These days, it can sometimes seem like the world of digital marketing is all about speed and following the latest trend. With so many platforms and options available, it can be overwhelming to decide where to put your energy and messaging to connect with your audience, build awareness and develop strong customer relationships. We’re here to tell you that in many instances earlier digital marketing channels including a thoughtful and measured use of blogging are more powerful than chasing the latest app.
For some small businesses, blogging can feel a bit outdated. Many business owners believe that the market is too saturated with messaging for blogs to make a difference on their bottom line. However, when you look at the real value of blogging, it becomes apparent that it retains its value in any digital marketing plan. Like your bowl of morning cereal, it’s part of a complete breakfast.
So, with that in mind, we want to take a closer look at blogging and how it can impact your business.
Blogging Enhances Search Engine Optimization
If you were to list the top methods of promoting your brand, SEO might be close to the top of the list. After all, most users find businesses via search, so if you’re not optimized, you’ll have a rough time selling your brand. Fortunately, blogging is a vital tool in SEO – let’s break it down.
Ideally, you already have a list of targeted keywords for your business. However, there are only so many ways that you can incorporate them on your website. Not only that, but if you want to rank highly for secondary and tertiary keywords, it’s virtually impossible to do that on product and branded pages alone.
Fortunately, with a blog, you can create content that caters to a specific keyword or set of words. This way, you can promote your business better without having to worry about stuffing each page until it’s a jumbled mess.
Another benefit of blogging for SEO purposes is that it shows search engines that your site is current and up-to-date. If you haven’t updated your pages in months or years, a blog is an easy way to provide fresh content without having to overhaul everything else. With many site development tools you can add a blog feed to other pages and even select categories so that blogs that appear on a given page are topical for that part of your website.
Finally, your blog will keep visitors on your website longer, which is a signal used by search engines to evaluate site value. No matter which way you look at it, blogging and SEO go hand in hand.
Blogging Strengthens Your Brand Message
When people think of your company, what words or images come to mind? Ideally, you will be an authority within your industry – someone that people can turn to for advice and insight when a problem arises.
If you don’t have a blog, how can you craft yourself or your brand as a destination for thought leadership? You can seek publication in industry magazines, journals and websites, but seeking publication may draw valuable time from your other business activities. Yes, your site pages can provide a lot of information, but a blog can do so much more. First, it can stay current, meaning that you can adapt to industry changes and trends. Second, you can promote blog posts across various channels, allowing you to reach people that might not otherwise hear your message.
Another benefit of blogging as a means of brand awareness is that you can use it to promote specific products and services within a targeted context. Highlight those elements that current customers may not be aware of, or that relate to the desires or requirements of a targeted group so that they can the benefit in your offer.
Blogging Merges With Other Marketing Tactics
We’ve already covered how a blog can help you build better SEO, but it can work in tandem with other promotions as well. Let’s take a closer look at what you can do with a blog.
Blog + Email Marketing
You should have multiple drip campaigns to reach out to customers, both previous customers who haven’t stopped by in a while and current or recurring customers. Email campaigns, if they just stop with the content in the email can miss the opportunity to engage or retain a reader and to provide more information. However, when you can tie the content of a newsletter or email offer into a blog post, you provide an opportunity and reason beyond price or features to visit your site.
You can either link to a specific blog post, or you can embed content into the email. If you have a video blog or “vlog,” for example, you can embed clips to be viewed within the email itself before inviting the recipient to subscribe to your channel. Anything that goes beyond a simple text thread can increase the appeal of your message.
Blog + Social Marketing
Now that sites like Facebook and Instagram have been in play for years, it’s much harder to capture people’s attention than it was when these platforms were emerging. Follower churn rates are higher, (the number of people that follow versus those that unfollow) which means that companies have to create better content to keep users interested.
High-quality blog posts can be a boon if you find yourself in this circumstance because they add something richer than product photos, hype videos, memes and the like. Rather than relying on likes, shares, follows, and comments to build a user base, you can promote curated content that speaks to a particular demographic. There’s no metric for visitors that are still thinking about rich content while they wait for a bus or talk with their friends or family offline.
Social platforms can provide a wealth of knowledge about your followers so that you can customize content even further. You can see which pieces of content garnered higher engagements, more clicks or shares and longer times on the site. When you take time to reflect on what’s meaningful to your visitor, you are more likely to create content with real meaning to your audience.
Contact Green Vine Marketing Today
Understanding the value of a blog is just the first step – now you need to create content and promote it effectively. Green Vine Marketing is dedicated to understanding our clients and our client’s audience to make better connections through digital marketing. Contact us today to find out more and see how a blog can transform your business.
Call (720) 295 – 8463 to start a conversation today.
