Each few years, a brand new channel takes heart stage — short-form video, podcasting, or AI-generated content material — and other people begin asking the identical query: “Are blogs useless?”
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It is a honest query. In spite of everything, platforms evolve and viewers habits shift. However the concept blogs are irrelevant immediately? That’s a delusion I used to be keen to research.
To get a transparent reply, I turned to entrepreneurs throughout website positioning, content material, and digital technique to search out out whether or not running a blog continues to be definitely worth the funding. This is what they mentioned.
Desk of Contents
Are blogs useless?
In line with entrepreneurs, not even shut.
Blogs aren’t simply alive — they’re evolving. In line with HubSpot’s 2025 State of Running a blog report, half of entrepreneurs say they noticed higher ROI from running a blog in 2024 than the 12 months earlier than. And almost half plan to speculate much more in 2025.
However the way in which we weblog is altering quick. Over 90% of entrepreneurs now use AI instruments someplace of their workflow, and Google’s AI Overviews are already reshaping how — and if — weblog content material will get found.
The bar is larger than it’s ever been, however the payoff continues to be there for these prepared to fulfill it.
That mentioned, “Are blogs useless?” is a query that refuses to go away. Each time a brand new platform will get scorching — whether or not it’s TikTok, a podcast, or the newest AI development — somebody sounds the alarm for running a blog. It is sensible. Audiences shift, consideration spans shrink, and video continues to dominate. So yeah, I get the place the query comes from.
And simply to degree with you: Search curiosity within the phrase “weblog” has steadily declined over the previous 5 years. In line with Google Traits, the time period “weblog” has seen a constant drop in recognition.
And compared aspect by aspect with “video,” the distinction is stark. Video content material has dominated consideration spans whereas blogs have quietly carried on within the background. So sure — asking whether or not blogs are useless is a good query.
However the fact is, blogs are nonetheless very a lot alive — and in the correct fingers, they’re making an actual affect.
In line with HubSpot’s newest State of Running a blog report, 65% of entrepreneurs work for firms that keep blogs, and most publish content material a number of occasions every week. Much more telling, 93% of entrepreneurs say running a blog is vital — or essential — to their technique.
And in the case of funds? Almost three-quarters of entrepreneurs put greater than 10% of their advertising spend into blogs. That sort of funding speaks volumes.
The worldwide image backs it up, too. In line with Tech Enterprise Information, there at the moment are over 600 million blogs worldwide, contributing to greater than 7 million posts revealed on daily basis. That’s a whole lot of phrases — and a whole lot of alternative.
That scale isn’t simply spectacular — it’s efficient. If you’d like extra proof, Ross Simmonds, a B2B advertising skilled and the founding father of the content material advertising company Basis, has spoken about how running a blog has helped his shoppers triple visitors and shut offers quicker — and primarily based on what I’ve seen, that tracks.
“At Basis, running a blog with intent has helped us generate thousands and thousands of {dollars} within the pipeline for each us and our shoppers,” says Simmonds. “It‘s additionally armed us with the flexibility to raise our model’s place available in the market and, most significantly, really assist others in our business study and unlock new alternatives.”
Neil Patel, who’s extensively considered one of many world’s main digital entrepreneurs and whose weblog constantly ranks among the many most influential within the business, places it merely:
“Proudly owning a web site and rating on Google is among the finest long-term advertising methods. Beginning a weblog is the best advertising technique in 2025.”
Nonetheless, running a blog immediately isn’t what it was 5 or ten years in the past. Lisa Dahmani, former director of world content material at HubSpot and present CMO at UX Design Institute, says it isn’t sufficient to only have a weblog these days.
“It is advisable constantly create content material that’s extra worthwhile than your competitors’s content material. It is advisable be an website positioning skilled to get your articles rating on web page one in every of Google, and also you want a distribution technique to advertise your content material throughout all of the channels your viewers likes to devour content material on,” says Dahmani.
“It is much more complicated to win at running a blog now, however if you happen to can grasp it, it is definitely worth the funding.”
That time actually caught with me, as a result of it is one thing I hear echoed by different specialists, too.
Brian Dean, founding father of Backlinko, summed it up effectively. (He’s been known as an “website positioning genius” by Entrepreneur and a “sensible entrepreneur” by Inc. Journal. Forbes even listed Backlinko as a prime weblog to comply with.)
“All in all, immediately, website positioning is much less about optimizing your web site to assist Google and extra about being the perfect outcome that deserves to be #1,” says Dean.
