I’m going to start my answer with a few questions:

Why would anyone pay attention to your brand?
How do you demonstrate your expertise?
How will you ever get your service pages to rank if you don’t have content worth linking to?
Why would anyone give you an email address?
How do you share your best answers to your prospects’ top questions?
Is your website simply an online brochure?

If the answer to that last question is yes, then you are the proud owner of a fancy online ad. A digital business card. There is probably no reason to visit your site except to get basic contact information or to confirm your services.

But if you invest your time in content, if you share your expertise, then your website has something to learn from, link to, subscribe to and share. Your advice and expertise can travel via search, social, email and word-of-mouth.

If you’re still skeptical, I recommend trying any of the following:

• Search for the services you offer. Who ranks? Who’s winning the traffic and the change to generate a lead?
• Pause your advertising. What happened? Are you suddenly invisible?
• Check out the Analytics account of a mature content marketing program. Mine is 1M+ visitors and 500+ qualified leads per year. Keep in mind, this account has no advertising. To the contrary, our marketing generates revenue (book sales and event registrations).

What is your definition of a blog?
It should be the helpful, useful section of your site, filled with articles, advice, and answers. It doesn’t sell. It teaches. The call to action isn’t “contact us.” It’s “subscribe.” It’s the magazine. It’s the mini-version of Wikipedia for your industry. It’s the news, opinion, and how-to. As we said, without it, the website is simply a brochure.

How has blogging evolved over the past five years?
They’re bigger. Year after year, the length of the average blog post grows. Five years ago, the majority of bloggers wrote short posts of 1,000 words or less. Today, the average blog post is 1,236 words. Every year, a greater percentage of bloggers report routinely writing 2,000+ words articles.

Other changes? Bloggers are using more video, more images, more research, more collaboration. Blogs are becoming more sophisticated and the process for creating them involves more use of editors and data.