Think blogging is dead? Think again.
Despite the popularity of social media and videos, blogging remains one of the most valuable marketing assets for B2B companies, especially small and mid-sized businesses.
In fact, according to a study conducted by the Content Marketing Institute, blogging is the 3rd most popular B2B content marketing activity after articles and social media posts.
Businesses with an active blog have a much higher chance of being discovered on search engines, where a lot of buyers are looking for answers to their business problems.
Let's look at some of the benefits of blogging for B2B businesses:
5 Reasons why you should maintain a blog
Unlike social media, your blog is an owned asset, which means that you own the property and its content. Even if Facebook or Instagram shuts down tomorrow, your blog will still be accessible.
Your blog is a great way to build trust and authority in your industry. When you regularly publish high quality content on your blog, you are positioning your business as an expert in your domain which will ultimately help you generate more leads and clients. Also, 98% people to your website won't buy on their first visit. By adding a blog, you can keep them engaged with valuable content so that when they are ready to buy, they think of you.
Higher search engine rankings and traffic. By regularly publishing blog posts that answer the questions your ideal customers are asking online, your domain will start ranking higher on search engines, especially if your posts is keyword-rich and optimised for search engines. This provides a great opportunity for you to create brand awareness.
Your blog helps you build an email audience, which is another owned asset that nobody can take away from you. By adding a simple subscription form on your blog, you can get visitors to sign up for updates, which gives you an opportunity to start personalised 1:1 email communication and relationships with potential customers.
Your blog can help you generate demand for your products and services and convert your audience into paying customers. By creating valuable content around your products and services you can educate potential customers about how your solutions can help their business and generate more demand.
While blogging has all these advantages, simply posting for the sake of it isn't going to generate the desired results.
If you want to really take advantage of these benefits, you need to have a strategy in place to get the most out of your blog.
Here are some tactics you should follow:
Tips to make your blog posts more effective
Creation
You need to be strategic when it comes to planning and creating your blog posts in order to maximize engagement. Here are some tips to optimize your blog for users and search engines:
Make the majority of your content about your ideal customers and their needs, rather than your company. Ideally when you start creating blog posts (or any content for that matter), you should have your buyer personas or customer segments nailed down. If not, work on that first.
Don't just write the same thing everybody else is writing. Infuse your own personality, experiences and insights into your posts
Focus on creating long-form blog posts that comprehensively cover a particular topic. Such posts are more likely to rank higher on search engines
Optimize your posts for search engines. Use one main keyword in your heading & URL slug, and 2-3 long-tail keywords in your content (don't overdo it though)
The title is critical. Take time to plan it. Use tools like SEMrush, Ubersuggest and Co-schedule's Headline Analyzer to optimize your headlines for both users and search engines.
Text-heavy posts can look boring. Add relevant images and GIFs to make them more engaging. If you're describing a process, add a diagram or an infographic to make understanding easier.
Add keyword-optimized alt tags to all the images inside post so your blog post can appear in image searches.
Structuring matters. Make sure you break the content down into sections, with a proper heading hierarchy (H1, H2, H3..).
Long paragraphs are a big turn-off. Keep sentences short and use bullet points and white space wherever possible for better readability.
Get to the point fast and keep intros short. Most readers are likely to skim over them.
Use internal linking for more engagement. Link to other relevant blog posts or product pages for more engagement. We come across clients all the time saying their blogs have a high bounce rate. Though that's completely normal, you can reduce it through internal linking.
Always have a clear and relevant Call-to-Action (CTA) at the end of every blog post such as book a free consultation, sign-up for a free trial, request a demo, download a guide etc. This helps you move the audience down the funnel.
Distribution
Just creating blog posts isn't enough. You need to distribute them across multiple channels to maximize their reach and impact.
Design an attractive 'featured image' with your branding that appears when you share the link anywhere. It acts as a thumbnail/preview for people. The more attractive it is, the more likely people would be to click through to the post
Share your blog posts on your social media pages: Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and any other platforms where your company is active
Share them to relevant groups on LinkedIn and Facebook where your target audience is present
Share them with relevant connections on LinkedIn that fit your ICP. This would not only help you build engagement with them but also keep your brand top-of-mind
In addition to posting on your company page, it's important to share the link on the your own LinkedIn profile. But keep in mind that social media algorithms don't favour posts with third-party links in the caption and reduce the reach of such posts. The best way to do it is to write a short post related to the blog post and add a link in the comments
Search for related posts using the right hashtags on social media and add meaningful comments with a link to your blog post
Attach a link to your blog posts in your email newsletter
Answer questions related to the topic on Quora and add a link to your blog post at the end of the answers
If you have an Instagram account, add the blog link in your bio using Linktree and publish an attractive image with a brief caption and a bio link CTA to let your followers know about it
Add a 'recent blog posts' section on your home page for site visitors.
Submit your blog to high domain authority blog submission websites such as Alltop and Blogarama for quality backlinks and exposure
By following these tips, you will be definitely able to turn your blog into a powerful content marketing platform that would help you showcase your expertise and convert strangers into leads and ultimately clients.
Related post: How to build an effective content marketing funnel that converts strangers into clients
If you need help with your blog strategy and content to generate more traffic and leads, book a call with us today!
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