And This Isn’t Just My Opinion …

By Amal Abdallah, Account Executive

In an era of autoresponders and impersonal replies, businesses sometimes make customers feel like a dime a dozen. But, all is not lost. Being relevant offers a path toward redemption. What’s a powerful way that businesses can be relevant while making connections that lead to an increase in revenue without the need for a hard sell?

The answer: Blogging.

Don’t believe blogging is a good fit for your business?

Consider this …

• Do you want to be relevant to your customers?
• Do you want to be seen as an expert in your field?
• Do you want to ramp up your rankings in organic search?
• Do you want to engage with customers and other industry thought leaders to share ideas?

If you said yes to any of these, here are a few stats to keep in mind for your business blogging:

1. 36% of the Fortune 500 companies are using their blogs for thought leadership, product promotion and engagement.
2. On average, companies with blogs produce 67% more leads per month than those without. (Source: DemandMetric)
3. Each blog post that a business publishes takes about 3 hours and 16 minutes per piece to complete. (Source: OrbitMedia)
4. Blogging is the third most common content marketing strategy after video and eBooks. (Source: HubSpot)
5. 43% of blog readers only skim through the post; so use pullouts, factoids and graphics. (Source: HubSpot)

Set a Path And Work Your Plan

Blogging has to be a labor of love and that requires the right ingredients, including time, effort and a plan. Put these all together and you’ll generally yield favorable results.

While developing your content, it’s a good idea to consider the following:

• Is what I am about to share with my audience relevant to them?
• What is the main idea that I want to convey?
• How could I engage with readers?
• What is the strategy behind my blog? Add subscribers? SEO? Provide downloadable lead-generation material? To share product information?

From a marketing perspective, blogging is a powerful way for businesses to build long-term success.

First, blogging helps drive traffic to your website. Every time you publish a new article, you are essentially adding another opportunity for your business to be found by search engines and attract more page views. Plus, new visitors to your site offer the potential for new leads.

How can you capitalize on this? MAKE SURE TO CRAFT A STRONG CALL TO ACTION!

Give people something to do when they get there … after they’ve taken the time to read through your insightful, informative, entertaining and/or educational information.

Lead them to water … AND make them drink! Include a conversation that supports a business goal such as “download now,” “contact us for an appointment” or “request an estimate.” You got them to your site with your content; now bring it back to your business goals. Engage them!

Keep Them Coming Back

Another tip is to keep them coming back by making them want more. You could promote a three-part series on a specific topic or even teaser an upcoming blog article. A great way to entice repeat readers is to let them know there is more ahead and what they can expect to see or receive. Of course, this takes planning so you know what to promote and if you have a hot topic or potential popular download coming soon that you’d like to start sharing.

Now, not every person that visits a blog will become a lead … they may just be curious, passing through; but once they’ve read the information, a connection is created between your business and the reader, and that helps build your authority as a thought leader.

Becoming a Thought Leader

One key method to establishing authority as a business: helping answer questions or solve problems from your specific audience/customer segment. You’re helping your target audience by being a credible source for information, which is particularly beneficial as a sales tool. Having a prospect read your blog and find answers to their questions is a very powerful thing!

That’s not to say that you should avoid getting the opinions of experts within the industry – you absolutely should do this. In fact, by getting other experts involved, you will also be validating YOUR OWN expertise. Whether it’s with a short video or a series of Q&A with photos, there are a variety of creative ways to incorporate this into your content plan. Also, leverage social media – especially when you are discussing other brands or bringing in other experts. Social media can be used to promote your blog, gain insights on trending topics and to ask followers to share their thoughts for an upcoming post.

Continuous Growth

Honing in on the right social media channels that your potential customer follows is important; and sharing your blog content with followers will always increase your exposure.

Here’s an example of how effectively using social media can expand your blog’s reach – say you have 10 people on Facebook who actively follow your brand. Those 10 people also live on Twitter and retweet each other’s posts. Imagine if each of those 10 people have 500 followers. If they are actively promoting your content, your reach will exponentially grow each time something is shared. You can wager that your content is reaching the right people, because realistically, followers will be your target audience and will share with other like-minded members. In turn, increased page views and social reshares will affect how often a brand will pop up in Google searches as well. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

All It Takes Is An Idea

So, what are you waiting for? Businesses that blog get 55% more website visitors than businesses that don’t. (Source: HubSpot)

By prioritizing your business blogging efforts, you are guaranteed to receive more ROI than companies who don’t. The first step is simply coming up with an idea and getting started.

Our hope is that you use these facts and tips to change the conversation at your company from “Why bother with a blog” to “When can we start”.

Foster Marketing is here to help you create strong paths for you to connect with your audience, whether you are still in virtual-only mode, or back face-to-face. Call us today at 281-448-3435, contact us online or connect with us on LinkedIn.