If you are struggling with customer engagement, creating a blog can be the answer you are searching for. There are a variety of ways blogging can benefit your company – from boosting your website's search engine optimization, to growing your email list, and positioning your company as an industry expert, blogs can provide tremendous opportunity to engage with customers. The types of information and the amount you can share on your blog is limitless, and the people who view it usually choose to read your content (unlike newsletters that just arrive in their inbox).
As promised, today's post will focus on the benefits and challenges of blogging, and how to make your blog a valuable resource that your customers can rely on.
Want to learn more about newsletters? Check out our last blog, here!
Blogging 101:
Blogs are a great way to provide informative, relevant and interesting content to readers as a means of organically developing an audience and potential clients. It is a great way to create more traffic for your website and also differentiate your company from your competition. By focusing on topics that your readers care about, you can start engaging conversations and also open the door to potential business.
Who reads it?
Blogs serve as a great tool for businesses who are seeking to gain organic website views and reach a broad audience base. If you use focused keywords, clear titles and interesting topics, you can reach a greater number of people than you can with a limited email list used for newsletters. Because of the versatility of blogs, you can appeal to many different audiences. You can write about a wide range of topics, share information in different formats (check lists, videos, interviews, pictures) and can more effectively interact with people who leave comments.
Sharing your blog posts on social media accounts and linking to them on your website can encourage interaction as well. Unlike newsletters that are sent directly to a person’s inbox and may arrive at an inopportune time, people must go to your blog to read your content – this typically means they are going to have the time and interest to read it.
What topics should be discussed?
The breadth of topics that you could potentially blog about are endless. However, it is important to stay relevant to your field. Keep it fresh, original and be sure to always ask yourself if the topic is something that will intrigue your potential customers. Some bloggers choose to focus in on one topic, while others focus on an entire industry. Formatting is something that could drive the content you include. Creating headings and subheadings of subjects is a useful way to organize your writing and present your content to your readers. Choosing a title for your posts can also be tough. Instead of choosing really obscure or creative titles for your posts, try to focus on titles that are likely to be searched and will help engage your readers.
Before you dive in and start your blog, creating a content calendar is a great way to manage your topics. This will help you schedule specific topics each month, or maybe even each week. Having more focus with your blogs will eliminate the frustration of not knowing what to write.
How often should blogs be posted?
Knowing your industry and audience is important to know how often to post blogs. If you have a lifestyle blog, people are more likely to want to read new content every couple of days. If you have an insurance blog, people will be more likely to check it once a month. Whatever your industry, we believe it is reasonable to post at least once a month. If you want to strive to do more than that that's even better; however, the challenge is coming up with enough content. The more often you post, the more content you will be providing for readers to peruse and to learn from. It is best to find the balance where your content is valued and doesn't gets diluted. By providing more quality material to your readers, you will more quickly develop a loyal audience.
Whether you aim to post once a month or once a week, you should be consistent. If you say you are going to post once a week, do it. If you can’t keep up with posting every single day, don’t set the expectation that you will. If one week you are feeling particularly inspired and write a lot of content, feel free to save it in a library of articles to post later. That way, if you get writer’s block the next week, you already have content developed.
What are the main benefits of blogs?
Blogging allows you to share a deeper side of your business with current and potential customers that they may not see every single day. You can share your expertise, your unique perspective and provide helpful tips and tricks. Blogs can show the real personality of your business and help differentiate your company from your competition. It is a way to share content about your accomplishments as well as provide relevant industry information. By focusing on the interests and needs of your audience you can answer frequently asked questions and start new conversations.
Blogging can also have a major impact on where your company website shows up in search results. Once a blog post is written, it continues to work for you, years into the future. As customers continue to search, your blog will continue to ranking in searches years later – because it is related to a question people search for on a daily basis. What a great way to reach a broader range of people and to introduce new people to your business!
What are some challenges that come with blogs?
Many people struggle with finding the time to write regular blog posts. Many business owners say that even if they had the time, they wouldn’t know what to write. That is where the content calendar comes in. It is amazing how helpful it can be to have a calendar setup that tells you what to write and when! This will help you be mentally prepared and gather any necessary materials ahead of time.
Another challenge can be having the patience for your audience to grow. I highly suggest creating at least a small library of posts prior to advertising your blog. That way, when people visit for the first time, they will have multiple posts to read. Once you have written a handful of posts, you should actively promote your blog as a means of building your audience. You can do this on social media, through an email and by linking to your main website etc.
Now that you have seen both sides of the debate, what do you think will work best for your company? Have you started a blog? What has been the most successful post for you? Any challenges that you are facing with finding good content?
If you need help getting started with a blog, or if you need some help writing content, we would love to help!
