How do businesses often fail to grab the attention of potential customers? While initially a professional logo, beautiful pictures, and great product descriptions may catch the eye of visitors, without good content, those potential clients may not be converting into dollars. That’s because companies often forget what is being read or viewed on your page is the way people get the information they need to understand better the product or services you offer.
Likewise, having strong content helps people know why they should trust you to get the job done over a competitor. This specific content and/or blogging is an important way to showcase your expertise, giving authority to future customers on an on-going basis. Blogs also drive traffic to your website, give you tidbits to share on social media channels, and help you connect with people who are looking for what you do best.
Let’s look at what blogging is, why your business should start doing it, and why it’s so important for your digital marketing success.
First, What is Blogging?
Blogging is the act of regularly adding new content to your website.
This type of content isn’t usually found on your homepage or service pages. Instead, it appears in a separate area specified for blogs. This content is centered around what your business or industry does and is updated enough to keep people coming back to your website for more information.
Why Does Blogging Matter to Your Business?
Potential customers want to connect with brands and business more than ever. They want to get to know you and what you do. This helps build trust that you do know what you’re doing. According to Demand Metric, “Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional channels and generates 3x as many leads.” If you’re not providing them with the information they need to make that purchase or pick up the phone, they’re going to search for a how-to blog that may then direct them to your competitor’s page.
How Does Blogging Impact Your Digital Marketing Footprint?
Blogging on your website impacts more than just showing visitors what you know and what you can do. It helps other digital marketing channels succeed as well. Some examples include:
- SEO: Google loves fresh content. The more high-quality content on your website, the better the results. Adding new blogs to your website, helps Google see you’re invested in the future of your website. More blogs on a website also give you additional opportunities to rank for keywords that may not fit on your homepage, service, or secondary page.
- Social Media: Blogs give you another way to promote your website on social media channels. By pulling snippets from your blogs, you can send your followers to your website by sharing interesting information, news, and more, without having to create brand new content for social media.
- Email Marketing: Like social media, your blogs are another lend you another way to use email marketing to connect with past and future customers. You have an opportunity to talk about what is happening in your industry and a reason to send out a blast to your email list of people who have already expressed an interest in your company’s services.
Blogs are similarly used to create infographics, videos, podcasts, and more. You can take a single blog and redistribute it dozens of ways – it’s one of the only forms of marketing used this way.
You may be investing in one blog to start, but when that blog reaches potential customers in multiple ways, the return on investment (ROI) is higher than focusing efforts on a single digital marketing channel.
Common Questions We Get Asked About Blogging
Are you ready to start writing a blog or two, yet? Here are some of the most common questions about blogging to get you on your way.
What Should You Blog About?
Anything related to your business or industry. This can be news, how to do A, B, C, question and answer blurbs, or relate to anything you do. Make sure you’re focused on sharing accurate information and be sure to be as detailed as possible with exactly what you want to share with website visitors. High-quality posts backed by expertise – no matter the subject – are key to blogging successfully.
Should You Blog Yourself or Hire a Freelancer or Agency?
Hire a freelancer or an agency. Most businesses think they have all the time in the world to work on their marketing when in reality, they don’t. They’ll attempt to take on a task like blogging and are lucky if they get one blog up before they move on to running their business. Instead, try hiring a seasoned writer, preferably one who has industry knowledge. That expertise will craft an audience of followers who look to you as a credible source of information.
How Often Should You Blog?
This is a trick question. Blogging is more about consistency than it is about writing a blog every day. If you commit to writing one blog a month, make sure to write one blog a month. If you commit to more, stick to that. Your visitors will come to expect the same number of blogs around the same time as they get to know your website. By sticking to this schedule, you won’t disappoint them when they’re looking for something fresh to read from you.
How Long Should Your Blogs Be?
Blogs should only be as long as their intent. This means if you’re writing a how-to, your blog walks through every single step to complete the project. If you’re writing a news story, you want to share as many of the key details as possible. If you’re answering a question, answer the question – don’t fill it out with fluff. There’s no magic word count on the low end or high end that gets results; it’s all about fully capturing what the blog should be about from start to finish – nothing more, nothing less.
How Should You Promote Your Blogs?
Many businesses hope they write a blog and boom – it goes viral. That rarely happens. In fact, Ahrefs shared in a recent study, “ [That] 91% of content gets no traffic from Google.” Just because you build it doesn’t mean they will come. You have to invest in SEO for it. You have to promote it via social media and email marketing. You have to keep sharing it. You have to reach out to influencers and see what they think. By continuing to share it and putting it out into the world, you’re reaching new people. This promotion helps blogs get traction and get noticed.
We Challenge You to Write a Blog (Or 2) for Your Business This Month
Now that you’ve made your way through our blog about blogging, we challenge you to write a blog or two this month and see how it goes. But if the thought of staring at a blank page is daunting, it may be worth hiring a professional firm to catch the attention of customers.
A firm or agency like us will know what to ask you about your business, so they can formulate a blog talking about what’s going on in your industry or answer a common question from customers. Try it and see the impact it has on your business firsthand. Taking this simple action can help you leverage your page and beat the competition.
