Blogging is more important than ever for your business. It has evolved from the days when only individuals had a blog and used them as a place to express their strong opinions. Today, brands use blogs to grow their businesses and expand their reach. B2B marketers that use blogs get 67% more leads than those that do not. (Source: Hubspot) Not sure how they do that? Let’s discuss.
What Blogging Does For Your Company
Drive Traffic
Blogging is an amazing way to drive traffic to your website and increase your SEO. The more your blog, the more content the search engines have to crawl and index. This means they can easily recognize that your site is a resource of information for people to access. Plus, you can use your blog to create content that your audience is encouraged to share with their connections. Companies who blog receive 97% more links to their website from other online sources. (Source: Hubspot) When you have people posting your content for you, that’s more eyes on your content for very little money. Talk about a win!
Build Credibility
A blog with useful content shows your audience and customers that you are a trusted source. Writing posts about topics they will find interesting and helpful shows them that you are more than just a business selling a service or product; it shows them that you care about spreading useful information in your industry. 47% of buyers view 3 to 5 pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep. (Source: Demand Gen Report, 2016) This shows the value of having the right content to prove your credibility and increase sales.
Start a Conversation
Blogging as a company is a great way to start a conversation directly with your audience. A common feature on many blogs is the comment section. Use your blogs to encourage people to give you feedback and thoughts. Don’t be afraid to ask a direct question and see what your audience has to say. You never know when someone may have a great idea or suggestion for your brand. Answering their questions shows them that you care about their opinions and humanizes the company.
Your Marketing Channels That Benefit From a Blog
Social Media
Ever struggle to find something to post to your company’s social media profiles? When you have a blog, you not only have great content to post but content that brings people back to your website. Social Media is a great outlet to push your blog content out to a targeted audience, growing your brand awareness. Plus, you can post blog content multiple times, highlighting different aspects of the post each time.
Email Marketing
Having a blog benefits your email marketing efforts two-fold. First, if you have a company newsletter or perform email promotions regularly, you can use your blog as great additional content. Create a section to highlight a featured blog post or recent blog posts, to your engaged audience. This reinforces their trust in your company and position as a thought leader. Second, a blog encourages new readers to subscribe. You’ll often see newsletter sign up fields on blogs for people who are interested in the current topic and would like to be informed of similar content. This, in turn, grows your email list!
What Content Goes on a Blog?
Your Brand Voice
If your company has a specific brand voice or view, a blog is your stage to showcase it! As previously mentioned, blogs help humanize your brand. We don’t all work at Mom and Pop shops, and many times bigger organizations are only seen as just that. The bigger the company, the harder it is to show your audience that there are real people with real lives working there to provide the service or product.
Audience-relevant topics
If your business is selling a product or service, you’ll definitely find opportunities to write blog posts around best practices or how-to’s that directly relate to that product or service. But, don’t be afraid to have a little fun and stretch your content outside of your normal business-specific realm. You know your audience better than anyone, so find and blog about other topics that they may be interested in. For example, if you are in real estate, your audience may consist of first-time home buyers and you can blog about helpful DIY’s that could come in handy.
Images and Videos
You’ve probably worked hard to create beautiful brand images and videos, and a blog is a perfect place to show that content. Images and videos keep your blog engaging, educational and fresh while conveying your personality and passion for the industry. Many times on the back end of your website you can easily drop in a YouTube or Vimeo link, or even directly upload image or video files. Then add a description, at least 300 words long for SEO purposes, and you’ve got a great blog post.
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