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Published September 7th 2016

The Importance of Content: How Business Blogging can Make or Break Your Brand

Writer and marketing expert Andrea Bell shares her tips on how to make the most of business blogging as part of a strong content marketing strategy

Let’s talk business blogging.

A little over a decade ago, there was barely a trace of big businesses or brands of any size involved in blogging. Flash forward to 2016; everyone’s doing it.

With the passage of time, the blogging industry has changed drastically. Brands and businesses, whether big or small, are realizing that blogging not just a way to share opinions, ideas, and thoughts, but is essential for creating brand awareness, developing a community, growing a loyal fan base and building a brand.

A well-written blog can build a brand that people can trust. At the same time, a good blog helps a brand pass on relevant information and tools to its users – like the one below you may recognize.

Screen Shot 2016-09-07 at 11.26.04

Business blogging is a marketing tactic that uses content marketing to get your business better online visibility

It’s a low-cost way to create opportunities to get your brand or website found by the right people, so you can generate new leads and customers for your business.

Let’s first discuss how a well-written blog can make your brand.

Improve conversion rates with business blogging

According to Hubspot, overall ROI increases for business that blog regularly.

Remember, an active and well-written blog sends signals that your business is alive and kicking. For business owners who want to remain in the limelight, they must regularly update their blog otherwise it’s better not to have one at all.

A blog with good-quality content also helps build brand loyalty, further increasing your conversion rates. The easiest way to define conversions is the total number of site visitors that get converted into leads or sales. Conversions that are low in rates indicate a number of problems such as unattractive offers or poorly designed websites.

Increase leads

Research shows that the more pages a site has, the more leads it gets.

According to Hubspot, businesses with 401-1000 pages of content get 6x more leads than those with 51-100 pages. In other words, the more you blog, the bigger leads you generate. More content means more form submissions, more email opt-ins; more quote requests, and ultimately, more conversions and sales.

Increase search engine traffic

If you ponder carefully, blogging is just like fishing. The more hooks you have in the water, the more likely you’re going to catch a fish. Now the question is, how can you drive any traffic to your site? In short: blogging, social media, and search engines. Since content is king, so when you add more quality content to your site, more pages become indexed in search engines.

Every new blog you publish is like throwing another hook in the water.

fishing hook underwater

 

The more blog posts you have, the more chances you have to rank for various keywords. To measure site traffic, it is important to focus on the number of views and hits your web page receives but more than that, it is suggested to keep a track of the number of unique and distinctive visitors your website gets on a weekly or monthly basis.

The chances of attaining potential customers increase when people from different masses visit your website. Knowing about how many visitors came across and viewed your website, what keyword and phrases brought them to your site can provide you insights regarding what keywords you should be focusing more on to build up your digital marketing campaigns.

Build your authority in the industry

In order to establish your business or your brand as an expert in your field , trust me there is no better way than a blog itself. A blog gives you an opportunity for sharing important insights and industry -related information.

Once the authority is built in your niche, it cultivates trust and awareness amongst users, which eventually keeps you top-of-the-mind when your prospects are ready to buy, and this increases conversion rates.

Support your social media initiatives

Social media can be a very helpful tool for gaining visitors and traffic for your website; these networking sites have a tremendous virtual crowd going into millions. However, at times it’s difficult to maintain an active social media presence without access to exceptional, top-quality content.

Sharing external content (that others write for you) on social media sounds good, but there’s nothing more satisfying than directing those leads to your own site.

The whole thing becomes very easy for readers to share blog content with their followers, which helps in extending the reach of your content far beyond just your brand’s fans and followers. This can be achieved by just adding social sharing buttons to a blog post.

Screen Shot 2016-09-07 at 11.20.09

How business blogging can hinder your strategy if you’re not doing it right

But, before you jump to the conclusion that blogging is only a win-win, remember that the wrong blogging techniques can also break your brand.

As we already know that business blogging is a great content marketing tactic, as long as you are doing it correctly. Now let’s throw some light on how a blog can hurt your digital brand image and hinder marketing efforts when not done right.

Not adding content regularly

If you are planning to operate a blog and include a link to the blog on your website, you need to keep it active. As discussed above, if you can’t manage your blog on a regular basis, then it’s better not to have one in the first place.

updateblog_cartoon1

To keep your blog growing, you need to regularly update the page with new and interesting content. Hire talented editors who can manage your blog and make you standout within the niche.

Posting low-quality content

I keep on emphasizing that the quality of the content is the most important thing here. Some businesses, in an effort to keep the blog active, harm themselves and their brand by posting content that doesn’t resonate with the target audience or just isn’t well constructed.

Always keep in mind that blog posts should not be promotional but informative and helpful. Avoid using your blog as just another place to advertise or to link out to the work of others. Content should be written with the target audience in mind. If the content on your blog is of low quality and not up to the mark, it’s just as bad as having a blog that sits idle without any content.

Over-prioritizing the blog

A blog is just one (important) part of the whole strategy. Relying exclusively on your blog at the expense of other marketing tactics can be a mistake – it’s advisable to track time you spend per task to give you a clear idea of how much work you can ideally do in a day.

In conclusion

It’s not an understatement that blogging is a way to build a business or a brand. Blogs are much more than a simple way to share ideas. This marketing strategy allows you to connect with your targeted audience in a way that businesses have never been able to do in the past.

By providing your own distinct thoughts, ideas and views, you naturally grow your search traffic, customer’s loyalty, conversion rates, and ultimately, sales. 

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