As any of our clients will tell you, we’ll usually recommend for you to have a blog. And believe it or not, we have good reason to.
In a report published by the Content Marketing Institution, 52% of B2B marketers stated that blogs were a crucial tactic for successful content marketing. This is above other popular tactics such as emailers (40%) and social media content (40%).
Why bother?
- Website Traffic
Blogs provide a website with an ever-updating collection of articles and keywords that benefits any search engine optimization (SEO) campaign.
Want to appear on page 1 of Google for specific search terms? Blogs can really help with this.
- Trust Building
The daily runnings of the B2B world can sometimes get a bit… well, business-y. Blogs are a great way of showing a bit of brand personality.
Customers like to see ‘proof’ from a company. This could be about their products or services, or the values and ethics. Blogs can help show brand values in action, how customers and employees are treated and, ultimately, what you’re providing does what you say it does.
- Support Social
Blogs are a fantastic way of supporting your social media strategy. They can be a great source of content that you can share and hopefully be a useful engagement tool.
Without a blog to promote, the opportunity for high-quality engagement and traffic building to your site can pass you by. With 42% of the population actively using social media, it’s an opportunity that’s too important to miss.
How to create a blog worth reading
- Follow the Objective
Having a blog just for content marketing is fine – in principle. However, the objective of the blog shouldn’t be ‘sell, sell, sell’. Sorry if that’s not what you wanted to hear. Instead, the objectives should be:
- Providing useful information to your target customers. Demonstrate you’re leaders in the field
- Showing dedication to customer care. This enhances brand trust and respect
- Helping to generate SEO value for the site, targeting keywords etc.
- Be Informative
Any good journalist would tell you, a piece of writing that poses more questions than it answers isn’t worth writing. Blogs are meant to inform, so make sure that no stone is left unturned.
Concerned that it’s getting too long? Don’t be. Research suggests that the more words in a blog, the more successful the results. However, don’t stretch things out either. Readers get turned off by waffle very easily.
- Be Creative
Being a creative digital agency ourselves, it may be a little rich to suggest that it’s an easy thing to do. But creating captivating, unique content is crucial for a successful blog.
There are a tonne of ways in which to do this:
- Client-based content
Everyone loves a success story. Using past and present clients as case studies are perfect for showing what you offer, as well as building on your client relationships by providing them with some extra publicity
- Provide (no-doubt, professional) opinions
Whether we like it or not, everyone has an opinion – some more valued than others perhaps. As a leader in your industry, opinion pieces are a great way of demonstrating this.
- Include unique media such as video and infographics
No matter how visually captivating a site or font is, a page of endless text is rarely appealing. Video content has been on the rise the last few years, and continues to do so. 72% of people prefer to learn about a service or product via video (https://cleardesign.co.uk/news/importance-video-marketing-today) - why wouldn’t you include one?
- Answer questions from your target audience
It’s all well and good talking about a subject you think is relevant to your customers. However, it’s worth finding out what exactly they’d benefit learning from you. Wondering why I’m bothering to write a blog on writing a blog? – Because that’s what our clients have said they want (you’re welcome).
- Know when to use them
There are a few ways to utilize blogs. From new product/service releases, events and company updates, to what the office dog got up to on the weekend. The opportunities are endless – use them! It’s important to have variety and balance for you blog topics. As much as I’m sure you’d love to know our office dog, Brae gets up to every weekend, I’m not sure you’d be happy to read a weekly blog on it… or would you…?
Want to know more? Get in touch :)
