As a business, the marketing tactics you employ and how you strategize is crucial for success. In a market where companies have more competitors than ever and consumers are perpetually exposed to digital calls for attention, standing out takes dedication, planning and innovation. In this article, we discuss blogging for business, its marketing power and how it will help your company grow.
There are many digital marketing tools that will help your company grow and utilizing several of them will provide your business maximum benefit. Despite the sheer number of blog posts published per day (First Site Guide shares that the number is approximately 7 million) experts say that blogging is an essential marketing method and it’s never too late to begin. OptinMonster found that “77% of internet users read blogs,” which is almost four billion people. When you think of that massive number of people, it would be silly not to tap into that market and start a business blog, right?
What Is A Business Blog?
According to HubSpot blog, a business blog is defined as: “a marketing channel (just like social media, direct mail, email marketing, etc.) that helps support business growth. It does that by driving traffic to your website and providing opportunities for that traffic to convert in some way. Traffic for various businesses might convert differently — some aim to turn traffic into leads to hand over to a sales team, others may aim to convert traffic into customers via an online transaction — but ultimately, business blogging will initiate conversions that drive more business.”
Additionally, your blog will post content that is related to your business. For instance, Three Girls Media is a marketing and public relations agency, therefore our blog posts cover a wide range of topics from content creation, digital strategy and media relations to writing tips and more — all with the idea that each will benefit our target audience.
Benefits Of Blogging For Business
In a previous Three Girl blog post, Erika Taylor Montgomery shared that businesses that post 16 or more articles monthly receive 3.5 times more site traffic – a statistic that Oberlo found in 2021. Additionally, Quicksprout found that 61% of consumers will make a purchase based on a blog article. These numbers are major, proving that a consistent blogging strategy has the potential to significantly increase your visibility and influence consumer behavior.
Erika also shared in this article a few more benefits of blogging for business as a component of your company’s digital marketing strategy. “It helps by:
- Boosting your company’s visibility online through search engine optimization (SEO)
- Positioning yourself and your business as a go-to expert in your field
- Giving you access to a global audience
- Establishing credibility for your potential consumers
- Amplifying awareness and recognition of your brand”
Search Engine Optimization
What exactly is search engine optimization and why is it important? In their blog post, “What Is SEO?,” Moz defines search engine optimization as “a set of practices designed to improve the appearance and positioning of web pages in organic search results.” Furthermore, Moz describes organic search results as: “the unpaid listings on a search engine results page (SERP) that the search engine has determined are most relevant to the user’s query. Ads (in this context, PPC or pay-per-click ads) make up a significant portion of many SERPs. Organic search results are distinct from these ads in that they are positioned based on the search engine’s organic ranking algorithms rather than advertiser bids. You can’t pay for your page to rank higher in organic search results.”
As mentioned before, if posting 16 blog posts monthly has the potential to increase your website traffic 3.5 times, your posting schedule might initially seem daunting. HubSpot blog briefly summarizes the value of a rigorous blogging schedule in this article. They share that, “To make your website a valuable marketing asset, you need people to actually see it.” The overwhelming majority of consumers will find your business’s website through using search engines, so the importance of optimizing for search engines is crucial for your website to gain visibility. The article goes on to say:
“The more pages your website has, the more chances you have to rank in search engines. The problem is, you don’t just want to throw up random web pages all over your site. That would be a terrible user experience, and your site would quickly become a total mess. Business blogging is a solution to that conundrum. Every time you post a new blog post on your website, you have a new web page on your website, and it’s all housed under your blog so your website doesn’t get cluttered with pages here, there, and everywhere.
So, every time you publish a blog post and create a new web page, you create one more opportunity for your site to rank in search and appear for the queries people are entering into search engines.”
What’s more, with each new web page added to your business’s site as a blog post, that page is an additional opportunity for people to share your post on social media as well as link to your post from their blog, which extends your reach to a new audience and increases SEO. These opportunities are extremely powerful in helping generate new leads and increasing your customer base.
Building Relationships With Your Audience
Let’s dive into the many ways blogging for business provides a benefit to your audience and to your business. It’s clear that your company’s blog will need to cover topics that relate to your business and industry for your blogging strategy to be effective. If you produce high quality, engaging and informative pieces of content for your audience, you have the potential to establish credibility am
ong consumers and keep your current customer base engaged with your brand. Neal Schaffer drives this point home in an article saying: “the everyday consumer is smart and has a limited amount of time. They make informed choices, not only about what they want to buy, but what they want to read. It’s only by offering your reader something truly valuable, that you’ll get the conversation started.” In this case, the conversation is what positions you and your business as a reliable and trustworthy source of information and product, and provides a greater possibility of leading to a conversion.
