Blogging is your friend. But for your small business, it’s your best friend. Don’t get me wrong. Employees are your most valuable resource, but employees need as much sleep and rest as you do. A blog, though, that’s a different story. They need no vacations, smoke breaks, or paid time off.
This is the first article in a series of rants posts on the value of blogging in your small business. The last post previewed the topics you’ll learn about blogging. However, this article has a more refined focus. My goal is to convince you that blogging is your superior (and most underused) marketing channel. We’ll get into the how-tos of blogging in a subsequent article. Yet, for now, here are four reasons why you need a blog.
Blogging is Better Than Paid Ads
Yes. You heard me. Paying Google or Meta to blast your website to hundreds may seem clever. However, once the advertisement runs its course, it’s gone. The only thing you might have to show for it is a new customer that may or may not refer others to you. That’s the best-case scenario.
Also, keep this in mind. Just because you pay for an ad doesn’t mean that people will click on it. Likewise, just because a potential customer clicks on the ad doesn’t mean they become a customer.
In fact, it’s publicly available that the average CTR for Google ads in 2024 was 6.42%. CTR means click-through rate. So, around 1 in 16 people who say the ad clicked on it.[1][2] In the world of digital marketing, those might be alright numbers. But you can approximate those numbers without spending money on ads. You just need a blog.
Thus, consider this…
Instead of paying for ads, consider writing an article that answers your customers’ questions. That tactic, dear reader, may galvanize your entire marketing strategy, and here’s why.
Blogs Market Your Business Year-Round
As soon as you post a blog, it’s on the internet day in and day out. Think of blogs like billboards (to use an older advertising example). If you plaster your brand across a billboard, the billboard then does the rest of the work. So long as it does its job (stand on the side of the road and don’t fall down… and signs are pretty good at that), people will eventually engage with your business.
Indeed, blog articles are like billboards. When you post it on the internet, you’re doing just that: posting. Like a signpost, you’re calling attention to a signal you’re sending. The clearer the message, the better the signal. The cool thing about signposts is that they don’t have to eat, sleep, or breathe. They also don’t have bad attitudes (or good ones for that matter). Signposts aren’t people; they’re inanimate objects. But just because they lack agency doesn’t mean they can’t make an impact.
Think about it. How many times just this week was your behavior altered due to a sign? If you’re driving each day, you’d better hope signs influence you (especially STOP signs).
Pardon the obvious metaphor, but the message isn’t lost on you. If the internet is the proverbial road your customers navigate, you want posts along that road, relevant posts… blog posts.
Go to Google Search right now and ask it any question. There’s a massively high chance that search will propel you to a blog article that answers that question. Millions of websites use this tactic every day to get customers to their site.
You can use this tactic too, and you should.
Blogs Increase Your Brand’s Credibility
An effective blog can increase your sales goals and enhance your reputation. Donald Miller, whom I refer to as the Patron Saint of Marketing, made this claim:
Nearly every human being is looking for a guide (or guides) to help them win the day.[3]
-Donald Miller, Building A Story Brand: Clarify Your Message So Your Customers Will Listen.
You are not the hero of your customer’s story. They are. You and your brand are the Guide. Odysseus prayed to Athena. Luke learned from Obi-Wan. Katniss leaned on Haymitch. Meanwhile, Harry Potter did his damndest to follow Dumbledore’s lead. Guide’s do just that: they guide the hero on a path of wisdom and success through their authority and empathy.
If you’re a plumber and you often get calls to fix sink drains, that’s a great article. I can see the title now:
When to call a Plumber for Sink Leak?
That’s an article I would read. I almost hate paying plumbers more than I hate paying lawyers (granted, I hate paying for anything), but guess what I hate more? Not paying a plumber only to have my house flood. If a plumber went step-by-step through how I can tell for myself whether I need to enlist their help, that would be a useful piece of information worth having floating around on the internet.
A Blog Won’t Reveal Your Trade Secrets
Now, for those of you worried about proliferating your trade secrets across the internet. Know this.
They likely aren’t secrets. And even if they are, don’t underestimate the addiction most of us have to convenience. If I read a how-to guide that tells me to fix my drain, chances are, the average person may get overwhelmed, not have the right tools, or just have too much going on.
Sometimes, if I’m feeling spicy, and a client wonders why I charge them to maintain and update their website, I’ll tell our website clients a fraction of the work that goes into site maintenance. Usually, I have these chats over the phone. But when I do it across Zoom, their eyes widen with dread. It’s not that they can’t learn to do all I’m explaining, but why should they? In the time it takes them to learn how alter the CSS of their website and update their plugins, some of them might lose a day or a week’s worth of work figuring it out.
What’s the lesson here? Don’t write blogs that needlessly complicate your work. Instead, demonstrate your knowledge by writing about the relevant problems your clients face. It allows you to flex your industry knowledge in a helpful way.
Words on the Blog Matter More than Design
Remember, on the average website, eye-popping aesthetics don’t sell services; words do. A good blog focused on solving the problems your customers face positions you as the solution to those problems. In other words, blogs demonstrate and convince your readers and potential customers of your expertise. That way, you don’t have to.
You can even use these articles in your email list. If we keep using the plumber example, you could email all your current customers a link to an article you wrote on keeping your pipes from freezing in the winter. It’s a thoughtful gift for your customers, and it positions you as a caretaker and expert.
Blogs Increase the Worth of Your Business
Every business should be built to sell. Even if you never plan to sell your business, treat it as if you are. Procedurizing everything so that a buyer can pick up where you left off intrinsically makes your business more organized and effective. Likewise, buying a business with 300 articles is worth far more than one with 3.
In that sense, a blog that attracts customers is an asset that impacts your business’s revenue. Regardless of whether a blog is corporeal or not (it’s not), it still has value just as your incorporeal skill set has value. Insubstantial doesn’t mean insignificant. A great blog is indicative of a great process. And what is a business but a collection of valuable processes?
Conclusion
By now, I hope you’re convinced of the practicality and utility that blogs offer your business. You don’t need to learn how to code to code. You don’t even have to be that great a writer. But blogging often and about the problems your customers face will usually outpace and outstrip any marketing channel. So, what are you waiting for?
Start Blogging.
Which reminds me, in the next article, we’ll lay out a few blogging tips for you. You’ll learn some foundational blogging techniques you can implement immediately.
Also, don’t want to blog and want to pay someone to do it for you. We offer copywriting and SEO consulting services to our website clients. Feel free to give us a call, and we’ll chat more.
Talk soon,
-Marc and Joe
References
[1] Jones, Padrig. “36 Google Ads Statistics You Should Know.” Semrush, 4 November 2024, https://www.semrush.com/blog/google-ads-statistics/. Accessed 14 January 2026.
[2] Marino, Susie. “Google Ads Benchmarks 2024: New Trends & Insights for Key Industries.” WordStream, 29 September 2025, https://www.wordstream.com/blog/2024-google-ads-benchmarks. Accessed 14 January 2026.
[3] “Building a StoryBrand Quotes by Donald Miller.” Goodreads, www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/55576937-building-a-storybrand-clarify-your-message-so-customers-will-listen. Accessed 14 Jan. 2026.