It is easy to get caught up in the latest ‘big thing’ when it comes to online marketing and social media, so it’s encouraging when proof appears that some of the more established techniques can be consistently effective.</p> <p>Blogs drive traffic and leads</p> <p>According to a new study from the marketing firm HubSpot, blogging with interesting and original content can drive both website traffic and genuine leads for both B2B and B2C marketers. The report looks at data from the 7,000 business who already use HubSpot’s tools, and concluded, amongst other things, that an increased number of monthly blog posts leads to increased traffic, especially for B2C brands. This effect was most marked for large companies (those with over 50 employees).</p> <p>Smaller operations benefit more as posts increase</p> <p>Interestingly though, it is the smaller players who really benefit from the increase in inbound sales and marketing leads that come from more posts; companies with 1-10 employees saw leads multiply by six times when moving from posting a total of 10 blog posts to having over 200. The same expansion in blogging led to an average tripling of leads for large businesses. </p> <p>Of course, this is a very simplistic view; articles do need to be top quality, interesting and original, so without putting in some real effort then leads and traffic improvements won’t materialise. However, the data should give heart to those that are continuing spending time and money wisely on the traditional online blog when all about them are getting carried away with the latest thing.<br />