That mindset applies to running a blog, too. Hitting publish and hoping for the perfect doesn’t lower it anymore. To get actual outcomes, you might want to spend money on high quality, distribution, and long-term technique.
And in a panorama the place AI-generated content material is all over the place, being the “finest outcome” means creating one thing unique, useful, and value trusting. That’s what engines like google, and readers, are rewarding.
So positive — it takes extra work to face out. However if you happen to’re prepared to place within the effort, the payoff is certainly nonetheless there, and value it.
And that brings us to the following massive query: Even when blogs aren’t useless, how do they stack up in opposition to the whole lot else on the market?
Blogs vs. Different Advertising Channels
Now that different content material advertising channels — specifically, video and podcasting — have surpassed blogs, will blogs quickly grow to be redundant?
Effectively, all of it is determined by the person personas you are focusing on. However at the same time as different platforms develop, blogs nonetheless provide many benefits.
“Podcasting isn’t with out its personal set of limitations. There are many discoverability and viewers development challenges. At this level, blogs have a reasonably well-dusted playbook for scaling. That is not true for podcasts,” says Matthew Brown, senior lead producer of YouTube & Podcast at HubSpot.
“An organization can use its doubtless restricted assets to spend money on a weblog that can mainly give constant, simply measurable, and dependable efficiency. Blogs even have a direct line to the corporate’s backside greenback, podcasts don’t.”
Nelson Chacon Guzman, a advertising fellow at HubSpot, highlights that there is no cause to decide on between two platforms in case your group has the bandwidth to sort out each.
If it aligns along with your person personas, you possibly can have interaction your viewers from a number of angles.
“Making a weblog constructed of articles round the advantages of your product shall be useful. Having a video showcasing its use or easy methods to set up it will be useful in your viewers,” says Chacon Guzman.
He continues, ” Residence Depot has executed a improbable job of doing this. Whereas they inform and educate their prospects on their merchandise, in addition they add a fast ‘how-to’ for the extra educated one who simply wants a brief reply defined in a video.”
As for social media, Annabelle Nyst, former senior content material supervisor at HubSpot and present principal social content material supervisor at G-P, says it is laborious to check it to blogs as every platform serves totally different functions.
“Social content material would not at all times have the shelf life or the discoverability of weblog posts,” says Nyst. “It is extra about constantly assembly your viewers the place they’re, in the correct moments, partaking with them one-on-one, and establishing belief through group constructing.”
She provides that social media could be a good way to amplify your weblog posts. And vice versa, weblog posts can function inspiration for social content material.
If utilizing each, Nyst recommends pulling essentially the most compelling factors out of your weblog posts, creating social-first content material, and utilizing it to drive visitors again to your weblog.
With all that mentioned, blogs do not come with out their disadvantages. AJ Beltis, a principal content material advertising supervisor at HubSpot, mentions the excessive drop-off charges typically seen in weblog posts.
“Blogs lack the interactivity that many crave because of its nature as written content material,” says Beltis. “This challenges weblog writers to hook their readers in a couple of quick sentences with out having the good thing about particular results or audio engineers obtainable to their video and podcast creating counterparts.”
What it typically comes all the way down to is your model targets and which channels will allow you to meet them. Podcasts, for instance, are higher for branding whereas blogs serve higher for top-of-the-funnel engagement.
“Weblog posts are an acquisition juggernaut. There is a clear path that any seasoned marketer can comply with. Podcasts, nevertheless, finest function a model alternative,” says Brown.
“You would not measure a sequence of weblog posts on their model uplift means, identical to you would not measure a podcast present’s lead technology. That’s except you want grey hairs and a critical lack of sleep.”
On the finish of the day, the perfect advertising channel is the one which helps your targets, and I consider blogs nonetheless have loads of runway left.
Why Blogs Are Nonetheless Impactful
From an funding perspective, blogs could also be a greater long-term funding for lead technology.
“I might spend $200K to rent a full-time author, website positioning skilled, and conversion fee optimization (CRO) specialist to work on my weblog. By combining these talent units, I am going to have the ability to create a weblog that drives natural visitors to my web site and converts it into leads for my enterprise all 12 months lengthy,” says Dahmani.
She continues, “Or, I might put the identical $200K into an promoting marketing campaign and perhaps get a few thousand leads over the course of the advert marketing campaign. However as soon as the marketing campaign ends, so does my lead stream.”
Dahmani provides that almost all of HubSpot’s blog-generated leads come from older weblog posts. Which means that running a blog is usually a nice lead supply lengthy after posts are revealed. Aja Frost, senior director of world development at HubSpot, echoes this sentiment.
