Why every business should be blogging
Every business with a website should be blogging. There are a tonne of key reasons why you should be allocating time in your diary to blog. We’ve listed a few of the key ones.
But first, what is a blog?
- Your blog is a section on your website where you are publishing new content every day, week or month.
- It should be between 300 and 2500 words in length. The longer the blog, the better it will index (be picked up) by Google. So aim for more than less.
- Blogging on your website is an opportunity for your build trust with your audience and demonstrate that you are an expert in your field.
- According to HubSpot, B2B business that blog generate 67% more leads each month than those who do not blog at all.
How do I blog?
- Once you’ve written your masterpiece (for tips on best writing practices, check out our top tips), you need to publish it to your website.
- Depending on what platform your website is on, you should be able to login and publish a new blog post on your news or blog page.
- Once you’ve published your article (and proof read one more time), you need to share it with your audience. This means, posting to your business Facebook page, and LinkedIn Company page. You should also share on your personal social media profiles. You also need to email the article to your database.
What should I blog about?
- A blog is an opportunity to address your customer (or potential customers) pain points. Help them in the journey to becoming your customer.
- Think about your most commonly asked questions or concerns from potential customers, but also when you are talking with friends and family about your business. What do people want to know from you?
- Top tips, biggest mistakes, how to’s – these all rank well as blogs with a high value.
- Write about what you a passionate about
- Write to one person – specifically talking to one person. One customer you have in mind.
- Be a thought leader.
- Be authentic.
- Try not to use a blog as an outlet for your rants – remember you ultimately want people to want to use your services. You don’t want to come across as too negative.
- Don’t sell anything in your blog. Offer information and advice.
- You can certainly point a customer in the right direction – but a blog isn’t another place to broadcast your product/service and sell.
- Include a call to action. This could be a contact form or sign up to your mailing list. Be careful not to use a Buy Now CTA as you don’t want to put people off by selling unless appropriate.
- Use Keywords. To be found on Google, make sure you are using your keywords repeatedly (but where appropriate) throughout your blog.
- Have a great title to be found. Use your keywords and make your title POP!
Why should my business be blogging?
- SEO is the big one here (Search Engine Optimisation – meaning be found on Google). You want to be found on Google? You need to blog:
- You need to be pushing new, relevant content on your website for Google to index your website and show it in search results.
- If you are answering questions to people’s pain points, your content will show up, when people look to Google for answers.
- Use your keywords in your blog and your SEO will mean you are found by Google, hence potential customers.
- If you blog regularly, your content will be indexed by Google. You will get more traffic to your website from an audience looking to your service/ product as a solution.
- Build trust and foster a relationship
- By blogging regularly, you will build a following of people who come to you as a thought leader. They want to read what you are writing about. Use a blog to build a relationship with potential customers. As they get to know you and trust you, they will either convert to customers and or start recommending your to their colleagues, friends and family.
- Nurture your database
- No one wants to be spammed. If you only email your database with products you are selling or services that you are spruiking, you will get a high unsubscribe. You need to be adding value to your database. Give them something for free. Give them something of value in return for getting a direct pass straight into their inbox. A blog is your opportunity to add value without selling and nurturing your database.
- Website traffic
- Getting traffic to your website is the holy grail of retargeting and online advertising. Once they have visited your website, you can begin retargeting that customer by serving them with ads on social media and building that relationship. Note: make sure your website is compliant with the new GDPR privacy policy which you can read about here.
- Content
- A blog makes for perfect content to be published on your social media platforms and even used in social media advertising. You can offer value and keep it topical and 100% relevant to your audience.
Writing a blog can be time consuming and seem like a fruitless task when compared to the rest of your to do list. It is certainly something that you can outsource to experts (shout out if you want to know more about our fee for this service). Plenty of businesses keep it in-house. Some of our clients find a roster amongst the team works well. Everyone takes a turn to write something they are passionate about and or feel like sharing. A roster also keeps everyone accountable as no one wants to let the team down.
Whatever works for you, do it. Blogging is an integral part to any marketing strategy and shouldn’t be put in the ‘too hard’ basket. If you want to know more about how to implement blogging into your strategy, get in touch.