MARKETING STRATEGIES: IS BLOGGING STILL RELEVANT FOR YOUR BUSINESS?
Before social media took over as the main source of content for people to consume, blogging was the preferred way that influencers and businesses put out valuable information. It’s rare in 2022 to hear someone say that they are only a “Blogger”. The trending focus has been pushed heavily to shorter form posts and videos on various social media platforms.
The question that remains is whether or not blogging is still relevant. Is it still worth the time and energy to create longer-form, copy-heavy content? More specifically, is blogging still relevant for businesses and their marketing strategies?
It’s not as if blogs have completely disappeared or that no one is reading them anymore. There are still very successful blogs in the digital world that are being read religiously and still being discovered by new readers. In fact, you are reading a blog post right now, so you just busted that myth yourself!
The environment may have changed, but the truth is that, at the core, blogging is still a form of core content that has many benefits for businesses. We’ve put together a list of three reasons why you should still be blogging on your business website:
REASON #1: EXPERTISE, EDUCATION, AND ENTERTAINMENT
One of the goals of your website design and content is to keep viewers on your site longer. The more places they have to discover and read on your site, the greater the chance that they will engage and take action.
We ultimately want people to come to our website to be converted into paying clients/customers, and giving them more opportunities to get to know your business will help guide them down the sales funnel from discovery of your business all the way to conversion.
There are three main things that a blog can do for viewers on your website.
1. It can help establish that you (or your business) are an EXPERT at what you do! Blog posts are a great way to show off your knowledge and experience! Use long-form blog posts to answer FAQs, talk about trends in your industry, expand on thought leadership, and go into more detail about your services or products. Readers will think of you as a resource if you can write from an expert’s viewpoint.
2. It can EDUCATE your audience. You should want to deliver value to your website visitors even if they don’t convert into paying clients/customers. They may not be ready to click the BUY NOW button, but if you continue to educate them about your industry and niche, you’ll be the first person (or business) that they think of when they are ready. Or they’ll become big fans of yours and your name will be the first that they pass along to someone that needs you.
3. A blog can provide ENTERTAINMENT. No, this doesn’t mean that you have to write funny blog posts and keep the readers entertained in the same way that a tv show does. Entertainment encompasses any activity that someone engages in when they are wanting to relax or decompress. Reading is entertainment. Even if the subject matter is work-related, your viewers may be seeking out answers out of curiosity or exploring the topic because they have some free time. Whatever the reason, the fact is that a blog can bring visitors to your site - even if it’s only for casual reasons (this feeds into SEO, which we’ll cover soon - keep reading!).
REASON #2: THIS IS HOW YOU DO “CONTENT MARKETING”!
There is some general confusion around the term “Content Marketing”. Due to social media, there is a massive amount of content being created and put out into the digital world. However, the difference between “Content” and “Content Marketing” is the strategy behind it.
“Content Marketing” means that you create a longer-form written or video valuable content, publish it on your home base (your website) and then use other channels to market it and drive traffic to it.
For example, you write a blog post (this is your core piece of content) and then you create social media posts (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest) and an email to let people know about the blog post and provide a link for them to click to read it. Ta-da! You just drove traffic to your website.
You can also use this piece of core content as a resource to link to in other blog posts. It also gives you a way to collaborate with other businesses. They can use the link to refer their readers to your piece of content if it is relevant to what they are writing about.
If you would like to learn more about Content Marketing, our sister company, The Marketing Engine, has a great blog post all about it that YOU CAN READ HERE. (See what I did there?)
REASON #3: THE GOOGLE FACTOR
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is probably one of the most important reasons that you should still be blogging on your business website. If you aren’t, then you should probably start! You want and need to be seen by search engines - specifically Google - in order to be found by new people.
There is a myriad of reasons that blogging is imperative in order to be viewed favorably by Google. We’ll give you a few good ones:
Blogs give Google more to read about your business. When Google crawls your website, the more relevant info and text that is on your website, the more opportunity there is for Google to understand exactly what you do, who you are, and how you can help people that are searching for the things that you write about.
The more visitors that you are getting to your site to read your blog, the more it tells Google that people are actively seeking the info you provide and the services/products that you offer. This can increase the chances of Google seeing your business as a valuable resource and one that they may want to recommend to people. Wouldn’t it be awesome to have your business show up in Google searches?
Your actual blog post could show up in Google searches if it is a topic that people are searching for. This requires the use of searched Keywords and valuable content. With research and practice, you can write blog posts that Google would recommend. It is also worth noting that even though Pinterest is considered to be social media platform, it is essentially a large-scale search engine as well. Optimizing your Pinterest Pins that are linked to your website can give you access to a large audience.
(YouTube is actually the 2nd largest search engine in the world and is owned by Google. Using YouTube for video content is a topic we will cover in a future blog post!)
BLOGGING IS AN IMPORTANT PIECE OF YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY
The answer to the question “Is blogging still relevant for your business?” is a resounding YES!!! All of the reasons that we have given you should be enough for you to start brainstorming topics ASAP!
Still need help deciding if blogging is really worth the time and energy? Or if you fully agree, but need help with the strategy behind it or the creation (choosing the right topics and copywriting), we’d love to help point you in the right direction. Let’s start a conversation at www.jrcllc.org/contact