As a content writer/marketer, the first questions I typically ask a prospective new client are: “What do you know about blogging?” (a general info question), and “What are your goals and objectives for your blog?” What I have found is that the majority of businesses know they “should” be blogging, but are unclear about the whys and seldom are they following a strategic content plan for their blog (if they already have a blog) or know they need a content plan in order to garner maximum ROI for their efforts. Regardless of whether you are a small or large business, strategic blogging should be at the top of your online marketing game plan.
Blogging can be described as a content marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience, and ultimately drive profitable customer action. however, for that to work, you need to be blogging strategically rather than haphazardly posting articles to your blog without a comprehensive game plan.
Having a strategic content plan for your blog will move you closer to your objectives and goals. Your content must also be valuable, relevant, and consistent to the people who read your blog or your target audience. Well-crafted blog content can draw traffic to your website, nurture and convert customers, keep current customers engaged, differentiate you from the rabble, increase demand and interest in your products and/or services, and be a resource for others to share on their own site or social media channels, further extending your reach.
Below are just a few of the many benefits you will derive from blogging along with a few pointers to get maximum ROI out of your blogging efforts:
Cumulative ROI
Over the years, I’ve witnessed firsthand the difference strategic (smart) blogging can make for a variety of businesses in terms of search visibility, leads, and sales — and that difference is night and day. Search engines love fresh, informative, and relevant content which is why keeping a consistent stream of high-quality content flowing through your blog one of the most effective ways to draw organic traffic from Google and the other search engines. Keyword research can tell you what your target audience is searching for so you can create quality content on those topics.
For the most part, blogging results or blogging ROI is cumulative and grows exponentially over time. Rather than looking for results from a single post, your entire blog or body of published posts works as a cohesive whole building authority/ranking, brand recognition, and increasing website traffic and conversion. Every new post you publish on your blog adds to the strength of the whole and is another opportunity for your target audience to find you.
Search Visibility
A site without a blog will have a hard time ranking for keyword phrases/long tail search queries. The more content or blog posts you have, the more chances you have to rank for various keywords. As part of the strategic content plan for your blog, you want to be focussing on specific long tail keywords in your blog posts. List out the keywords and topics you want your business to be found with and use these keyword phrases and related expressions when writing your posts.
Although blogging regularly about your business, industry, products, and/or services will naturally increase your search keywords, being intentional with your keywords/phrases will increase your results exponentially. As you continue to post to your blog, more content from your site becomes indexed in the search engines, improving search visibility and increasing website traffic.
Authority
Blogging is one of the best ways to establish yourself or your brand as an expert in your field, as it gives you a platform for sharing important and useful information and insights about your niche, market or industry. As you build up authority in your area of expertise or niche, this generates trust and familiarity, keeping you in mind when potential clients/customers are ready to pull the trigger and take action.
Blogging gives you an opportunity to share your voice and personality while building up trust and increasing your brand’s likeability factor. Effective content, delivered over a period of time can make you instantly recognizable, and a blog with high-quality content helps build brand loyalty, further increasing your conversion rate.
Inbound Links
Acquiring high-quality inbound links to your site is an important component of SEO, and without blogging, it can be fairly difficult to attract authoritative inbound links. According to HubSpot, businesses that consistently blog get up to 97% more inbound links. A blog that offers relevant, informative and useful content about a particular topic, market or industry serves as a resource, making it easier to naturally accumulate quality inbound links from others that cite or link to specific content in your blog in their own articles. Not only are inbound links important for SEO, they can generate significant referral traffic back to your site.
Social Sharing
Content from your blog can help keep your social media presence going. Instead of constantly having to come up with brand new, original content for social media, your blog can be used as a repository of content. As a matter of fact, it’s in the best interest of your site’s authority to have content originate within your blog before shooting it out to outside channels.
You can strengthen your social reach with blog content and drive new visitors to your blog via your social channels. Although links from social sites may not give you an authoritative backlink that benefits search engine ranking, a quality resource post can attract social sharing and generate significant referral traffic back to your site.
Older Posts
Even months after a blog post is published (sometimes years), it can continue to attract new leads and customers and help you increase sales. If an older post has aged like a fine wine and is ranking in the search results, you can continue to get significant traffic and leads from that blog post. According to Hubspot, more than three-quarters of their blog views are from older posts, which help drive 90% of their leads.
While it’s important to consistently create new posts, older posts can remain relevant to your readers for a long period of time. Older blog posts that have gained authority/ranking over time can be easily updated to stay relevant, and sometimes, all it only takes a few tweaks here or there for a post to continue to drive home qualified leads long after publishing.
Business Blogging Bottom Line
Blogging is one of the most valuable tools that businesses have in their online marketing arsenal to engage with customers and solidify their online presence. If you are currently not blogging or not sure if you need to be, it’s time to get off the fence, get started, or get left behind.
Professional, Optimized Blogging Services & Website Copywriting Services
If you’re interested in optimized content for your website or blog or need help with on-page SEO for the content that you already have, please give us a call today at 813-312-5606 or shoot us an email! We offer ongoing optimized blogging services, optimized content services, and on-page SEO services along with value-package-pricing.