There are some people that wonder why blogging is important in today’s social media marketing environment.
Regardless if you are a small business or a multinational company, blogging is integral to your online content marketing strategy.
Still wondering why blogging is important? Here are 7 benefits of blogging:
- Drive traffic to your website
- Increase your SEO/ SERP
- Position your brand as a leader in your industry
- Develop better customer relationships
- Create content for social media
- Generate leads
- Blog posts drive long-term results
1. Drive traffic to your website:
Perhaps the most important reason why blogging is important is that it gives you the opportunity to create relevant content for your target audience. Use this as a marketing strategy to push traffic back to your website.
Make the blog on your website the foundation for all of your social media platforms.
Your business might be on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, or anywhere else. Post links – with relevant visuals – of your blog articles to your social sites. Give your social followers a reason to click through to your website.
Additionally, post inbound links directly in your blog articles, to push traffic to specific landing pages of your website.
2. Increase your SEO/SERP:
Blogs increase your SEO. Fresh content is still a key to beating out your competitors on the search engine results page.
Use keywords in your articles. List out the keywords, topics, and categories you want your business to be found with. Use these words, and related expressions when writing your posts.
Of course, whether you actively seek these out or not, blogging regularly about your business, industry, product, or customer lifestyle will naturally increase your search keywords. Being intent about your words will only increase results.
Keywords and topics on your website are a significant way in which Google (and other search engines) find your site for these searched words.
3. Position your brand as a leader in your industry:
Having an amateur-looking blog can be detrimental to your online business.
On the other hand, having a well-kept blog with lots of excellent blog posts demonstrates your company as an industry leader. By posting topics that resonate with your market and show your knowledge, you are marketing your skills for your business, service, or product too.
If you are a retailer, for example, write blog posts about your products. Your customers will get to know you as the knowledge source for the products they want.
If you are in B2B, post articulate, well-researched articles about your service. Become the hub or the place to be, for your field.
You are building trust, too. The more you can show that you are well-versed in your field, the more likely your consumer will trust you to supply what they need.
Your customers additionally benefit from the learning you provide them.
4. Develop better customer relationships:
Blogs provide another source to deepen the connection with your customers. By connecting directly to your website, your clients are able to get to know your business or product from the comfort of your online home base.
Use this. Again, build trust by being a source of information. Consumers like to be informed, and appreciate that you are the one teaching them.
Additionally, just as on your other social sites, respond to comments and interact with your consumer. If they have questions about a product you are writing about, respond to them directly on your website. Unlike many social sites, a blog is generally searchable on your site for some time. Your website comments last longer than on a Twitter response or Facebook post. Other customers will see your interactions too.
5. Create content for social media:
Your blog posts are great pieces of content that you can share across various social media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Pinterest. This is a great way to attract new and potential customers that may not have heard of your business yet.
Repurposing your blog content is a fantastic way for you to keep your social media presence active without having to constantly create new content.
Using blog posts as part of your social media content marketing strategy also means that you’ll drive more website visitors to your blog.
6. Generate leads:
Blogging is a great way over converting visitors into leads. Since each blog post is indexed by search engines separately, it presents an opportunity to generate leads if you add a call-to-action to the post.
These call-to-actions can lead to offers such as free ebooks, whitepapers, templates, trials, or any other type of content that people would trade for their information.
While this might seem a bit tricky to set up, it’s actually really simple and only requires a few steps:
- Create a piece of content that provides enough value to your visitors that they’ll exchange their information for it.
- Using a popup or banner, add your call-to-action to your blog post offering your free content.
- Set up a landing page where you’ll send people if they click your call-to-action where you can capture their information.
- Once the visitor has provided you with their information, they will be automatically given access to the promised content.
Looking for an example of a lead-generating call-to-action? Check out ours below!
Want a complete guide to ecommerce marketing?
Click below to download Wishpond’s Ecommerce Guide to Online Marketing totally free.
7. Blog posts drive long-term results:
Imagine not having to spend money on targeted ads or constantly posting on social media in order to drive people to your website. Blogging helps you do just that.
How you might ask? You can thank the search engine.
Let’s say you publish a blog post. While you might get a burst of traffic in the days after it goes live because the post is now ranked, it will continue to drive people to your website for months or even years to come.
Many businesses, especially those who are in the growth stage, are hesitant to start a blog because of the workload, especially content creation. Consistent publishing of quality content along with right marketing strategies, you can get many benefits from blogging.
However, if you are also hesitant to start just because of content creation, consider outsourcing it. There are many platforms where you can look for writers, i.e., Upwork and Fiverr, or post a job to get applications from candidates, i.e, ProBlogger. Indeed, hiring a good fit isn’t easy, but if you follow a stepwise hiring process,and treat every applicant with respect –whether you accept or reject their services –word will soon get around and you’ll manage to form a good network of reliable vendors and easy referrals. With these things will become easier.
With a clear understanding of what you want and what factors you will be noticing to shortlist candidates, you can definitely find a great writer to help you with content creation.
[“source=wishpond”]