It’s become very normal to see a blog section on a business website. Company blogs are great for a variety of reasons, but, in the long run, is it truly worth it? Starting a company blog specifically for your business website has its fair share of pros and cons — which we’ll examine closely in this informative article!

Pros and Cons of Starting a Company Blog

Listen, there are tons of reasons why you should start a company blog — but as jazzed as I am about all things blogging, I can’t ignore the cons. From the time and financial investment to conceptualizing relevant content — blogs take work.

I should know, as I’m both a personal blogger and professional blog writer for online businesses.

But here’s the truth: starting a company blog is a vital component of a successful digital marketing strategy.

If business blogging wasn’t a stellar and effective outreach and conversion medium, why else would 55% of business marketers rely on a company blog for inbound marketing to generate leads and sales? Straight up: blogs are money makers.

Yet as a business owner, you can’t be expected to suddenly know the intricacies and fine details of running a successful blog. You might wonder, is a blog worth the investment of time and money? Will a company blog yield a respectable ROI? What if you’re not a wordsmith?

These concerns are valid, but starting a company blog isn’t as complicated as you might think. The truth is, every individual business needs to examine the pros and cons of starting a business blog.

In this article, you’ll be able to weigh the benefits of blogging against the less desirable realities to decide if starting a company blog is the right decision for your online business.

*Spoiler* you may fall in love with blogging! Or run for the hills, the jury’s still out so let’s get to it.

Pro: Blogging Brings Traffic to Your Website

(pssst… traffic=potential customers)

First of all, we need to discuss the biggest pro of all. If you start up a blog on your company website, you help bring in more traffic to your site. This traffic is great for your website all around because new eyes are scanning your content and in turn, your product or service.

For one, you’ll have more people visiting your website. The more people visit, the better website you have overall in the eyes of the search engine gatekeepers (think in terms of organic search result rankings on Google, Yahoo, etc).

Plus, when these new visitors read your exceptional, valuable content, they’ll likely explore the rest of your site to see what else you have to say, recommend or pitch. The play-by-play is something like this:

The pitch (blog post) → new website visitor from target audience → active subscriber → loyal customer

Will that always happen? No. But by starting a company blog, you increase your chances by 131%.

Bottom line: once new visitors begin to explore your amazing website, they have a much higher chance of becoming a new customer! By simply creating a blog for your business website and posting relevant, informative content, you increase your sales.

At the very least, your company blog will help visitors become more aware of your business (which, if it doesn’t result in immediate sales, could result in steady and long-term growth). What business owner doesn’t like the sound of that?

Con: Starting a Company Blog Requires Time and Energy

No one ever said blogging was 100% easy, in fact, it requires skill, strategy, organization and planning. Did those four words just make your teeth clench? You’re not alone!

As a newbie to business blogging, you might feel completely unequipped with the skills required to start a successful company blog. Or, perhaps you have a ton of content ideas that you can’t wait to write up.

At first, you may charge out of the gate firing content out with passion and vigor. Yet months later, lack of instant traffic might dwindle your fire down to one tiny ember.

There’s no way around it: blogging demands time and energy from the get-go. When you find yourself lacking inspiration and out of article ideas, this time and energy can sometimes drain you from other pressing business matters.

Between posting steadily on social media, publishing new blog posts every week and keeping up with your marketing campaign, you’re spread thin as a pancake made from runny batter.

Hey, we’ve all been there. Is there a better way to post consistent blog content without draining precious hours from your schedule? Absolutely!

Business blogging is a full-fledged industry, and if you don’t have the time to blog regularly, you can offload that task to a professional content writer.

Because the fact is, once you have a business blog on your website, you need to consistently post content to see results.

In other words, posting a ton of articles the first month you start up the blog is great, but it’s more important to maintain a steady stream of new content. When you consistently post blog content about your business niche, you create an evergreen marketing machine that consistently brings in new customers, traffic and sales.

So, does a blog require an investment of time and energy? Yes. Will it help you grow your business? YES. Considering the growth potential, starting a company blog isn’t a huge con when you consider the results (i.e. an increase of sales, readership and loyal customers).

Plus, you can minimize time wasted by planning your blogging schedule ahead of time. Create a content calendar or hire someone to create one for you and stick to it.

Schedule content two-three weeks in advance to give yourself time to write the blog post (or hire a blog writer), include assets like engaging images and infographics, and optimize each post with solid SEO to improve your visibility on search engines.

p.s… did you know I can do all of that for you? Browse my professional blog writing portfolio.

Pro: Posting Consistent Blog Posts Shows You’re An Expert In Your Industry

Another huge pro to starting a blog on your company website has to do with how you’re perceived in your industry or niche. As you consistently blog and post new articles, you can help your company’s reputation grow.

The more you post valuable content to your target audience, the greater your reputation as an authority and industry leader.

In this regard, think of your website and product or service as what you are selling, and your blog as an opportunity for you to exercise your extensive knowledge within the industry.

This, in turn, only helps increase your sales and overall website traffic. After all, if a visitor considers you an expert, they’ll keep heading back to your website for more blog posts, as well as to check out what you sell or offer. 

Perhaps one of the best industries to showcase the importance of blogging is the food space. Say you own a gym, nutrition or personal training business. One of the best things you can do right now is start a blog for your business and actively share healthy recipes.

When people search for “paleo dinner recipes under 500 calories”, and you have an assortment of delicious recipes on your company blog, they’ll likely subscribe. From there, you can engage them on social media, email them updates about your product, sales or programs, and build a loyal following around your brand.

