Blogging Effectively for Business

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Introduction

Content creation is an important aspect of internet marketing that every company should adopt for the betterment of their brand. There are different approaches to creating informative content for a budding user base, such as infographics, videos, social media content and articles.

With great content and distribution an organization can expect improvements across multiple channels and ultimately more success in their customer’s journey.

Why Businesses Should Blog Regularly

While video content may be on the rise across social media platforms (85% of marketers say that video content via Facebook is an effective part of their campaigns), most audiences still use Google to find answers to problems.

In a 2017 survey conducted by Hubspot, it was found that 52% of consumers use search engines to find content. By 2019 that increased to 4 out of every 5 consumers. 61% of consumers say that they read news articles thoroughly that are delivered in a timely manner and 39% say they will at least skim the article.

Content Writing for Increased Consumer Engagement

Making improvements to the customer journey inevitably leads to increases in customer lifetime value. By raising consumer engagement across the organization’s channels more trust is built in the consumer’s mind leading to increased engagement with the brand. With search engine optimized content the organization can be sure that they are answering questions that consumers need help with. 

Easily searchable brand publishing allows organizations to respond in real-time to consumer questions and establish trust a lot faster than other forms of marketing. Article content marketing comes with the added caveat of being cheaper to maintain.

Increase Website Traffic

By addressing questions about products and services through informative content consumers come to depend on that resource for future concerns. Those visitors will return again and again for assistance and learning and often share that content around the web.

Quality content garners attention from other website owners that want to share the best information they can find with their own readers. It is a good way to get backlinks and to introduce new audiences to a brand’s offerings.

Get Better Leads

A free resource that is readily available will in time attract customers that are willing to try other offerings by the brand whenever a new need arises. In other words each article becomes its own form of lead generation while not overtly promoting any particular brand offerings.

The Content Marketing Institute found that 70% of people would rather learn about a company via an article than an ad and claim and that they feel closer to a business after reading their content. In turn, 74% of companies said that both the quantity and quality of their leads increased after implementing a content marketing strategy. 

Business Content Marketing

There are best practices for blogging effectively for content marketing. If these are followed closely then brands should see growth in traffic and better quality leads and engagement.

Content should be relevant, informative and consistent. Authoritative content builds more trust and leads to more social shares of the content. 

How to Choose a Topic

Choosing the right topic is the first step to effective content creation. Articles should aim to be informative, based on what customers are already searching for. So how does an organization get that information?

They should think about what problems their products solve and any related concerns that those offerings might address. Some of this information can be found within a company’s own customer support history and fetched with the right reporting. Customer support engagements are a part of the customer journey and as such can be used with proper storytelling to help future customers through their journeys.

Another option for selecting an article topic would be to search outward. To use search engines and 3rd party content strategy tools to find questions based on popularity and traffic potential. 

Here’s a short list of content suggestion tools to get started:

  • SE-Ranking – The Content Marketing Tool is among their offerings for content strategists
  • BuzzSumo – Shows content from competitors based on popularity via social media shares
  • QuestionDB – Offers a free tier to generate 50 content suggestions
  • Ahrefs – One of the best SEO tools round, it also provides content suggestions
  • SEMRush

Keyword Research

To expand the reach of the content being created even further it should be optimized for relevant keywords. Targeting the right keywords, as in high traffic but not too competitive is a part of the process for developing good onsite SEO. Using keyword research tools to find the ideal keywords for the relevant article is a normal part of the research phase. 

For the principal pages of an organization’s website (home, about, services, products, etc) the focus is on commercial keywords or those that are associated with buyer intent. For the article pages that are meant for educating the readers and helping them through their customer journey the focus is often tailored more towards long-tail keywords and related to a particular concern.

There are many tools available for conducting keyword research, ranging from free to paid. Here are the usual choices for getting started:

  • Google Keyword Planner (Free)
  • Ahrefs
  • SEMRush

Target Long-tail Keywords

What are long-tail keywords? They are secondary keywords that are more specific within a given subject, often used by a smaller number of people. The smaller number should not be a cause for alarm however as these particular keywords tend to have a higher conversion rate.

Main or head keywords have higher search volume because they are broader and associated with a wider range of subjects and needs. Long-tail keywords are more focused on a particular need and therefore attract attention when associated with authoritative and relevant content.

Any company running digital marketing campaigns will most likely already be targeting head keywords related to their offerings for the promotional pages of their website. For each niche there are challenges and often higher expenses involved with ranking those pages and for running paid campaigns. 

Targeting long-tail keywords is a more economic way to promote content with long term benefits. Many long-tail keywords go unnoticed by competitors and are ripe for the taking to put towards quality content.

Sharing Content with Audiences

After releasing content the next step is get it in front of as many eyes as possible to get the traffic rolling in. This is especially important if it is actionable and time-sensitive information. 

Content distribution can be carried out via free or paid avenues. It’s a good idea to start with free channels such as search engine traffic and social shares. This should be enough in most instances to determine the reach of organic interest. Depending on which part of the customer journey is being addressed, paid channels such as Google Ads can come into play to boost organic interest.

Content should be delivered where a particular organization’s audience is already located and willing to interact with the brand and that it reaches that audience at the right time during their customer journey. 

A B2B organization may prefer to use LinkedIn to reach professionals and decision makers while a B2C organization might find more success on Facebook or Instagram. 

LinkedIn is well suited for sharing articles between professionals and allows them to become a conversation piece within groups. 

Facebook is positioning itself to focus more on video content but that doesn’t mean that articles can’t be incorporated as well. Combining different content mediums (example: sharing a video then sourcing an article for more information) that span across different platforms is a proven strategy for building more trust and brand loyalty than simply sharing one piece of content through one medium.

When to Create and Share Content

In order to keep an audience engaged it’s a good idea to share content regularly and often. Consistency builds loyalty above all else. While it would be great if branded content were being distributed daily, not every organization has the resources to maintain that for long. 

At the very least content should be released weekly and distributed across the relevant channels. This content should be planned well in advance. According to Databox, 50% of marketers schedule their content one month in advance. 

An added step that can prove profitable is to test reader loyalty while building up an audience. By putting some content behind a gated section of the website and asking for user registration new leads can be generated. Since these leads are coming in from specific content a customer journey is at least already partially mapped out and can be nurtured further. This is one of the reasons why planning content well in advance is such a good idea.

What Time to Post

There are various studies related to which days and what time of day to release content. The deciding factor is based on the location of the organization’s target audience. If it is a worldwide or even nation-wide brand then the focus should be on where the largest or most profitable demographic is located and the best times as it relates to them. For city or statewide campaigns then of course it gets much simpler. Keep these factors in mind when reviewing any guides related to the best time to post content.

Conclusion

Running a blog for a business website offers so many benefits for long term success. It is a cost-effective way to build brand loyalty, gain more search engine traffic and attract more quality leads. Brand success is rooted in connecting with the audience and nurturing each person or organization through their journey. Target long-tail keywords through each piece and create authoritative content for long lasting effects.

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