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Are you still following traditional marketing for your business? Do you think that blogging is overrated and unnecessary? Think again.
A recent study conducted by Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs revealed that 80% of B2B marketers use blogs as a major content marketing tactic for their businesses.
What does this information mean for your business?
Put in simple words it means that if your business is not represented on the internet adequately, you are at the losing end. If you think you would rather not manage social media, a blog and website on your own, perhaps you should consider joining hands with someone who does.
Having a Blog has several advantages. Let’s look at just ten of them.
ONE: A Blog is a Good Way to Share Information About Your Products and Services
If you want to convince an existing or potential customer that you care about them, get involved in what they need or want. If they need information to make better choices, help them.
A blog is an excellent place to share information about your products and services. Discuss issues that concern your customers and help them analyze information which will benefit them.
Here are some examples:
1. 4 Ways to Reduce Your Bounce Rate with Optinmonster
This article throws light on some good ideas to increase customer engagement or involvement in your site. These suggestions are very useful to prevent people from bouncing off or exiting your site quickly.
2. What Gets Your Audience Excited to Opt-in? Find Out with Our New Split Testing Tool
Leadpages launched a landing page builder, which helps in running split tests. Split tests are experiments conducted with the sole aim of improving a website’s performance, such as clicks, form completions or purchases.
TWO: Become a Teacher or Trainer
Run a tutorial. Share your expertise. Doing so will not only create a positive image for your business, it will cause readers to come back for more.
You can write ‘How-to guides’ or share tips and solutions. You can also share video blogs (Vlogs) or podcasts that will enrich them.
Check out these examples:
1. Kerala Hotel Booking Guide – How to Select a Hotel of Your Choice
This Blog is doing an excellent job in helping visitors to Kerala in planning a tour on their own. The blog’s success is evident from the fact that it has crossed 3800 viewers per month.
2. How to Submit Android App to Google Play Store
This article on ‘How to Submit Android App To Google Play Store’ is very informative and helps those who develop apps for Android devices to learn how to submit their app to Google Play Store in a simple step by step manner.
THREE: Welcome Free Traffic through Search Engines
You have the answers to what many people are searching for online. Good quality articles get found easily through search engines and get shared a lot too. Imagine how much you could benefit from this.
Examples of blogs that add traffic to a website:
1. Plan Your Kerala Tour: A Step by Step Guide
If you search online and type ‘planning a trip to Kerala’, you will find this website ranks high on search engine results. The site gets over 4000 visitors each month.
2. 50+ PicMonkey Resources to Make Your Design Shine
PicMonkey is a photo editing service that is excellent for meeting graphic designing needs. This Blog post is very helpful for anyone who wants to start using PicMonkey for their editing needs. This blog post was published in 2014 and is still doing a great job informing people as it gets shared a lot.
FOUR: Share Expertise and Become a Thought Leader in Your Industry
If you have many years of experience in your field you can use it to your advantage. Sharing your expertise with others does a lot more than just benefiting others, it benefits you too. It adds to your personal and company profile. It moves you up from among the ranks and gives you exposure as a thought leader in your industry.
Examples of blogs that inform, educate and lead too:
1. The Ultimate Guide to Make Money Online
This article tells you everything you need to know to start making money online. It is helpful to everyone, including freelancers, businesses with products to sell and services to offer too. It is very resourceful, informative and easy to understand.
2. CSS Preprocessors – Powerful Tools for Smarter Styling of Web Pages and User Interfaces
This article gives information on CSS Preprocessors, which are powerful tools used to style web pages and user interfaces. They are excellent time-saving tools that make it easier for developers to manage the code.
FIVE: Involve Your Customers through Your Blog
A Blog can be a tool that increases customer loyalty and helps you respond to their queries and needs positively. It is also helpful in getting to know your customers better and having a dialogue with them. Even if a customer complains about a service through a comment, you can turn it around to your advantage by responding to it positively. Doing so in a timely manner will help you gain the trust of the customer and it will impact other customers too in a positive way.
Examples of blogs that linked well with customers and readers:
1. How to Improve Communication Inside Your Company
Michael Hyatt invited questions from his readers about leadership, publishing, business, his job as a CEO and work/life balance and received numerous questions. His blog currently has 703,972 subscribers which is proof of the amazing success he enjoys.
2. A Few Blogging Questions and My Answers
Harsh Agrawal tackles questions from his readers in a set of blog posts. This post has a lot of relevant information on blogging.
SIX: Associate with the Top Leaders and Influencers in the Industry
Make your Blog a must-visit site by inviting and interviewing top leaders and influencers from the industry. Having conversations with the go-to experts from the field will have a positive impact on your profile and generate a following for your Blog too. Networking with experts and leaders from your industry and maintaining good ties within the industry will add to your reputation too.
Here are some blogs that included content from the experts in the field:
1. 146: The Strategic Advantage of Creative Thinking: Interview with Rob Levit
In this blog post, Jeff Goins interviewed creativity expert Rob Levit on why people are afraid to take risks, how to manage time, and why talent is a gift.