But what if you never made that blog? How will new visitors trust that you are, in fact, a trustworthy authority within your niche? Sadly, they’ve already moved on to a fitness business with an active, relevant and valuable blog.

What can we deduce from this point? That starting a company blog isn’t about blogging, it’s about helping people. When you help answer questions that your target audience has, you show them that they can trust you.

Your company’s reputation is massively important. No one is going to buy from or invest in a business that they don’t trust.

Therefore, a blog establishes you as a reputable leader, and that’s why people will support your business; because they trust you.

Con: Your Blog Is a Part of Your Business — So It Can’t be Full of Lazy Content

Actually, this isn’t a con at all, rather a fact to prevent meaningless content from hurting your reputation.

If you’re going to have a business blog, you need to ensure that you’re creating content that matters to your business. It shouldn’t be full of lazy content, nor should it have any errors. People don’t want to read articles that have grammar issues, spelling mistakes, or shallow content.

In all honesty, I can’t tell you how many blog posts I’ve read that turned me off of a brand. If I land on a high-ranking post that fails to deliver, I can see that the blog owner has used lazy strategies and cut corners.

In other words: they don’t give a squat about me as a customer or reader, they only want my money.

Think about it: how many times have you visited a blog only to be inundated with pop up ads and email-sign-up forms? I spend hours online every day, and this infuriates me.

The problem here is that the blog is functioning solely to bring in new visitors, NOT loyal readers or customers.

So, really, this is only a con if you are looking for a quick, instant, and inflated form of web traffic. Sure, you might get some sales from this method, but will those customers come back for more? If you haven’t given them valuable content, why would they?

Your blog posts should be meaningful and, obviously, have a point that’s important to your target audience. And take a step back to see the bigger picture:

Your business blog is a relevant and rich resource for your loyal readers and customers, not a one-dimensional sales channel.

So, to sum up: don’t post pointless articles simply to attempt to drive traffic. Post useful information that your visitors and customers will learn from. If it doesn’t help them in some way, don’t post it.

A way to prevent yourself from falling down this rabbit hole is to plan and schedule your posts ahead of time (as mentioned above). This will give you the chance to spend time with each post and ensure that it’s as valuable and resourceful as it can possibly be.

Another vital component to creating helpful content is to stay up to date with the news in your industry.

What’s happening and what are the latest current events? If you’re in the medical field, you’ll want to stay current on the latest policies and reform. Have an opinion about it? Post it.

Also, check up on your competitors: what are they posting? Under no circumstances will you copy or regurgitate what they’ve posted. Instead, you can get ideas to create your own unique spin on the subject and throw your two cents into a polished blog post.

Understanding the community within your niche can stimulate the creative juices and help keep your ideas and content fresh! 

Pro: You Don’t Have to be an Expert Blogger

Wait, what? Haven’t I been advocating that starting a company blog will showcase that you’re an expert within your field? Yes. But this doesn’t mean that you have to be a professional blogger to do that.

Blogging — especially consistent, high-quality blogging — is never truly easy. However, you don’t have to be a tech whiz or pro blogger to add a blog to your business website.

So many people give up on blogging before ever truly starting, mainly because they believe they need to have extensive education in this area. However, this is far from the truth.

Don’t know HTML? You literally don’t have to.

You don’t have to know how to code, and you definitely don’t have to be an award-winning writer, (of course, it helps to have a solid grasp of language, storytelling, and structure).

All you need to do is properly research blogging and learn from any initial mistakes you may make early on. The point is: you will learn what works and what doesn’t work as you go.

Furthermore, the more content you post, the more you’ll hone your unique voice. At the end of the day, you need to be an expert in your field, not an expert blogger.

But what about Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? That’s the caveat. While you don’t need to be a pro blogger to have a business blog, you’ll want to optimize your content for search engines. In other words, every blog post needs to incorporate SEO best practices so that you can reach as many people as possible. Otherwise, you’ll likely get zero traffic to your new blog.

Don’t let this stop you from blogging! There are plenty of free resources online to get you up to speed on SEO. I personally learned everything I know about SEO from Moz.

Of course, I invested endless hours honing my craft and writing as many articles as physically possible, but the bottom line is that if you want to learn, you can. And if you simply don’t have the time for that, you can outsource the SEO to a freelancer, or hire a freelance blog writer to create SEO content for you.

In other words: you have options!

Planning to DIY your business blog? 

I’ve got you covered! Download my free guide to business blogging for beginners. I walk you through seven steps to starting a successful blog that’ll grow your business, increase visibility, and increase sales conversions.

Grab the guide here >>> How To Start A Business Blog in 7 Steps!

Should You Start a Blog for your Online Business?

Is it time for your company to start up a blog section on your website? As I mentioned above, there are plenty of pros and cons to think about when starting a company blog. However, the cons are factors that, with proper planning, you can work around.

A blog section on your website will greatly help your business in both the short and long term. Whether you’re looking to create a community following in your industry, increase your sales, or build your reputation, the benefits of a company blog by far outweigh the drawbacks.

In fact, the only drawback is not having the time, knowledge or resources to build a successful business blog. Good news! There’s a solution for that…

Ready To Grow Your Business?

A company blog brings new visitors to your website and strengthens your brand’s credibility. You’ll also provide a relevant resource to your clientele. Bonus? Over time you’ll notice a spike in sales and ultimately, a consistent stream of revenue from your blog. Ready to get serious about business blogging and grow your business? I thought so!

Learn more about my freelance blog writing services, or get in touch to discuss your project!