Copy Highlight - Blogs
Blogging.
It was incredibly popular in the 2010s and it seemed like everyone and their sister had a blog. There were mommy bloggers, baking bloggers, lifestyle bloggers, finance bloggers – any type of blog content you could think of, someone was writing about it somewhere.
But blogging seems to have gone by the wayside in recent years. In the wave of social media influencing, v-tubing, vlogging, and streaming, written blogs don’t seem to be as popular.
Plus, the marketing community is somewhat divided on blogging. Some feel that it is outdated and there are better ways of marketing your business online. Some feel that the “old ways” are still useful.
So do they matter? Are they even useful to small businesses trying to build their customer base or build their online presence?
My answer? Yes, blogs still matter. But they shouldn’t be the only thing you do.
What is a blog?
Let's dig into the basics. First, what is a blog?
In 2024, most chronically online people are at least vaguely aware of a blog. It's a place where people write about what they want in a longer form than, say, social media. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, a blog is defined as
“1 – computers: a website that contains online personal reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks, videos, and photographs provided by the writer, also: the contents of such a site” or
“2 – a regular feature appearing as part of an online publication that typically relates to a particular topic and consists of articles and personal commentary by one or more authors” (1)
When I think of blogging, I think of the Tumblr era of high school (yes, I know I’m aging myself here…) filled with teenage angst and long, drawn-out ramblings on the woes of society, relationships, or feelings. I also think of the mommy blogger era when they’d share recipes that were so far down the page that you had to dig through their ramblings about their grandmother and their grandmother’s grandmother who created the recipe… and on and on.
To be honest, I don’t think there’s necessarily anything wrong with that. As a wordy and bookish person, I love the idea of a Wild West online place where people can just write what they feel. But those blogs are very different from a blog a copywriter would write or a marketer would utilize for a business. I’d consider these content blogs – they’re fun, they have personal anecdotes, and they’re full of fluff with the occasional useful tidbit. They typically aren’t useful for someone looking for information fast or someone looking to make a purchase.
Modern copywritten blogs are different from content blogs and much more useful to small businesses for their marketing purposes. Copywritten blogs are goal-oriented, share information, evoke positive emotions about a brand, position a brand as an authority, and encourage the reader to act in some way.
The main difference between these types of blogs is their intention. One is used to share the thoughts and feelings of the author and the other is used intentionally to encourage action from the reader. Both can be fun and both can serve a purpose but to be successful those purposes must be very different.
Pros and Cons of blogging in a social media world
Is blogging still relevant? Well, there are still some pretty clear pros and cons about adding a blog to your business website.
Pros – Benefits of blogging
Blogs:
Are hugely impactful to SEO (search engine optimization)
Can be broken up into smaller content for social media posts
Allow for longer discourse on more nuanced/complicated topics
Provide a space to connect affiliate links to customers without feeling sales-y
Are great for the awareness stage of lead generation
1. Blogs are hugely impactful to SEO
Even with the influx of sales by social media, SEO is still a huge factor in many businesses’ marketing strategies. Blogs can be great for building your SEO visibility as Google tends to favor new, accurate, and relevant content. Intentionally and regularly updating your website with a blog helps you get more site visibility. In turn, Google sees those regular updates and interprets your website as new and therefore better.
In fact per HubSpot, companies with blogs “get 55% more website visitors than company websites without blogs.” (2)
2. Blogs can be broken up into smaller content for social media posts
Long-form content like blogs is fantastic to break up into smaller social media posts. Starting with blog content can be a great way to guide your social media strategy.
As an example:
You recommend people check out your long-form blog on your social media posts (plus driving traffic to your website is great for SEO – a win-win!)
You break up the content in your blog into smaller social media posts to spread throughout the next week. This includes reels, posts, and videos that all focus on different specifics mentioned in your original blog.
You’ve already done the planning, the phrasing, and the research through the blog. Now you’ve saved time and can spread your content across multiple platforms. According to recent data, “95.9% of bloggers promote their blog posts via social media.” (2) This is a useful and common way to spread your content around.
