No matter where you go on social media or websites you visit nowadays, everyone is blogging. One of the first and most essential pieces of inbound marketing that I recommend clients work on is a well-written and informational blog. You may think that when it comes to writing your own blog, there’s nothing to it – just write about what you do and send it out, right? Wrong! There is so much more to writing a blog properly for inbound marketing and doing it right will add so much value to your business. Here is how blogging will benefit your business if you do it right.
Helps with Social Media
More blogs mean more chances to post high quality, relevant posts on social media. After you post a blog, sharing it on social media helps to spread the word and get people to read your valuable content. When you post more frequently on social media, your followers and customers are more likely to engage with your business and visit your website. With a well-crafted inbound marketing approach, these visitors turn into leads, and subsequently, customers. Social content is also easier to like and share, so your messages can reach more people.
Drives Traffic to Your Site Though SEO
Blog posts on your website are indexed by search engines like Google and Bing. So, every blog you post gives you another chance to get your site to appear higher in the search results. Although continuing to target specific keywords eventually increases your site rank, you can’t change your static website pages all the time. This is where blogs come in to provide another opportunity to add relevant and diverse keywords to your site, along with high-quality content. Not to mention the ability to create enticing meta descriptions and meta titles on each blog!
Creates Quality Leads
A well-written blog provides well-researched and relevant information that your reader will value. This means that blogs can create leads by generating interest in your business and initiating visitors onto the buyers’ journey. Use your blogs to educate readers so much that they feel it is necessary to keep reading through your content. Eventually, they will see you as a trusted resource and return to your blog for answers down the line.
Nurtures Leads Along the Buyer’s Journey
Nurtures Leads Along the Buyer’s JourneyA blog will not only educate your readers but it can also be used as a great tool to nurture them down the buyers’ journey. What I mean by that is if your reader is in the Awareness Stage of their journey, they are reading about a potential problem they are experiencing. At the end of your blog, it would be a good idea to link to another blog on how to solve the problem, leading them into the Consideration Stage. From there, you can lead them further into the Decision Stage where you explain how your company may be able to help them with the issue.
>> Learn more about the Online Buyer’s Journey here!
Establishes You as an Industry Leader
Great blogs also help to establish you as a leader in your industry and help craft the image of your brand as a trusted and reliable source. When customers or leads see you as an expert, they’re more likely to turn to you when issues or questions arise, meaning that you’re the first company to get their business when they need you.
Provides More Calls-To-Action
Every blog you create offers another opportunity to invite your readers to act using call-to-actions. These CTA’s may be to read additional content on your subject, download a free offer, contact you for help, or whatever action matches the buyer’s journey stage your blog fits into. It is very important that you include a CTA that fits into the buyer’s journey stage to increase click-throughs! If you are writing a blog about an issue that a reader isn’t sure they have yet, it does not make sense to offer a free consultation at the end. Instead, you would want to link to more blogs to identify their issue or possibly a free informative e-book on the subject.
>>Learn How to Create Powerful CTA’s
Your Customers Get to Know You
Sharing your expert knowledge and personal experience helps to show a side of your personality and playfulness. That’s the great thing about blogs, you can have fun with the content and be more relaxed than for your static website content. This helps your customers to get to know you, and see how great it would be to work with you.
You Get To Know Your Customers
More blogs mean more website visitors, and more website visitors means more data about those visitors! Use your customer data to identify who is reading your blogs and which blogs they are most interested in. You can gain a lot of insight as to what your readers want to hear about going forward.
On top of using your data for blog topic purposes, blogs also invite conversations with the allowance of commenting which is a useful way of interacting with customers.
Blogging is a great way to boost leads and make use of SEO benefits, so if you’re not already blogging, why not start? Become a trusted resource to your audience. Show them why you are an expert in your field and why they should eventually come to you when they need help. Use blogging to your advantage and start increasing your online leads!
