People do read blogs. But not everybody, and not all the time. The people who read your blog, watch your videos, and read your long sales pages are the ones about to spend money. Buyers in "buying mode" want more information, not less. Optimize your content for that motivated buyer, and give everyone else an easy way to raise their hand so you can follow up.

Somebody tells you "nobody reads blogs" and it sounds smart. Here is the obvious problem: if nobody read blogs, blogs would not exist. After 13 years and 5,000+ service businesses at SpeedMobi, we can tell you exactly who reads your blog. It is the person about to hand you their hard-earned money. And that changes everything about how you should write.

Do People Actually Read Blogs?

Yes, and the ones who matter read the most. A person does not care about the ins and outs of water heaters, roof flashing, or drain lines on a normal Tuesday. Then their water heater dies, and suddenly they are reading everything they can find. They enter buying mode. Buying mode requires more information, not less.

That is the big distinction most business owners miss. You do not need millions of readers. You need the three people in your town who just typed "water heater replacement cost" at 9 pm because theirs is leaking through the ceiling. Those three people will read every word you wrote, and one of them is going to call somebody tomorrow morning.

What Is a Motivated Buyer?

A motivated buyer is a person whose situation just forced them to act. It is not a personality type. It is a state you enter when something happens in your world and now this problem has to get solved. There is pain on the other side. Nobody wants to spend the money, but spending the money hurts less than living with the problem.

Once you see this, the "nobody reads blogs" myth falls apart. Of course most visitors skim and bounce. Most visitors are not in buying mode yet. Your content is not for them. It is for the one who is.

The Video Math Almost Nobody Does

Here is an example straight from our own strategy sessions. Say you have a page with a video and a buy button. Out of 100 visitors, 5 take the action. A 5% conversion rate. Then you check the video stats and see only 21 of those 100 people watched the video. Most owners see that and think the video is failing.

Now do the real math. If your buyers are coming from the group that watched, that is 5 buyers out of 21 watchers. Nearly 1 in 4 of the people who watched the video took action.

Related: What Is Answer Engine Optimization and Why Should You Care?

The video is not failing. The video is filtering. The motivated buyers self-select by watching, reading, and digging deeper. The skimmers were never going to buy today anyway. Same story with your blog: the reader who makes it to the bottom of a 1,000-word post is telling you exactly who they are.

How Long Should Your Content Be?

Long enough to give the motivated buyer everything they need to move forward. That is the whole answer. Not "short because people do not read." Not "long because Google likes it." Enough information for the ready buyer to act with confidence.

Then add one more thing: a way for the unmotivated buyer to raise their hand. A free audit, a checklist, a quote request, a simple question form. They are not ready today, but their water heater is aging too. Capture the hand-raise, then follow up automatically until the day they become a motivated buyer. That is the system working the way it should.

Stop Optimizing for the Tire Kicker

Most businesses build their marketing for the wrong person. They chop the content short, strip out the details, and dumb down the page so the casual skimmer will not get bored. Then the motivated buyer shows up, cannot find the answers they need, and calls the competitor who published a real cost guide.

So the next time somebody says "nobody reads blogs," smile. They are optimizing for the tire kicker. You are writing for the three people about to call. Want to see how we build the whole system, from the content that attracts motivated buyers to the follow-up that converts the rest? Read what Mobi is and how it works or check out everything included in the system.