2. Rapid Listbuilding 2.0 with Pat Flynn and Clay Collins [Webinar Replay]
Pat Flynn and Clay Collins share seven different proven strategies that can be used to increase conversions into your email list. The video they shared is a replay of their webinar on Rapid Listbuilding 2.0 Workshop.
SEVEN: Generate Marketing Leads through Your Blog
Blogs give you the opportunity to invite readers to sign up to receive a free gift, a report or the chance to attend a webinar. Often termed to be ‘ethical bribes’, these freebies are usually placed at the end of the blog. These ‘Call-to-action’ invitations are a definite means to get new leads for marketing. When they are bundled together with an email marketing plan or campaign, these leads can materialize into actual sales too.
Examples of lead generation through a blog:
1. How to Create a Twitter Moment: A Step-by-Step Guide
Sophia Bernazzanishares a detailed and informative step-by-step guide on how to create a Twitter moment in this blog post. At the end of the blog post, she offers a free downloadable kit on ‘How to get more followers on Twitter.’
2. Connected Medical Devices – How They can Radically Improve Medical Care
This article on connected medical devices shows how these devices are radically improving medical care today. At the end of the article, a freebie is offered in the form of a whitepaper on the ‘Use of BLE in Healthcare Applications.’
EIGHT: Blogs Allow You to be Real and Help Build Trust & Authority
Unlike marketing literature that has to be ‘perfect,’ a Blog allows you to be yourself, be real and gives others reasons to trust you.
You can share success stories or make them into tutorial style case study blog posts. That shows them what you actually did and how you got the results. These type of blog posts will speak for you and build up your authority.
You can share about what you achieved while taking them into confidence about mistakes you made and what you learned from them too.
This not only gives you a human face, it also proves that you are dependable. Having a humane side to you will help you win the favor and likes of your readers and potential customers.
Examples of blogs that build a good relationship with readers:
1. Example: Facebook Ad Targeting and Results
Jon Loomer shares an honest account of his Facebook campaigns to promote ‘Keys to Success: A Free Webinar for Facebook Advertisers.’
2. [Case Study] How we Got 259% ROI Using Native Advertising
Molly Pittman shares a case study on‘How we Got 259% ROI Using Native Advertising.’This is a very interesting post that shares how their blog was built to over 1 million in sales per month in less than a year.
NINE: Let Social Media Work for You
What looks like a simple ‘like’ in the social media is actually a tool that can bring a lot of people into your circle of influence. You can gain followers from within and outside your industry. You can inspire interest in your products and services even from other countries. When Blogs are shared through social media, they generate conversations and include more people into your circle of influence. Expanding circles and working to influence them in the right way can convert these ‘likes’ into leads or sales too.
Examples of blogs that generate likes and get shared in social media:
1. Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid as a Work at Home Mom
Here I try to enlighten my readers, my own experience as a work at home mom. I have written this article in an inspiring tone, throwing light on things that affect women who work from home. This article keeps getting shared on Pinterest and Facebook.
2. How to Add Pinterest Rich Pins for Articles to Your Blog {WordPress & Blogger}
This is actually a tutorial on ‘How to Add Pinterest Rich Pins for Articles to Your Blog {WordPress & Blogger}’ with examples and full of detail, this blog post is informative and very shareable too. The post went viral on Pinterest initially and still drives traffic and engagement to my website.
TEN: Blogs are Yours and Here to Stay
Social media sites and profiles can disappear. What you share on social media may never be seen again if it is ignored by people online. Websites too can become outdated and not get the desired attention if they are not trendy and updated regularly. Long live the Blog! Only the blog lives on and remains yours always.
When you are the owner of a blog you have full control of it. You can decide the contents, posts and the attitude with which blog posts are written. You can impact people’s lives through your blog and gain from their attention to it.
A good Blog remains a faithful friend for all time. It represents your initiatives in a way that helps people relate to you and your business better. Since a Blog is an ongoing dialogue you can change the subjects of posts whenever you desire. You can change the style and trends you want to follow at any time.
BLOGS – An excellent tool for online marketing
Online marketing is not possible without content. When you create and write Blogs, you are creating content which can be used as a part of an online campaign.
A Blog can take many forms to retain the interest of its readers. You can switch between types of posts such as ‘how to’ articles, opinion posts, interviews, case studies, book reviews on subjects related to your business or mind maps. You can also use video logs, opinion polls, podcasts, quizzes, slide shares, photos, cartoons, event reports and surveys in your blog.
Besides its flexibility with style and the many forms a blog can take, a blog can be used in unpredictable and new ways too. If you are creative you can even create a new trend!
While maintaining a blog for your business, you have the freedom to create the ‘persona’ of the blog writer in a way that helps your target audience to connect with your business in a better way. Multiple blogs using different persona can also be used to target different sets of people among your customers.
A Blog is the foundation of all online marketing activities. Making a blog is the first step in making friends with potential customers online. Don’t hesitate to join hands with experts who that can make this medium work for you.
Time is money. Make a decision today and you can start gaining through the amazing medium of blogs immediately. You will not regret it.
If you need any help in creating a business blog or maintaining your current blog on your website, check out our Business Blogging Service.
Get ready to take your business to the next level. Lots of free resources, worksheets and eBooks to help you get started.