worth it if you’re a business:

Figures still bear this out. Here’s one metric performance marketers will love: 60% of consumers find blogs valuable for the early stage of the buying process.

That actually shows blogs beating video content for that metric (only 51% of consumers found videos valuable for that stage).

The medium does suffer a little when it comes to the mid and late stages of the buying process, though. Only 34% considered it valuable for the mid stages and 6% for the late stages.

Even so, that already gives you an idea of how you can slot it into your marketing funnel, especially as part of an omnichannel effort. It has a role to play in guiding people down that path to purchase!

That’s not all either. Here’s another statistic worth considering: having a blog still improves your chance of ranking higher in search by 434%.

Even just in B2B, company websites with blogs also get an average of 67% more leads per month.

These aren’t paltry figures. At the very least, they serve to indicate the potential returns you can get from leveraging this marketing channel even now.

A Note on Concerns over Competition

But we know that there’s a persistent qualm over the possibility of content saturation. We mentioned earlier that there are hundreds of millions of blogs out there.

And sure, maybe most aren’t run by businesses. But it’s still worth noting that most businesses with a digital marketing plan actually do have blogs now or plan to do so. 

That may very well include your competition!

The idea of facing your competitors on yet another channel may dissuade you from the idea of setting up your own blog at first. But here’s the first thing to remember: if you’re not doing it, you’re not even there to compete with them!

If you’re not blogging for lead generation but they are, those are leads going their way instead of yours. If you’re not blogging for brand awareness but they are, that higher visibility for them and not you.

And that’s just giving up the battle before you’ve even tried!

Brands have a privileged starting point in this space – now more than ever, as we explained before. 

If you’re an already-established business, even better, as you have a good bit of brand recognition working on your behalf already. Use it as a springboard to get your voice and brand out there and drown out your competitors!

Some Final Words on Business Blog Benefits

It’s vital to note here that blogging is still like most other digital marketing ventures. It typically works only if you do it well.

Generally speaking, that means catering to your target audience, putting in the time to produce good content, and so on.

Of course, in terms of execution, what “well” means varies quite a bit more than that. Depending on your industry and the part of your funnel where a blog article slots in, you may need to link it to your social media, integrate a video element, etc.

Blogging for brands or businesses requires serious strategic thought. It needs to be considered in light of a larger digital marketing strategy for best results.  

That’s why we always remind business owners of this: you can’t just publish something half-hearted and expect it to do much for your brand.

Do it right and regularly and you can reap genuine rewards, like the businesses with active blogs who are 13 times more likely to see positive ROI for their work.

If you’re not sure how to work towards those gains, you may need the assistance of a professional to get you started. From business blogging best practices in 2024 to both conversion and search optimisation, there’s a lot a pro can do to make a blog effective.

Don’t hesitate to reach out to us and we’ll talk about what you can do to make a blog work for your brand. We'll help you figure out how it fits into your overall strategy, what it should achieve for you, and how to make it happen!