3. Blogs allow for longer discourse on more nuanced/complicated topics
Blogs are great for small businesses to speak about topics that are relevant to their business or values but that have more nuance or are more complicated.
Social media posts and bite-size forms of content are great for engagement, but they’re much harder to use when discussing social activism, nuanced hot takes, or complicated business needs. When you have the time and space to discuss a topic important to your brand thoroughly, it builds your authority in your niche and shows you are an expert with a well-thought-out opinion.
4. Blogs provide a space to connect affiliate links to customers without feeling sales-y
Affiliate links feel less sales-y when done right and blogs are a great place to promote affiliate links without blatantly selling to the customer. For instance, you can talk about a particular problem that you had (that your target audience also typically has) and why a particular recommended product helped solve it. Then you include an affiliate link (with the proper disclosure, of course) within or after the blog. This way, you’re doing them a favor like you would any friend and recommending products that would benefit their lives in front of them. This makes sales feel less sales-y because the products are relevant to your readers.
(NOTE - the key to this is to be honest and ethical. If the product didn’t help you or if you’re making up a problem you didn’t have, then it’s scammy.)
5. Blogs are great for the awareness stage of lead generation
Statistically, “companies with blogs tend to get 67% more leads than those who don’t have an updated and optimized blog.” (3)
Blogs are incredibly useful to connect with your audience and bring in new leads. When used in combination with other marketing (like social media marketing), you can help people solve problems, dig into their pain points, and provide solutions. So much of marketing is about connecting with your audience. Your blog is a chance for your audience to see what you care about, understand how you think about shared values, and see you as an authority in your niche.
Cons – Downsides of blogging
Blogs can’t be the perfect marketing tool, so what’s the downside?
Blogs:
Can be flooded with not useful/ repetitive lists
Are harder to find on their own
Require a website or hosting platform
Can take more time to create than a social media post
1. Blogs can be flooded with not useful/ repetitive lists
The internet is flooded with useless content or repetitive blogs (hello clickbait). While these can be fun to engage with, they aren’t going to help turn your audience into customers.
To combat this, you want to make sure your content solves a problem that your target audience cares about solving. In addition, If the goal is to just write a blog to write a blog, it won’t help your business. However, utilizing a blog strategically as part of your overall marketing strategy means making sure that your content matters.
2. Blogs are harder to find on their own
Almost one-fifth of bloggers say it has gotten harder to get traffic from Google over the past 2 years. [4]. And I’ve found in my searches that with Google utilizing its AI features and more people looking on social media, blogs aren’t as good for organic outreach as they used to be.
However, people are still searching for information they trust so by using blogs to provide solutions, they are still very relevant to most niches. On their own, their reach is smaller but when used as a part of a bigger marketing strategy they add so much benefit. Even in 2025 (using 2024 data), “71% of B2B buyers consume blog content during their buyer journey.” (4)
3. Blogs require a website or hosting platform
Unlike social media, having a blog requires that your business has a website or that you use a blog hosting platform. While there are some free ones (Medium is a good example), this usually means additional business costs than someone who is only a social media influencer.
However, as a small business owner, websites are so important for credibility on their own and if you have one, adding a blog to your website doesn’t necessarily add additional cost. I’d argue that having a website is more of a necessity than ever in 2025 as “81% of shoppers choose to research a business online before making a purchase, with 55% searching for online reviews and 47% searching for the business's website.” (5)
4. Blogs can take more time to create than a social media post
Since blogs are longer form content, they can take more time to create than a social media post. “On average, it takes about 4 hours to write a blog post” but it can take anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours to create a social media post (depending on the format – video or text and the complexity). (4) (6)
Plus, to get the Google SEO benefits, you typically have to post consistently – at least 4-6 times a month on average.
Are blogs right for your business?
There are some real pros and cons to consider when deciding if adding a blog is good for your business.
Consider
If your marketing strategy could use some long-form content to help guide your content along your year
If you have the time to invest in writing a blog consistently
If you know your target customer’s needs, desires, and problems
Still not sure if adding a blog be helpful in your business? I provide intentional copywriting (including blogs) in a loud world with strategy-first copywriting services.
Schedule a free 30-minute call and let’s chat!