How To Begin An Effective Blogging Strategy
Now that you know some important benefits of blogging for business, it’s time to develop your posting strategy and begin writing. At first, 16 blog posts monthly might seem steep. That is where a posting strategy will come in handy – by mapping out your content in advance and adhering to a schedule, you mitigate your challenges. CoSchedule provides helpful tips in this article for creating an outline and defining your blogging goals. In her article discussing how to create a content calendar, Three Girls’ Marketing & PR Specialist Danielle Winski shares what you have to gain from planning out your posts and more! In it, she shares valuable tips for blogging and other avenues for posting content. She writes that:
“Consistency and quality are critical to having a successful blog, yet when it comes to blogging for business as part of a content marketing strategy, these two essential ideas are often the most overlooked. Search engines are constantly looking for new, high-quality content so they can get the best possible information to users. When you’re not posting regularly, the search engines won’t know when to return to your website to catalog the latest information. By staying consistent you can actually train the search engines when to come back to your site.
It’s also important to post regularly for the benefit of your audience. If articles on your blog are dated, potential customers won’t have new, helpful information and will go elsewhere to find what they’re looking for. With many shoppers researching online, it’s important they see the latest and greatest from your brand, so they know you’re a thriving, up-to-date company. Make sure everything you take live on your blog will help – not hinder – your content marketing efforts.”
In the same article, Danielle shares the importance of an editorial calendar to: “clearly lay out your blog topic ideas and develop regular features, such as a monthly product review or bi-weekly recaps of industry news. By planning a quarter, half-year or a full year at a time, you can see the overall structure of your content topics. Looking ahead will also allow you to include upcoming events important to your business, industry and community.”
Of course, you’ll also need to consider the frequency of your posts. At first, you may want to start small as you gain experience. Focusing on numbers that are realistic and feasible for your business will have better results than low-quality, high-quantity posting.
Long Form Vs. Short Form Blog Posts
Another important factor to consider as you strategize your business blog is the length of your posts. According to Three Girls Media: “longer, in-depth blog posts perform better than short-form content. In fact, they are nine times more successful in lead generation than short posts. If you aim for around 2,300 – 2,500 words your blog post is sure to see positive results.” Content Powered discusses the benefits of long-form versus short-form content in a blog article, saying that long-form content can provide deeper insight, more examples, additional content features, increased search engine optimization and more. This isn’t to say that short-form content is useless, but its value is circumstantial. Most research shows that long-form content provides the most benefit.
Resources And Ideas
As you begin your blogging journey, you may find it difficult to constantly develop new topics. A strong topic needs to be created with the reader in mind: make it useful, timely, informative and simple. The first step to coming up with new blog topics is to brainstorm. Set aside time each quarter, and don’t be afraid to ask a friend or colleague for help if you need some fresh ideas. Also, make sure you keep a notebook handy or a file on your phone for ideas; you never know when inspiration will hit! Three Girls’ Copy Editor, Heather Cooper, shared some incredibly useful tips for thinking up innovative blogging topics in this article.
It’s important that you keep in mind how your blog reflects your business and your audience’s needs. Leadpages shares in their blog post Should Your Business Really Have a Blog? (And What Should Go on It?), “Your blog is your direct communication channel to your prospects, customers and colleagues.” They go on to share that: “the best business blogs answer questions customers have. If you’re consistently publishing content that’s helpful for your customers and potential customers, your blog will become a critical resource for your sales team, your customer support specialists, and your target demographic. Think of the impact of sharing an educational blog post you’ve written with a confused customer, who is on the verge of requesting a refund.” Equally, content that is interesting and engaging further differentiates you from your competitors and has a stronger impact on your audience.
A business blogging strategy is a low cost and highly effective method of marketing to help your business stand out, increase organic website traffic, establish relationships with your audience, generate leads and much more. Despite the high quantity of blogs, research shows a consistent posting schedule can drastically improve your online presence and help you reach your goals.
Do You Need Help Blogging For Business?
Blogging for business can have enormous benefits when done right, and it can be something that anyone can learn – if they want to. There may be times however, when outsourcing your content creation may be in your business’s best interest. This is where Three Girls Media can help. Three Girls Media offers blogging for business services to help your company succeed. With completely customizable plans, our team of writing experts can take your blog posts to the next level. Contact us today for a complimentary, 30-minute consultation with our CEO, Erika Taylor Montgomery, to see what we can do for you!