Blogs have taken over the internet. There are over 600 million blogs compared to 1.7 billion websites. Why is that? Blogging has become one of the most popular content marketing strategies to share your opinions, spark conversations, and create authentic materials for your brand.
If you’re considering starting a blog but aren’t 100% sold on the idea, here are a few reasons why it’s a great step for your business :
- People trust blogs
- You can position yourself/your business as an expert in the field
- Personal and business brand building
- Blogs boost SEO and drive website traffic
Building Trust
When it comes to doing research, users are looking for real and authentic material. Blogs have been found to be the 5th most trusted source for accurate online information. Your blog posts are what separates you from the wordy, confusing, industry-specific language that companies use to share information. Your consumers want to communicate with you, a person, rather than reading pages with tons of technical information. Additionally, when your consumers are able to connect with your (or your brand’s) personality, they’re more likely to trust you.
Furthermore, when you blog about topics that spark conversations, you’ll begin to build a community. As your community forms, you’ll create loyal readers who not only look to you (or your organization) for the latest news and information on a topic but who are also referring others to your blog.
Industry Expert Extraordinaire
One of the most important things to remember when writing your blog content is to be as authentic – and knowledgeable – as possible. In today’s digital world there are different types of blogs, but for this purpose, we’ll break them down into two broad sections: business blogs and “influencer” blogs (even though every blogger is most definitely not an influencer). In general, blogs are meant to be a way for people to freely express their thoughts, ideas, feelings, and anything they feel passionate about. And for influencer blogs that’s pretty easy to accomplish – they’re literally making a living (or enjoying a hobby) off of discussing their interests. However, when it comes to writing business content you want people to know that while you may infuse your writing with some opinions, you’re also knowledgeable about what you’re presenting. That doesn’t mean that your passion for the topic can’t shine through, however. When your readers see that you love your industry and the blog topics you’re covering, they’ll respect your opinion as an expert even more.
Brand Building At Its Finest
Piggybacking off of the last point, blogs are an excellent way to build both your personal and organizational brand. You can control your content, use your voice, and communicate directly with your audience. Many visitors use company blogs to find out more about your company and to get a better understanding of why they should be interested in their products and offerings But on top of wanting to know that the company can, in fact, provide the service they need they also want to know that they connect with the organization. In this regard, blogging works as a form of (nearly free!) advertising for your business. Of course, you’ll need to make sure that the way you present the information to your readers is transparent. Yes, blogging is a way of building brand awareness for your company but at the end of the day, it’s a company representative speaking about the company’s products or industry news. It’s not necessarily an unbiased opinion and shouldn’t be presented as such.
Drive Traffic
When you have control over your blog, you can strategically include keywords and search engine optimization (SEO) tools to drive traffic to your website. But long gone are the days of “keyword stuffing” and trying to write content that triggers search engine bots to crawl your site. Today’s content needs to feel authentic and conversational while also being knowledgeable and providing solutions to prospective clients. However, deciding which topics to write about can be a bit tricky – that’s where analytics come in. If you need a refresher on the importance of analytics, check out our blog post The Importance of Analytics in Content Marketing.
Are you ready to build your organization’s blog but don’t know where to start – or aren’t sure if you have the time to devote to creating content calendars, writing content, and reviewing analytics? Get in touch today and let us show you how we can help!
