Blogging used to be more of an individual activity, but now it is a must-have marketing strategy for any business. You may not even realize how many blogs you come across in a day. Many of the web pages that show up in a Google search are blog posts. A lot of the links you see in social media posts and marketing emails are also blog posts. Read on to learn more about blog marketing for your business—why it works, how it works, and how you can start a blog marketing strategy to increase your visibility and gain more customers for your business.
Why Blog Marketing Works
Blogging is a key marketing tool for any business, and one of our 18 recommended ways to promote your business without money. In fact, having a blog is not optional anymore; it’s mandatory if you want to increase sales and boost your business’ success.
Drive Website Traffic
One of the major benefits of blog marketing is that it drives traffic to your website. And it’s not just any traffic—it’s traffic highly relevant to your business.
Without a blog, you are limited to just your few website pages for online searchers to find you in Google search results. These pages tend to have few relevant keywords and are not updated frequently enough to show up high on searches. Blogs, however, are traffic magnets. Google indexes blog posts much more quickly than other pages. You can drive a good amount of focused traffic to your website by integrating relevant keywords into your blog posts.
Gain Credibility
Another benefit of blog marketing is that it allows you to showcase yourself as an industry expert. If you post well-written and valuable content relevant to your product or which focuses on helping your customers with their issues, you’ll build a community of visitors around your website and blog. This community involves new prospects who come across your business via Google search, existing website visitors who found your content useful and return for more, and social media users who share your content. Experts get topics buzzing. You’ll leave your competitors in the dust once you establish yourself as the go-to source for content pertaining to your industry.
Related eBook: Business Blogging 101
Build Your Brand
Lastly, having a blog helps you connect with customers because it is an outlet for your brand voice. When you provide useful and relevant information in a conversational manner, you resonate and built trust with your audience. A blog provides portal through which to engage with your current and potential customers.
Blog Marketing Ideas for Business
No one said blogging was easy, but it doesn’t have to be hard. Often, the most difficult part about blogging is coming up with blog topic ideas. If you’re going to invest the time into a blog, it needs to be a good one. One that drives traffic to your website and customers to your business. It’s vital that you develop content that’s actually interesting to your audience. It needs to be content that is engaging and, most importantly, useful. Customers should be motivated to check back on your blog regularly because its content is so valuable.
However, many business owners wait until they have the perfect idea to get started blogging. But perfection is unattainable and time is ticking. You’ll be more likely to show up in a Google search if you post 5 almost-perfect blog posts than 1 perfect one.
We’ve written some tips on how to write your first blog post, but here are a few more company blog post ideas to get you started:
How-to Posts
How-to’s are always popular and are often listed in the top of recommended blog post formats because consumers respond well to them. However, for a how-to post to be successful, it needs to be comprehensive. Don’t provide your customers with a bare-bones list of bullet points of general tips that can easily be found with a quick Google search.
Really dive into the subject and provide them genuinely good advice. You want your customers to walk away from your posts with a good understanding of what you are trying to teach in the post, and feeling equipped with avant-garde tips and advice that they’ve never heard anywhere else.
List Posts
List posts are another popular blog post format. However, with so many list posts out there, how do you make yours stand out? The answer is, make it massive. Create a list with 100 entries or even more. Your blog is bound to get more clicks.
Long-form Though Piece
Not all valuable posts need to be a massive list or a comprehensive how-to. A well thought-out, philosophical piece is often just what you need to break the mold and draw people in. Try to “wow” readers with a new way of thinking or a new idea within a few paragraphs, and watch as traffic flows in and your content is shared and circulated.
Hard Truth Posts
Connect with customers by getting real with your blog marketing. Lift the curtain behind your industry and unveil a “hard truth.” While it’s not the most fun thing in the world to be transparent and blatant, your customers will view your post, however brutal, as testament to your honesty and trustworthiness.
Related eBook: 130 Blog Post Ideas.
How Long Should Blog Posts Be?
Length is key when it comes blog marketing. Too long and you’ll lose your readers; too short and you’ll lack substance. So how long should blog posts be?
Unfortunately, there is no magic number. When it comes to blog posts, there is no single, standard length threshold. It really depends on the content of your blog. How-to posts are the perfect format for a longer blog post, which fare better on search engines because they can incorporate more keywords and backlinks.
For more simple posts, fewer words are your best bet. Attention spans are short these days, and if you have something valuable to say, you should say it right away. Don’t make your readers dig through a slew of empty paragraphs in order to reach your main point. If you’re looking to rank for SEO purposes, longer form posts around 1,000 words are ideal, but a shorter post is better than nothing.
When it comes to blog marketing always remember that content is key. Never use blog posts simply as fodder for stuffing in keywords. Your company’s blog is a way of gaining followership and credibility, and attracting customers to engage with you. Blogging is a key aspect of your business’s “likeability” and should be treated with great care and respect. What you put into your blog posts, you get out. So invest generously—the results will be well worth it.
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