A new study on blog influ­ence found many con­sumers rely on blogs for unbi­ased opin­ions and exper­tise when con­sid­er­ing pur­chas­es, mak­ing blogs an influ­en­tial plat­form for mar­keters try­ing to reach con­sumers with mon­ey to spend.

Mar­keters may have an oppor­tu­ni­ty to fur­ther con­nect with con­sumers on blogs. That’s accord­ing to the lat­est research from dig­i­tal data col­lec­tion provider Research Now Group, which looked at what appeals to blog read­ers, how read­ers react to adver­tis­ing on blogs and prod­uct pro­mo­tion by writ­ers, and the influ­ence of blogs on con­sumer pur­chase deci­sions.

The study found two in three respon­dents read blogs at least a few times per week. And, of those con­sumers, a whop­ping 84 per­cent buy prod­ucts based on the con­tent of a blog in part because con­sumers read­ing blogs are “usu­al­ly look­ing for an unbi­ased opin­ion and exper­tise from a blog­ger when they are already con­sid­er­ing a pur­chase,” accord­ing to Research Now.

In addi­tion, 46 per­cent of con­sumers who have pre­vi­ous­ly made a pur­chase based on some­thing they read on a blog say they turn to blogs when they’re first inves­ti­gat­ing a prod­uct and 43 per­cent say they turn to blogs when they are look­ing for inspi­ra­tion. An addi­tion­al one-third say they read blogs when they have nar­rowed their options down and 30 per­cent vis­it in order to con­firm their choice toward the end of their pur­chase jour­ney.

The most pop­u­lar blogs include those about food and drink, crafts, gar­den­ing and sewing, and cul­ture and enter­tain­ment, accord­ing to the study.

In addi­tion, younger con­sumers said they read blogs about celebri­ty cul­ture and health and beau­ty and are much more inter­est­ed in blogs writ­ten by celebri­ties than old­er con­sumers. In fact, per Research Now, more than one-quar­ter of 18-to-34-year-olds say they would read a blog writ­ten by a celebri­ty, com­pared to 7 per­cent of those over 55.

The study also found women val­ue advice from their friends and fam­i­ly above all else, while men val­ue the advice of blogs most high­ly. And 45 per­cent of con­sumers have con­tact­ed a blog­ger to ask a ques­tion when con­sid­er­ing pur­chas­ing a prod­uct.

How­ev­er, respon­dents also said they are more put off by paid con­tent than they are by adver­tis­ing. In fact, 36 per­cent said one of the rea­sons they’re dis­cour­aged from read­ing a blog is that it con­tains paid con­tent, but 52 per­cent said they read blogs that con­tain adver­tis­ing.

Research Now also says con­sumers val­ue the qual­i­ty of writ­ing of a blog­ger, cit­ing poor writ­ing qual­i­ty as the top rea­son for being dis­cour­aged from read­ing a blog and 43 per­cent said they are dis­cour­aged from read­ing a blog if an author has “an inflat­ed ego.” An addi­tion­al 53 per­cent said a good per­son­al­i­ty encour­ages them to return to a blog.

The study includ­ed 1,000 UK respon­dents who read blogs at least once a month.

Do you use a blog to con­nect with your con­sumers? Do you have any tips?