Are blogs useless? I requested 10 advertising and marketing specialists

Each few years, a brand new channel takes middle stage — short-form video, podcasting, or AI-generated content material — and other people begin asking the identical query: “Are blogs useless?”

It is a honest query. In spite of everything, platforms evolve and viewers habits shift. However the concept that blogs are irrelevant immediately? That’s a fable I used to be keen to research.

To get a transparent reply, I turned to entrepreneurs throughout web optimization, content material, and digital technique to search out out whether or not running a blog remains to be definitely worth the funding. Here is what they stated.

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Blogs aren’t simply alive — they’re evolving. In accordance 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 practically half plan to speculate much more in 2025.

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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 increased than it’s ever been, however the payoff remains to be there for these keen to satisfy it.

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That stated, “Are blogs useless?” is a query that refuses to go away. Each time a brand new platform will get sizzling — whether or not it’s TikTok, a podcast, or the most recent 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 stage with you: Search curiosity within the phrase “weblog” has steadily declined over the previous 5 years. In accordance with Google Developments, the time period “weblog” has seen a constant drop in recognition.

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And compared facet by facet 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.

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However the reality is, blogs are nonetheless very a lot alive — and in the appropriate fingers, they’re making an actual influence.

In accordance with HubSpot’s newest State of Running a blog report, 65% of entrepreneurs work for firms that preserve blogs, and most publish content material a number of instances per week. Much more telling, 93% of entrepreneurs say running a blog is essential — or crucial — to their technique.

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And on the subject of price range? Practically three-quarters of entrepreneurs put greater than 10% of their advertising and marketing spend into blogs. That type of funding speaks volumes.

The worldwide image backs it up, too. In accordance with Tech Enterprise Information, there at the moment are over 600 million blogs worldwide, contributing to greater than 7 million posts printed every single day. That’s a variety of phrases — and a variety of alternative.

That scale isn’t simply spectacular — it’s efficient. If you’d like extra proof, Ross Simmonds, a B2B advertising and marketing skilled and the founding father of the content material advertising and marketing company Basis, has spoken about how running a blog has helped his shoppers triple site visitors and shut offers sooner — and based mostly 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 power to raise our model’s place out there and, most significantly, actually assist others in our business be taught 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 likely one of the finest long-term advertising and marketing methods. Beginning a weblog is the best advertising and marketing 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 worldwide content material at HubSpot and present CMO at UX Design Institute, says it is not sufficient to only have a weblog these days.

“You have to constantly create content material that’s extra beneficial than your competitors’s content material. You have to be an web optimization skilled to get your articles rating on web page one in all Google, and also you want a distribution technique to advertise your content material throughout all of the channels your viewers likes to eat content material on,” says Dahmani.

“It is much more advanced to win at running a blog now, however in case you 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 referred to as an “web optimization 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, web optimization is much less about optimizing your website to assist Google and extra about being one of the best outcome that deserves to be #1,” says Dean.

That mindset applies to running a blog, too. Hitting publish and hoping for one of the best doesn’t reduce it anymore. To get actual outcomes, it is advisable 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 authentic, useful, and value trusting. That’s what search engines like google and yahoo, and readers, are rewarding.

So positive — it takes extra work to face out. However in case you’re keen to place within the effort, the payoff is certainly nonetheless there, and value it.

And that brings us to the subsequent massive query: Even when blogs aren’t useless, how do they stack up in opposition to all the pieces else on the market?

“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 possible restricted sources to spend money on a weblog that may 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 and marketing fellow at HubSpot, highlights that there is no purpose to decide on between two platforms in case your workforce has the bandwidth to deal with each.

If it aligns along with your person personas, you possibly can interact your viewers from a number of angles.

“Making a weblog constructed of articles round the advantages of your product will likely be useful. Having a video showcasing its use or learn how to set up it could be useful in your viewers,” says Chacon Guzman.

He continues, ” House Depot has finished a implausible 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 that 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 match it to blogs as every platform serves totally different functions.

“Social content material does 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 appropriate moments, participating with them one-on-one, and establishing belief through group constructing.”

She provides that social media might be an effective way to amplify your weblog posts. And vice versa, weblog posts can function inspiration for social content material.

If utilizing each, Nyst recommends pulling probably the most compelling factors out of your weblog posts, creating social-first content material, and utilizing it to drive site visitors again to your weblog.

