Blogging and social media marketing, are they ultimately intertwined, do they complement each other or is blogging a different category in itself?
Blogging started as a form of personal “diary” on the internet and although it has evolved in many areas the basis and logic is the same. Each user writes personal experiences and thoughts. From descriptions of trips and holidays to cooking suggestions or techniques for crafts, the ideas and list of topics are truly endless.
Business blogging is a content marketing tactic (content marketing)
The definition of Content Marketing, according to the Content Marketing Institute is:
“Content Marketing is a Marketing technique that focuses on creating and distributing valuable and relevant content consistently, aiming to attract and “acquire” a carefully predetermined audience (and drive that audience to profitable action for your business)”
Regardless of whether you are a small business or a multinational corporation, blogging should be an integral part of your digital marketing strategy. It is the place on your website where all the news about your business is gathered. Through the creation of informative and free online content in the form of blog posts, you inform consumers and provide them with answers to important questions. The goal is not a direct sale but brand awareness and establishing your company as a reliable source of information and solutions to potential problems. Although in Greece several companies have realized the benefits of blogging to a significant degree, there is still hesitation.
Here are 4 reasons why your brand should have a blog post:
- To drive audience traffic to your website
- To improve the SEO of your site
- For your ‘brand’ to be considered credible and stand out in the industry
- To develop a better relationship with customers
To drive traffic to your website:
Blogging gives you the opportunity to create appropriate content for your customers. Use this as a marketing tactic to drive ‘traffic’ to your website. Traffic alone means nothing, the point is to convert those visitors into potential customers, and ideally buyers. Every time a visitor comes to your site to read an article is another opportunity for you to win them over to convert them from a simple visitor to a potential buyer. How? Through adding a call to action button (usually at the end of the article), which leads them to download a free eBook related to the article they read, or any other free content you have available that may be of interest to them. Make the blog on your website the base for all the social media platforms you have an active presence on. Your business can be on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, or anywhere else. Post links – with relevant images – to your blog articles on your social sites. Give your social media followers a reason to click on your articles and be directed to your website.
To improve the SEO of your site:
At Google, for example, it is well known that users actively search for solutions to their problems. They are looking for businesses, like yours, that sell products that will meet their needs. Users express their interest through keywords related to the content they are searching for. By using these keywords in your content, and other SEO techniques, you will ensure a better position in Google’s results. So every new article you write is “read” by the search engines and is another opportunity for you to appear in the organic results and draw people interested in the article’s topic to your site. Regular content production also sends a signal to Google to check your site frequently for new content that will rank in the results for specific searches. In short, business blogging means targeted content that brings visitors to a corporate site. These results are called organic because you don’t have to pay for the rankings you appear in. Google rewards those sites that have original and useful content. This is why these websites appear first in the search results that users see.
For your ‘brand’ to be considered credible and to stand out in the industry:
Well-written articles prove that your company has expertise and experience and thus “rises” in the eyes of the public and is automatically considered reliable. By publishing topics that resonate with your market and showcase your expertise, you are also promoting your skills for your business, service or product. If you are a retailer, for example, you should write blog posts about your products. Your customers will thus derive the information they need about the products they want.
If you are targeting a B2B clientele, you need to publish well-written, thorough and readable articles about your services – products. Within these articles you need to speak in the “language” of your audience, this is how you build trust between you. The more knowledgeable and familiar with your subject matter you appear, the more likely a prospective client will trust you to supply them with what they need. Through this process your audience also becomes even more demanding of your competitors because you are the one providing them with knowledge.
To develop better relationships with customers:
Blogs are another source to have a more meaningful connection with your audience. By linking directly to your website, customers can get to know your business or product with a different comfort level through the online experience they will have and derive a lot more details about what they are interested in.
In this way you build trust between you by being a source of information. Consumers like to be informed and always appreciate the person they learn from. Of course as with any online presence you have, site, social media, etc., you need to respond to audience comments and interact with your consumer. There will certainly be many questions about a product or service that you will be asked to answer. Also very important in a blog is that it is generally searchable on your site and appears for a long time. So your comments on it last longer than a response to a Facebook or Instagram post. Finally, your answers can be read by the next person and thus solve their questions with the additional details you have provided.
If you want to discover how your business can benefit from the application of Content Marketing techniques and a broader Digital Marketing Strategy, contact us!
