Your Business Needs A Blog!

It wasn’t long ago that blogs were seen as the online equivalent of a diary; a place for young people to vent their opinions, share song lyrics and invite friends to leave comments. Nowadays, blogs haven’t changed that much at all – what has changed is the way that professional businesses have employed them as a method of indirect marketing and customer engagement.

Whether you post your blogs directly to your website, link them through social media, or send them out as part of your email marketing strategy, blogs are an integral piece of the content strategy jigsaw – and should be treated accordingly.

That means…

Let’s share an example.

Imagine that you find an interesting blog about something you’re looking into. The blog gives you the background information you need – you are impressed and check out the other blogs shared by that same business.

You discover that they are indeed an expert in your area of interest, so you decide to follow them and sign up to their mailing list. Eventually they advertise a printed guide that you purchase – entering their sales funnel and ultimately becoming a valued and loyal customer. All because of that first blog you found by chance.

Blogs give you credibility and allow your business to establish a name for itself as an accurate point of information for your select industry.

If you haven’t already, get to know your target audience. Where do they hang out online, what are they interested in, what kind of content are they already reading?

Once you have built up a profile, start creating content that is tailored for this audience. Answer questions they have and share content which sparks conversations and encourages interaction. A great way of doing this is to break a single blog into a series of social media posts that you can share and link back to the blog over a period of time. Social media is a great place to start conversations and will make your reader keep coming back for more.

Share blogs weekly or even fortnightly at first, as you establish your tone of voice and authority. It is better to post more valuable blogs less frequently, than to fill your website with rubbish.

As you grow more familiar with the concept of blogging, start bringing in guest bloggers on occasion from within the industry. Consider the value of adding someone else’s voice to your business, and interview and chat to other industry experts to gain their insight and stamp their seal of approval on your business.

Support your blogs with imagery, great captions, and even the occasional video where possible – everything you can do to add more personality and enhance the visibility of each blog.

Moving through the stages of building a successful blog can take time – but that doesn’t mean you can’t reap some of the benefits early on.

Blogs mean you have more to put out there, and more to drive traffic into your site with. Consumers can fast grow bored of the same product and service adverts and marketing slogans, but blogs will continue to entice readers and bring active and target customers onto your site in the search for content. Once they’re there, it’s up to you how you guide their journey across your site and whether you get them into a soft sell email opt in campaign, or a hard upsell.

Create shareable content that will help grow your audience. A strong headline can draw the attention of anyone, particularly when shared on a public site like Facebook – after all, how many random videos have you watched on your homepage just because the headline or title is compelling?

Blogs also make any business seem more welcoming and appealing – even financial and legal businesses! A blog is a great way to turn something industry specific and outwardly dull into something entertaining, inclusive, and easy to understand, making blogs the ideal tool for very corporate organisations struggling to engage their audience.

And then we have logistical benefits of blogs. The opportunity to embed links into content cannot be overlooked, as this is a crucial part of extending the customer journey as they take in your content. The more people read your blog, and the more they interact with it and click through to those links, the higher the blog will rank on Google and the longer it will appear relevant on search results for.

Blogging is a long game – but it’s worth the time it takes to create and finetune some valuable and engaging content.

If you’re not sure where to start, business and team introductions are always a fool proof way of establishing the personality and the people behind your brand – and can make for some nice social media links.

From there, successful blogging is a case of planning relevant, seasonal, and responsive content based on what is going on in your industry. If the industry makes an announcement or releases a new update, for example Google launching its Core Web Vitals in 2020, pick up on it and blog about it – sharing your take and interpretation. Establish yourself as knowledgeable in the industry and let your words market your skillset for you.

You might be surprised by the ROI on a single, valuable, and well-received blog post.