With all that stated, blogs do not come with out their disadvantages. AJ Beltis, a principal content material advertising and marketing supervisor at HubSpot, mentions the excessive drop-off charges typically seen in weblog posts.

“Blogs lack the interactivity that many crave attributable to its nature as written content material,” says Beltis. “This challenges weblog writers to hook their readers in just a few quick sentences with out having the good thing about particular results or audio engineers out there to their video and podcast creating counterparts.”

What it typically comes all the way down to is your model objectives and which channels will assist 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, nonetheless, finest function a model alternative,” says Brown.

“You would not measure a sequence of weblog posts on their model uplift capability, similar 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, one of the best advertising and marketing channel is the one which helps your objectives, and I imagine blogs nonetheless have loads of runway left.

Dahmani provides that almost all of HubSpot’s blog-generated leads come from older weblog posts. Because of this running a blog is usually a nice lead supply lengthy after posts are printed. Aja Frost, senior director of worldwide development at HubSpot, echoes this sentiment.

“Natural site visitors is extra essential than ever. Not like paid site visitors, which stops coming within the second your price range runs out, natural site 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 almost all content material administration techniques (CMS) have web optimization instruments built-in into their platforms, which makes it simpler to optimize your posts.

Running a blog can be beneficial in shaping a model’s product positioning.

“Blogs are nonetheless probably the greatest channels we’ve got to create narratives round our product,” says HubSpot Product Advertising and marketing Supervisor Alex Girard. “They provide us the chance to deal with tendencies we see out there, how these tendencies influence the reader, and the way our product may be capable to 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 does not need to be promotional. If you set up your self as a thought chief and achieve the belief of your viewers, they’ll organically look into your services.

With that stated, it will take greater than good content material to have a profitable weblog.

“Development with no aim 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 and marketing Karla Hesterberg.

“Deal with one thing attainable, like producing new contacts, and ensure each put up you are placing out has that aim 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 provides.

Study extra about that by means of HubSpot’s enterprise running a blog course.

From an web optimization perspective, manufacturers may battle with producing site visitors as a result of they’re considering 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 learn how to earn backlinks to them,” says Irina Nica, former senior product advertising and marketing supervisor at HubSpot and present senior product advertising and marketing supervisor at SurveyMonkey.

“As a substitute, they need to embody linkable belongings into their common content material calendar, alongside different forms of articles which might be perhaps designed for producing natural or social media site visitors.”

Regardless of the numerous advantages we‘ve gone over, running a blog isn’t at all times one of the best technique for each model. Why? Properly, what in case your splendid person persona does not learn blogs? What if they like emails as an alternative?

“Some manufacturers have nice electronic mail communication and workflows the place they supply individuals with downloadable provides the place they do not need to go elsewhere to get the data, it is simply of their inbox right away,” says Sandra Mpouma, head of digital advertising and marketing at Centura (Previously RationalFX) and Xendpay.

“You do not essentially want a weblog so long as you are providing one thing in trade. I believe the weblog has at all times been: supply one thing without cost in trade for that person interplay.”

So, in that case, blogs would not precisely be useless, extra so irrelevant.

Should you‘ve made it this far and also you’re nonetheless questioning whether or not advertising and marketing itself is useless — let’s clear that up, too. Regardless of what some headlines recommend, advertising and marketing isn’t going anyplace.

In reality, it is extra influential than ever. And that applies to each conventional methods and digital initiatives.

The worldwide content material advertising and marketing business is experiencing huge development. Only a few years in the past, international content material advertising and marketing 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 line with Statista.

“There is a purpose why Nike and McDonald’s proceed to speculate thousands and thousands each month in advertising and marketing regardless that they’re already family names. There is a purpose why the highest musicians and artists nonetheless do promotion previous to their newest album launch,” says Simmonds.

“Advertising and marketing is not to be seen as simply an expense. It is an funding. And in case you make an funding that’s rooted in a strategic plan — that funding ought to return dividends for years (perhaps many years) to come back.”

So no, advertising and marketing isn’t useless. It‘s simply evolving. And for manufacturers keen to satisfy the second with high quality content material, sensible distribution, and a transparent worth prop — it’s nonetheless one of the crucial highly effective development levers you’ve got.