Blogs have been around for roughly 30 years – practically an eternity in the grand scope of technology development. In its earliest form, blogging was a way for people to post content online about their personal lives and interests. But it wasn’t long before businesses started to see the benefits.
Blogging has evolved into a strategic tool for business growth and helps businesses in three major ways:
- It gets a business’s brand voice out to the world
- It provides a direct channel to reach and educate target audiences
- It helps generate high-quality leads and revenue
To understand how to use blogging effectively to grow your business, it helps to first define the concept of blogging and explore its key benefits.
What is a blog?
A blog is a compilation of written articles and other media such as images, video, and audio, aiming to educate, instruct, or provide your target audience with insight about topics that somehow relate to your brand or brand values.
As a key form of content marketing, blogs also help businesses develop relationships with potential customers and establish credibility as experts and thought leaders. For instance, a blog for a mattress company might include content about the health benefits of sleep, considerations when choosing a new mattress, and whether bedsheet thread count really matters.
5 Benefits of Blogging
Web solutions company WebTribunal estimates that there are more than 600 million blogs on the internet, with 6 million posts going online every day. So, why is blogging still so popular?
1. A blog helps establish a unique brand voice
A “brand voice” is a company’s unique personality that helps it connect with customers and prospects and stand out from the competition. A brand voice can be friendly, formal, playful, serious, or any number of relatable characteristics that appeal to a brand’s core market.
BLOGGING CAN BE AN EFFECTIVE MARKETING TACTIC FOR CRAFTING A BRAND VOICE, REACHING AND HELPING NEW PROSPECTS, AND CAREFULLY GUIDING THEM DOWN THE MARKETING AND SALES FUNNELS.
2. Blogs help build trust with customers and prospects
Trusted business relationships take time to form. Frequently updating blogs with new, authentic content that helps followers resolve their questions, or teaches them about a new topic, helps build trust. Blogs can be an effective way to gain credibility with your target audience, many of whom simply want to learn about a topic before committing to purchasing a product or service.
3. Blogs help attract people interested in something related to your company
Business blogs are a form of “pull marketing” – also known as inbound marketing – that aims to attract customers and build loyalty with high-quality content that isn’t purely about products and services. With blogs, followers decide to come to you because they’re interested in a topic, increasing the likelihood they may be more interested in learning about your offerings, either now or as their interest builds.
4. Blogs help boost search ranking and drive traffic
A regularly updated, search engine-optimised, high-quality business blog helps ranks higher on search engine results. Analysis by SEO company Backlinko shows the top three organic (not paid) search results on Google receive 54.4% of all clicks. Backlinks from other sites to your blog also help drive more traffic, as does internal linking between your blogs and social media posts that promote new blog posts.
5. Blogs help turn visitors into leads
People who read your business blog are already curious about the topics being written about. Adding content that encourages other actions – for example, signing up for a newsletter, attending a webinar, downloading a white paper, or requesting a product demo – helps identify those with a deeper level of interest and potential to become customers. These leads, assuming they’re marketing-qualified, can then be passed to the sales team to pursue.
How to create a blog strategy
A well-thought-out blog strategy is the foundation of a successful business blog. Here are some cornerstones to consider when building or refreshing a blog strategy.
Cover topics customers care about
A good blog strategy starts with a content calendar, with blog topics chosen based on what would resonate most with your target audience. Looking up relevant and frequently searched terms related to your business is a good way to get the ball rolling, but you should also ask yourself a few key questions:
- Why would existing and potential customers want to engage with this?
- What matters to them?
- What information do they need to be happier and more productive?
These questions help you frame content most effectively and discover blog angles that best resonate with your target audience, maximising your chances of success.
Focus on consistency and frequency
It’s difficult to establish credibility, authority, and reliability, let alone rank high in search engine results, without a consistent content flow. It's best to aim for two to four blog posts a week, though frequency will depend on your company’s resources.
Focus on quality
In addition to a consistent publishing schedule, ensure content is factually accurate and helpful. To attract and keep your blog visitors, posts need to be well-written, engaging, and topical. They also should be free of spelling and punctuation errors.
Prioritise SEO
Blogs that are optimised for search – based on solid keyword research, for instance – rise above competing content. It may make sense to review existing content, as it could negate your efforts if it isn’t optimised properly. You may want to consider working with an SEO agency or consultant to get things started, depending on your available budget.
Decide who will create the content
High-quality content requires talented writers, editors, and subject-matter experts who can clearly communicate complicated topics. If you don’t have those resources internally, it may be more cost-effective to hire freelancers or a content marketing agency, rather than a full-time writer.
Measure blog performance
Blog performance should be continually monitored using web analytics tools that track, for example, the number of page views, average time spent on pages, average pages per session, number of returning visitors, and goal conversion rate.
Blog posts with a relatively high number of page views help you understand what readers are interested in and may inform future posts. In addition, you can follow a person’s journey, from blog visitor to sales-qualified lead to bona fide customer.
This step underscores the purpose of the blog in the first place and, perhaps, justifies an increased budget. While web analytics tools range in price, many of them are free or offer trial periods, so you can experiment with what works best for your business.
The takeaway
Blogging can be an effective marketing tactic for crafting a brand voice, reaching new prospects, and carefully guiding them down the marketing and sales funnels. Creating a successful blog takes planning and commitment, but over time, a reliable blog can be one of your company’s best business assets.