Blogging is a popular way for businesses to connect with their audience because it’s an effective way to build brand awareness, increase website traffic and generate leads.
Not sure if blogging is the right marketing tool for your business?
Here are 7 reasons why you should make blogging an integral part of your digital content mix and how you can leverage this powerful marketing tool:
IT BOOSTS YOUR SEO
One of the biggest benefits of blogging is the impact it can have on your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. Search engines like Google love fresh, relevant content and prioritise websites that publish high-quality content on a regular basis. By regularly publishing blog posts that target specific keywords related to your business, you can improve your website's SEO and increase your chances of ranking higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). Where share keyword tips later on in this article.
IT INCREASES WEBSITE TRAFFIC
Not only is blogging great for boosting your SEO, but it can also help drive more traffic to your website. When you publish a blog post, you give people a reason to visit your website and spend time exploring your content. By incorporating calls-to-action (CTAs) in your blog posts (such as links to other pages on your website or invitations to subscribe to your email list) you encourage visitors to engage with your brand and take further action.
IT ESTABLISHES YOU AS A THOUGHT LEADER
By sharing your expertise, insights, and opinions on relevant topics, you can position your business as a go-to source of information for your audience. This helps to build trust and credibility with your target market and can ultimately lead to increased brand loyalty and customer retention as a result.
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IT’S SHAREABLE
By sharing your blog posts on social media, you make it easy for your audience to access your blog content at the click of a button. If your blog post resonates with your audience, they may be more likely to share it with their own networks, giving you access to a whole new audience and market.
IT GENERATES LEADS
If you include lead magnets in your blog posts (such as downloadable resources or gated content) you can leverage your blog as a lead generation tool. To download your lead magnet your audience offers up their contact information which you can then use to follow up with them via email or other marketing channels. But with this power comes great responsibility: never abuse this access to your audience’s information.
IT PROVIDES VALUABLE INSIGHTS INTO YOUR AUDIENCE
By monitoring which blog posts get the most engagement, you can gain a better understanding of the topics that resonate with your audience and use this information to inform your content strategy moving forward. You can also monitor which CTAs are generating the most clicks, helping you optimise your blog posts to better support your marketing goals.
IT CAN GENERATE PASSIVE REVENUE
Including Amazon affiliate links helps generate passive income for your business. By sharing relevant products with your audience, you can literally make money while you sleep!
IT COSTS NOTHING BUT TIME
Compared to traditional advertising methods such as print ads or billboards, blogging is relatively inexpensive. While there is a level of investment in the form of your time and resources, creating high-quality content costs far less than other forms of advertising. Blogging also generates long-term value for your business as older blog posts continue to drive traffic and generate leads over time.
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Here are some guidelines for writing engaging blog posts that actually convert:
Focus on high-quality content: the topics you present and the resources you provide need to be well thought out and relevant for your audience.
Know your audience: what are their pain points and how can your blog content assist them with these? What do they want to know more about? What interests them? Learning what your audience is searching for is a great starting point for identifying key blog topics.
Incorporate your keywords into your blog posts, especially in your:
URL: E.g. www.blogname.com/blog/your-keyword.
Meta title: This is the title you see in Google search results.
Meta description: This is the paragraph that features beneath the meta title in Google search results.
Alt text: This is text you use to describe the images contained in your blog post -using alt text makes them “readable” for search engines.
Body copy: Incorporate your keywords into the body of the blog post, always ensuring they are a natural fit for the content. If you’re forcing the keywords into the copy in a spammy way, this could negatively impact your SEO.
Be regular about it: once a week, once a fortnight, once a month - it’s up to you and to a large extent what's best for your target market - but once you start, be consistent with your blog outputs.
Include CTAs: make it easy for your readers to take action as they read your blog post. Sign up for your course, give you a call, enter your giveaway - whatever it is, make it easy to see and follow through on.
Include images: this helps to break up all the copy and keeps it interesting for your readers.
If you're not already incorporating blogging into your marketing strategy, it’s never too late to start. By creating high-quality, relevant content that resonates with your audience, you’re able to build a strong online presence. If you’re short on time (or words), we can take care of this aspect for you. We write blog posts for businesses as varied as interior designers and recruitment agencies. Simply get in touch and share with us your blogging goals and we can take care of the rest!
