Start blogging.
Seriously, set-up a blog and get blogging. Do it now.
I’m constantly amazed that so many companies out there still haven’t bothered with a company blog. OK, I get that many businesses don’t feel ready for things like Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. But a blog is different.
If you haven’t got one already, the single most effective piece of inbound marketing that a business can implement right now is a company blog. And here’s why.
Why Your Company Needs A Blog
A blog gets you seen on the web more often
A regularly-updated blog will be indexed by web search engines such as Google or Bing more often than the ‘brochure-ware’ corporate website full or marketing style but precious little substance. Since search engines love new content, that means that your blog can appear in web search results at a higher ranking (i.e. higher up the list) and more often. A key part of optimizing your website content (so-called Search Engine Optimization, or “SEO”) is based on the assumption that your site is constantly being updated with new stuff. That means having a blog.
At this time I think it’s important to set the expectation level for what most businesses can realistically expect from SEO. Yes, it’s a fantastic tactic to build web footprint. But the ONLY reason why you’re blogging is for SEO, you’re going to be disappointed with the results you get. Not because they’re no darn good. But because SEO is a complex, effortful exercise that can take months – or even years – to achieve ‘business tangible’ results. What do I mean by ‘business tangible”? I mean results that lead to sales.
That doesn’t mean the benefits of SEO aren’t worthwhile. I’m just the days of blogging purely for the SEO boost is selling the other benefits short. SEO will get to there, and blogging is part of SEO. But nothing is going to happen overnight.
A blog is a LEAD generator
A blog is the single largest and most cost-effective action to pull prospective customers to your site. More than 80% of digital advertising no longer works. Press Releases no longer work. Most mailshots don’t work – unless you think a 0.5% response rate is a slam duck.
But if you take the time to create new, original and regular content about subjects that your customers are interested in, they’ll find you.
How do I know? Well, you’re reading this, aren’t you?
A blog is a DEMAND generator
Eh? What’s the difference between a lead generator and a demand generator? It’s quite simple. The concept of a lead generator is to put your business top-of-mind when a prospective customer is search for your product, or a solution to the problem they have. Agreed? Good.
Demand generation is the over-arching term of what happens further upstream in the buying phase. Yes, the see they have a problem – now they want to know more about the products and services that solve that problem. OK, that’s all hunky-dory. But what was the content they saw/read/listened to that made them come to that realization? Sure, maybe I read that on your blog. But maybe I read that on a totally different channel, from a totally different person.
Whatever I read/watched/listened to make me think…to the point of searching around for more information on the problem, product, or service now in my head. That, dear friends, is demand generation.
A blog helps keep your business relevant in their minds
If you’re blogging properly (i.e. not constantly talking about how great you think you are) a blog forces you to keep up-to-date with stuff that your customers are concerned about. That helps keep your value proposition relevant with all of the knock-on benefits (better website copy, better presentation materials, intel that’s fed back to the sales team who are better prepared at answering prospects’ questions, etc.)
A blog helps build respect, reputation and trust in the mind of your reader
With 1001 companies looking like they’re all selling pretty much the same thing as far as your customers know, trust is pretty much all you have at the early stages.
A Blog Doesn’t Have To Be Text
It’s not 2007 any more. A blog no longer means writing paragraphs and paragraphs of text until your fingers bleed, or you give up in sheer frustration. Blogging has evolved.
Today, blogging channels can be anything, and anywhere. Don’t fancy yourself as much of a wordsmith? Not an issue. Film yourself saying something you know would interest customers, and you’re good to go.
Don’t worry about not having professional cameras, lenses, microphones, or lights. Your cellphone has all you need to create stuff good-enough for what we need. Oh, and before you ask my Instagram and LinkedIn videos only look and sound amazing because of the expensive kit being used. But I started with a cellphone – and so did everything else I know.
Take that video and get it transcribed (I’d recommend a human transcribing service, but there are many machine-based AI-whatever ones out there). Now you’ve got a blog article.
Slice and dice that article into compelling, bite-sized golden nuggets of wisdom, and you’ve got a bunch of text posts for posting on social media channels, to which you can add still images from your video, other images, whatever.
Before you’ve blinked you’ve got a video, blog post, and a some social media content. And it’s taken you less time than going to the gym.
How and What To Do With A Business Blog
There are a number of blogging services out there that’ll have you set up in no time. However, do yourself a favor and ignore them. No matter how small your company, make the investment in setting up a self-hosted WordPress website and blog. Why? Because search engines love it, and it’s very flexible. But mostly because it’s yours – you own the entire site and are not under the control of a third-party as to what, when and how your blog looks. Don’t even think about using anything else. Trust me on this.
From a technical perspective, setting up and configuring WordPress isn’t too difficult. However, it’s not a “double-click-and-off-you-go” type of thing either. If you don’t know what you’re doing, get a professional website design company to help. They’ll set things up for you, teach you how to use it, and help you if you get into trouble. Most businesses don’t need many bells and whistles on their site/blog, so you may be pleasantly surprised at how affordable it can be.
Getting Your Business Blog Up and Running
Now what? Get blogging.
Blog only when you have something useful to say, or to share. Don’t create noise for the sake of it. Above all don’t give the hard sell, corporate rhetoric nonsense. Yes, you’re blogging to help grow the business, but you’re also blogging to grow an audience. That means creating content that they find useful and helpful. If all you’re doing is shouting about how great you are, you’re not building a following. Sales pitches have their place, but there should be a balance.
At the same time you should be blogging often. To generate results from your blog you need to work on it regularly. Try to blog at least once a week. Twice or three times a week can yield exponentially better results, but blogging that often isn’t something most start-ups and small/medium sized businesses can do. You can outsource content creation to make things more manageable, but you still need to devote some time every week to managing and monitoring.
However frequently you blog, make sure that you keep that frequency. If, for example, you’re happy to commit to publishing a piece of content (a written article, a video, a podcast, whatever) every Wednesday afternoon, then make sure that you move heaven and earth to keep that commitment. If you don’t come back to your blog regularly, you shouldn’t surprised if your customers don’t either.
Define the cadence that works for you – then stick with it no matter what.
Blogging For Business: What Are You Waiting For?
Depending on how you approach it, a company blog can either be a valuable business and lead-generation asset, or a complete and utter waste of time, money and effort. Which camp your blog falls into is down to you.
Still need convincing that publishing a blog is the single most important marketing tactic you can implement for 2023? Then get in touch and let’s talk it through.
One more thing…
* Be careful if you’re thinking of employing someone to handle your site’s SEO.Recently Google made some changes to the way it indexes websites. These changes are so large that using certain SEO practices may result in a site getting demoted or (in extreme cases) even blacklisted. In the same vein, many “how-to” SEO or articles published more than a couple of years ago may be promoting tactics that were OK to use a year ago, but might get you into a world of pain today. Caveat Emptor, and all that.