Do you blog? If not, why not? Every time you post a blog, you add a page of relevant content to your site, which directly impacts your search ranking. And as I’ve written about here on Simon Associates (SAMC) (actually, blogged about), these days it’s all about search.
Blogging is also how search engines will designate you as an authority in your business or industry. Here are some things you should know about why you should blog and how to share them.
6 guidelines for effective blogging that will attract the readers you want
- First, determine who your ideal buyer is (a semi-fictional persona).
- Then, build your blogging around what they’re searching for. Really zero in on what types of questions they have that you and your product or service can answer (hopefully better than anyone else).
- Try to pinpoint what stage they’re in along their buyer’s journey—gathering information, considering you as the solution to their problem, or ready to commit—and tailor your blog to coincide.
- Do a keyword analysis. This will help you identify the top-ranking long-tail keywords that can enable your solutions to rise to the top of the search engines.
- Using the most searched-for keywords, create original, highly-valuable content that your customers, and potential customers, can really use.
- Link your blogs to other blogs, white papers, e-books or videos. These will help your reader move along the buyer’s journey and decide that you are the right answer for their particulal problem.
Still need convincing? Take a look at blogging’s impact.
This chart is from research conducted by HubSpot four years ago.
At that time, companies that blogged 15 or more times per month got 5X more traffic than those that did not blog at all. This was particularly impactful for smaller companies with 1-10 employees. My guess is that today, the monthly impact of blogging is far greater.
One more thing: It’s not enough to write great blogs. You’ve got to distribute them to where your readers are.
Let’s assume you have really jumped into blogging and are posting 2-3x a week, even daily. Your search and keyword rankings keep rising. Nice, right?
Yes, but don’t rest on your laurels just yet. The distribution of your content blogs is also critically important. Capitalize on the channels that are out there: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, your email lists, and other bloggers. Plus, consider repurposing your blogs into longer stories, such as white papers or videos, to get even more traction.
Traditional marketing used to be from “one” to “many” through controlled media sources such as newspapers and mass media (outbound marketing). Now it is the “many” to the “even more many” (inbound marketing). And that “many” are potential customers who have already gotten the ball rolling by searching for you in the first place.
Want to learn more about how blogging can revolutionize your business?
To get a fuller picture of the enormous value of blogging and the role it can and should play in your business, please study the white paper I recently wrote on the subject. For the free download, please click on the red button below.
In addition, if you would like to know more about what are great bloggers do for clients at Simon Associates, how we do it and why it might be right for your business, give us a call (914-245–1641) or email us at at info@simonassociates.net. We’d love to talk with you!
