Blogging 101
When one thinks of a blog often they think of a how-to article written by a stay-at-home mom with a love for Pinterest. Blogging is actually a great way as a small business owner or organization to boost your company though. In fact, it is one of the most effective ways to build your brand awareness and is inexpensive.
Benefits of Having a Blog
Blogging consistently for your small business can help to drive traffic to your website by offering content that is not only relevant, but also grabs the attention of your audience. In fact, businesses that used blogging opposed to those that do not tend to have 67% more leads monthly and 55% more website visitors. Not only does blogging allow you to expand your engaged audience, but it also helps boost your Search Engine Optimization. By continually creating fresh content for search engines to index you increase your chances of being a top competitor in the search results, which is vital as well all know that almost no one clicks to the second page of search results.
Building trust with your audience and converting visitors into brand loyalists can be achieved well through blogging. Blogging allows you to establish yourself as an industry leader by showcasing your knowledge about the particular market you are in and this can lead to more inquiries about your business or conversions into repeat customers. You can also further your efforts by showing a more personal side of your business, allowing your audience to feel connected to you on a deeper level. Market trends today show that consumers buying habits are shaped more by how they feel about a particular brand rather than the product itself, they want to buy from companies they feel connected to or feel they can support what they represent.
Creating Content
Blogging sounds simple enough but oftentimes once people sit down to try to do it they can find themselves overwhelmed. Creating content on a consistent basis can seem daunting, especially if you are not a writer. However, there is no need to over-complicate it. Around 75% of your content should be about your particular industry or market. This should be something you are versed in as it is your field of expertise but if not chances are there is a wealth of content already out there that you can refer to in order to build your own piece. Don’t plagiarize of course, but you can find the information you need to be able to form a well thought out blog. Secondly, write the blog in your voice! Should it be well written and grammatically correct? Absolutely, but it should also have personality so that your audience can connect with you and not feel like they are reading a research paper.
Around 75% of your content should be about your particular industry or market.
Personal pieces or blogs that have very little or even nothing to do with your industry should take up the remaining 25% of your blog. These pieces offer your audience a way to connect to the people behind the company and form a stronger bond with your brand. Also, by writing about other topics that may have nothing to do with your industry allows you to bring people in who may have never stumbled upon your blog otherwise. This opens your company up to larger lead generation and broadens your target audience.
When writing your blog it is important to consider not only the relevancy of the majority of your content, but also how long it will be relevant for. Creating what is known as evergreen content can help you long term in your blogging and marketing efforts. Evergreen content is content that is relevant not just now but in the future also. By creating this kind of content you can market it over and over again, which should be the goal as creating content that you can only market once lacks impact. Evergreen content will give you the most bang for your buck and minimize your efforts in marketing your brand.
Blogging for the Win
Clearly, blogging is a powerful tool that should be a part of any business or organization’s marketing strategy. Not sure where to start? Contact XPAND Creative Co. to see how you can establish your blog and create content that impacts your audience.
Article by Christa McCauley