With so much happening online do you still need to blog for business?
With so much of our time spent online these days, there is a lot of emphasis by business owners on the bright shiny new and exciting elements of marketing. Fun things like chatbots, Instagram influencers, and other new opportunities to reach their customers, leave business owners asking “do you NEED to blog for business?”
One of the most effective ways to build brand awareness, while providing relevant and useful content to your target audience is through consistent blogging. According to Hubspot “Business blogging is a marketing tactic that uses blogging to get your business more online visibility. A business blog is a marketing channel (just like social media, direct mail, email marketing, etc.) that helps support business growth.”
(tl;dr Click here to Watch the Videos Below)
So, why blog? Apart from giving you content for Social Media, making it easier for Google to put your website in front your mutual clients, it also boosts your visibility as an expert. In fact, blogging is one of the most effective ways to build brand awareness, as it allows you to provide relevant and useful content to your ideal clients. Your expertise is up for all to see while helping you take that step closer to building relationships.
A business blog is a marketing channel (just like social media, direct mail, email marketing, etc.) that helps support business growth. Share on X
However when you develop content for your blog, there are a few things you need to keep top of mind:
- Know what you are talking about. It’s hard enough to write, let alone write about something that you don’t know.
- Understand and know your audience. Write about the things THEY want to know. While there are a number of personal blogs, when it comes to business there is no point talking about something that is completely irrelevant.
- Be different.
- Create attention grabbing headlines.
Know what you are talking about
In reality, blogging is HARD work. Why would you want to write about topics that aren’t in your zone of genius? I am a firm believer that you need to enjoy the work you do, so pick topics to write about that you know well. If a blog topic inspires you, more often than not, that passion and inspiration WILL come through in your writing.
Understand and know your audience
The best business blogs answer common questions their ideal clients and customers have. Think of common questions your ideal clients have and write a blog about that. If you’re consistently creating content that’s helpful for your target customer, it helps establish you as an authority in their eyes. It goes back to the marketing know, like and trust. The more your ideal clients comes to you for answers on a pressing problem, the more trust is built.
“Don’t focus on having a great blog. Focus on producing a blog that’s great for your readers.” Brian Clark Share on XBe different with your business blog
Blogs help drive traffic to your website which then converts that traffic into leads … if you have a unique voice and write with passion and inspiration mentioned above. You are not going to appeal to everybody, so write in way that is unique to your voice and message. There are millions of blogs on the internet, being different will ensure that your blog and your voice stands out to those clients you resonate with.
Create attention grabbing headlines
On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. According to David Ogilvy – “When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar!” In fact, Copyblogger states that 8 out of 10 people will read a headline however, only 2 out of 10 will actually click on it and read the rest. To get the most effect out of your content marketing or blogging, you really need to write amazing headlines that people feel compelled to click.
Give Search engines what they want
Search engines such as Google and Bing, have one core focus. To put to most relevant answer in front of their client (the person searching) in the fastest possible time. The key word in that sentence is “the most relevant answer”. Blogging, is also you telling Google what your website is about. Each time you add content in the form of a new blog, you give search engines another option to put in front of their clients. Of course this is a simplified explanation, but it is another reason to keep blogging. Likewise, great blog posts will attract links – which produce “link juice.” It is also this link juice is what makes your site look attractive to Google and other search engines, assisting your site in ranking more highly in search results (SEO).
Google & Bing, have one core focus, to put to most relevant answer in front of their client in the fastest possible time Share on XProviding the most relevant answer does’t mean writing simply for the sake of writing. For you blog to stand out it still need to be high-quality content that is:
👉 interesting;
👉 well-written;
👉 free of typos;
👉 offers valuable, surprising, or useful information.
As we humans are also very visual, including visual content such as photos or video make your blog more appealing to the eye as it breaks the text up into “readable” or consumable portions. If you’re not sure exactly what to write, the average word count of top ranked content in Google is between 1,140-1285 words. That is approximately 7 minutes worth of reading time, as opposed to the average 3 hours approximately it takes to write and optimise.
Finally if you are still not sold on the idea of blogging for you business, then maybe these statistic will help.
🎯 60% of consumers feel engaged/positive with a brand or company after reading custom content on their blog
🎯 On average, companies with blogs produce 67% more leads per month than those without
In reality, blogging is HARD work. You generate new blog post ideas, you write weekly or monthly content, then you promote posts via social media and email. At times, we all wonder whether our blogging efforts are paying off. Like everything online (and life in general) there are no overnight successes. It takes consistency, no different to social media or email marketing.
In conclusion
To keep things consistent, here are some tips to keep you focused on your blogging efforts:
👉 Commit to a publishing schedule. Plan it so that it works for you and for your readers. Don’t overstretch yourself. You don’t have to publish daily.
👉 Keep a list of blog post ideas. Whenever clients ask you questions, add them to your list.
👉 Outline your posts. This prevents you going into a myriad of irrelevant directions, and speeds up your writing and editing.
👉 Know your audience. Understand their desires, their secret wishes, and their dreams. Learn about what they’re struggling with, so you can help.
So there are my tips for Blogging and Content Marketing success. If you have any questions or simply want to chat, drop a comment below! Otherwise connect with me on your favourite Social media platform, as I am on nearly every one! If you don’t know how to pull this all together, every month, I hold Digital Success workshops focusing on different marketing elements. Obviously this month is Blogs and Content Marketing, however if you don’t live in my local vicinity, these workshops will soon be going online, giving me a great opportunity to take my own advice and meet my clients where they are at giving value.
So, if you are stuck or overwhelmed with Blogging or simply creating the right Marketing strategy for you and your ideal clients, I have a Blogging Workshop and Strategy Sessions available. If its time to get a Clear Action Plan, Digital Strategy Map & Checklists, you can check out the details here!
