A growing number of businesses are starting to blog as a part of their web-presence. This new activity allows them to share developments, stories, ideas, competitions and updates - in much more detail than what Facebook and Twitter allow. Until recently, there hasn't been much credible research done on the effectiveness of these business blogs - but we discovered some new findings that we're sure will be of interest to you.

In March 2011, Jonas Colliander and Micael Dahlen (from the Stockholm School of Economics) decided to test the effectiveness of business blogs. Their method? Create a story about an organisation and then simultaneously post it on both a business blog and on an online magazine. The researchers then analysed the impact it would have on the brand attitude of the organisation, and the reader's purchase intention.

The results? The same text used on a blog, compared to an online magazine, created a 9.5% increase in purchase intentions by the reader. Similarly, a blog created an 8% increase in the brand attitude.

At first glance - these numbers might not seem like much - but remember, this was comparing the same text being used on a blog and on an online magazine. Simply having a company blog created a measurable increase in brand attitude and purchase intention.

Get more visitors & rank better in Google

This got us thinking - and searching - till we found some more research that might generate a bit more buzz. Rick Burnes (the marketing director for HubSpot, a marketing software organisation) decided to compare marketing results for organisations within Hubspot that had a blog, compared to those who did not. Out of his sample of 1,500 businesses, he discovered that the average company that blogs has the following benefits when compared to a company that doesn't:

• 55% more visitors
• 97% more inbound links
• 434% more indexed pages

These numbers speak a pretty clear message about the importance of having a business blog and we wanted to pass this information on to you. Also, we wanted to remind you - every Rocketspark customer has the blog-builder in their Dashboard - absolutely free of charge. You can create as many posts as you want, with text and images - and it won't cost you a penny.

The answer to growing your web-presence might just be under your finger tips. Check out the Rocketspark blog-builder, grab a cup of coffee and write your first blog post! It's fun, it builds a connection with your customers and provides another connection for possible new clients. The research is in, the evidence is clear - you should bother with blogs!

See more at: www.rocketspark.com/blog/why-you-should-bother-blogs/