A well-designed, informative website that puts your company’s best foot forward is a good start. One that features an active blog is even better. Why is business blogging such a valuable online marketing tool?
Because Google says so.
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/40349
Check out the first paragraph… Give visitors the information they’re looking for. But it’s not that easy. Here are a few guidelines for developing your business blog.
A Voice for Your Business
A blog is an opportunity to showcase what makes your company special. Letting both your expertise and your personality shine through allows you to share your passion for your product, foster connections with an interested audience, and shape the way your company is perceived. Regular blog posts also demonstrate that you are active and open for business. (which is also important to Google)
A Spotlight on Your Expertise
Providing useful information about relevant topics in a content marketing blog educates your customers and demonstrates your expertise. A willingness to provide accurate answers to common questions and helpful insights also positions you as a trustworthy authority in your field.
An Invitation to Visitors
One of the biggest benefits of blogging for business is that it improves your website’s visibility. Adding a new blog post adds another indexed page to your website, and each indexed page increases your chances of being found by search engines and potential customers. Plus, Google likes regular, high-quality content. It rewards websites that provide it with better rankings, and better rankings make it easier for interested customers to find you.
A Reason to Return
Most website content is fairly static, but blogs are meant to be continually updated. That’s part of what makes a blog marketing strategy effective. By providing fresh, new content, you not only create a new page for search engines to index but also give visitors a reason to return regularly. It’s a fantastic way to keep your business in front of the eyes of potential customers, even if they aren’t ready to buy. This process will allow you to build credibility with those potential customers.
Lead Generation
Blog posts often end with a call to action that invites visitors to download a resource, request an estimate or reach out for more info. To accept the offer, they provide their information, which generates leads for you. As you capture their information, you can continue the conversation offline via email. Remember, not everyone who is on your website is ready to buy. Some will be in the “information gathering” stage.
The Social Media Connection
A content marketing blog works hand in hand with your social media presence. You can use social media to announce new blog posts and invite readers to offer suggestions for posts that they’d like to see. In addition, making it easy for readers to share your blog posts on social media can help you reach new audiences, generating new visitors and new leads. This is just one way that you can integrate social media marketing.
Business Blogging Can Provide Lasting Results
A great blog post can deliver long-term results. The secret is to write evergreen content. Evergreen content discusses a topic that is application year-round until the information becomes out of date. Information becomes out of date because of a change in regulation or a process becomes obsolete. Since new content on your website should revolve around tips to help your customer or educate them regarding the buying process, the information will always be relevant. This evergreen content will continue to generate traffic, leads and sales for your business long after their original posting.
Don’t take our word for it. Look at this client’s Google Analytics for a 12 month period. Six of the 10 pages are blog posts. Landing pages in Google Analytics are how a visitor first landed on your website. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not always the home page. Which means Google indexed these pages. People did a search for that topic and were brought to the website on these pages.. From that point, we had an opportunity to engage the customer with either more content, a free download or a request for quote.
To get the best return on your investment, it’s important to post informative, engaging content on a regular basis. What if you don’t have time? Leave it to Design 4 Dot Com. With our corporate blogging services, we can handle your business blog for you. Our goal is to always create evergreen content that will engage your customer and prompt them to want more.
Call us today at 407-491-5214 for a free consultation on how business blogging can work for you.
