Are you a small business that’s contemplating the benefits of a blog?

If you’re on the fence, we’re here to tell you why you should leap over that barrier with all you’ve got. On the other side awaits you grass that is much greener. That grass gets watered by sales, leads, conversions, ROI, and more.

Check out these marketing facts to see what you could get from an investment in content.

1. Content Marketing Beats Paid Advertising

Slow and steady wins the race, right?

That’s what great content will do for your page.

Paid advertising works — as long as you pay for it. The second you stop paying, you stop ranking.

Content marketing, while it takes some time to develop, is affordable and can promise conversions (6x higher than those without it). Plus, the leads it attracts are of more top quality than paid advertising.

2. It’s the Most Effective SEO Strategy

Compared with everything else in an SEO plan — keyword research, link building, website structure, and more — on-page content is the single most effective tactic used to achieve your objectives.

Content accounts for over half of an effective strategy — an astounding 57%.

3. It Provides the Greatest Number of Leads

Any advertising and marketing strategy is likely worth your attention and investment.

However, content marketing proves, again and again, to generate the most leads.

In fact, per dollar, content marketing produces 3x more leads than other methods.

4. Americans Get Their News Online

About four in ten Americans — or 38% of the population — get their news online.

This number increases even more with younger demographics.

If you can afford to miss out on that many people, think again.

When someone searches for answers, advice, or products online, great content from a reliable source (you) can keep them coming back.

5. Consumers Consult Blogs for Purchasing Advice

You’re selling, and people are buying.

Connect these two facts by giving those consumers a platform for quality advice and insight.

46% of consumers use blogs for initial inquiries into buying a product. 33% use blog posts to narrow down their many options. And 30% use blogs to confirm any purchasing decisions they’ve made.

In addition to those numbers, at least 25% of people buy something online precisely because of blog content!

If a competitor in your industry doesn’t have a blog filled with high-quality content, but you do, then you’re the obvious winner here.

6. There Are 1,518,207,412 Websites Right Now

Read that number again.

Of those 1,518,207,412 websites (which probably just went up in the last few seconds), how can you ensure someone is clicking on your page?

In short, you can’t.

But you can influence the search engine results pages by producing authoritative content. This is especially true for local SEO. There are so many options out there — you need to give internet users any and every reason to choose you over the masses.

These Content Marketing Facts Can’t Be Ignored

Simply put, your business can’t afford not to have a content marketing plan.

Not only is it an affordable option, no matter the size of your business, but it promises a return on investment like no other. If you do nothing else, make sure you’re doing this.

Once you see what it brings you, you’ll thank yourself for taking that leap.

For more marketing facts and strategies, check out this article on improving your site by utilizing everything we just discussed.

This post was selected as one of the top digital marketing articles of the week by UpCity, a B2B ratings and review company for digital marketing agencies and other marketing service providers.