“Natural visitors is extra vital than ever. In contrast to paid visitors, which stops coming within the second your funds runs out, natural visitors is usually self-sustaining after you’ve got put within the effort and time to create a weblog put up,” she says.
She provides that the majority content material administration techniques (CMS) have website positioning instruments built-in into their platforms, which makes it simpler to optimize your posts.
Running a blog can be worthwhile in shaping a model’s product positioning.
“Blogs are nonetheless probably the greatest channels we have now to create narratives round our product,” says HubSpot Product Advertising Supervisor Alex Girard. “They provide us the chance to deal with traits we see available in the market, how these traits affect the reader, and the way our product would possibly be capable of assist them meet that development efficiently. They’re additionally nice for telling buyer success tales.”
He provides that when utilizing your weblog to market your product, the content material would not must be promotional. Once you set up your self as a thought chief and acquire the belief of your viewers, they may organically look into your services.
With that mentioned, it is going to take greater than good content material to have a profitable weblog.
“Development with out a objective is not going to assist what you are promoting – if 10,000 individuals are studying your weblog, however none of them suit your persona, that is not going to do something in your firm,” says HubSpot’s Director of Content material Advertising Karla Hesterberg.
“Give attention to one thing attainable, like producing new contacts, and ensure each put up you are placing out has that objective in thoughts.”
She provides that one of many greatest errors manufacturers make is creating content material just for individuals on the decision-making stage.
With so many levels between studying a weblog and making a purchase order, entrepreneurs ought to have posts geared at customers in each stage with corresponding affords.
Study extra about that by means of HubSpot’s enterprise running a blog course.
From an website positioning perspective, manufacturers may wrestle with producing visitors as a result of they’re pondering weblog first, hyperlink constructing second.
“What I typically discover is that entrepreneurs see ‘running a blog’ and ‘hyperlink constructing’ as two totally different disciplines. First, they write the weblog posts, then they consider easy methods to earn backlinks to them,” says Irina Nica, former senior product advertising supervisor at HubSpot and present senior product advertising supervisor at SurveyMonkey.
“As an alternative, they need to embrace linkable property into their common content material calendar, alongside different forms of articles which might be perhaps designed for producing natural or social media visitors.”
Regardless of the various advantages we‘ve gone over, running a blog isn’t at all times the perfect technique for each model. Why? Effectively, what in case your perfect person persona would not learn blogs? What if they like emails as a substitute?
“Some manufacturers have nice electronic mail communication and workflows the place they supply individuals with downloadable affords the place they do not must go elsewhere to get the data, it is simply of their inbox immediately,” says Sandra Mpouma, head of digital advertising at Centura (Previously RationalFX) and Xendpay.
“You do not essentially want a weblog so long as you are providing one thing in change. I feel the weblog has at all times been: provide one thing totally free in change for that person interplay.”
So, in that case, blogs would not precisely be useless, extra so irrelevant.
Why Advertising Is not Useless
If you happen to‘ve made it this far and also you’re nonetheless questioning whether or not advertising itself is useless — let’s clear that up, too. Regardless of what some headlines recommend, advertising isn’t going anyplace.
Actually, it is extra influential than ever. And that applies to each conventional methods and digital initiatives.
The worldwide content material advertising business is experiencing huge development. Only a few years in the past, international content material advertising business income was estimated at roughly $63 billion U.S. {dollars}. At present, it’s projected to extend to over $107 billion by 2026, in keeping with Statista.
“There is a cause why Nike and McDonald’s proceed to speculate thousands and thousands each month in advertising although they’re already family names. There is a cause why the highest musicians and artists nonetheless do promotion previous to their newest album launch,” says Simmonds.
“Advertising is not to be seen as simply an expense. It is an funding. And if you happen to make an funding that’s rooted in a strategic plan — that funding ought to return dividends for years (perhaps a long time) to return.”
So no, advertising isn’t useless. It‘s simply evolving. And for manufacturers prepared to fulfill the second with high quality content material, good distribution, and a transparent worth prop — it’s nonetheless one of the highly effective development levers you will have.
Running a blog Is Far From Useless
Right here’s the underside line: Not each advertising tactic works for each model, however blogs aren’t going anyplace.
They’re nonetheless one of the efficient methods to construct belief, drive visitors, and seize leads over time. They’ve advanced, sure. They’re more durable to win with, positive. However they’re removed from useless.
So for now, blogs, you possibly can step off the chopping block.
Editor’s notice: This text was initially revealed in January 2022 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.
