THINK

What

There are so many ways that businesses today can reach out to their audience – television, radio, print, online ads, public space ads, etc. But there’s one type of reach that is growing both in popularity and influence, and also seems to be doing a particularly good job of connecting businesses to potential consumers – blogging. Blogging is one of several forms of marketing that can be lumped under the term “content marketing.”

Blogging has been popular for quite some time, but until recently it was mostly used by individuals. Over the last several years, business have more and more realized that blogging can also be a great tool for them to use. People will take the time to read good blog posts, so if a business can figure out how to properly use this medium, it can be a great asset in their overall marketing strategy.

How

There are some simple things to keep in mind in order to make your blogging campaign a success. People have become very good at ignoring direct advertising, so that’s not how blogs are approached. The ideal is to create and nurture a relationship with your reader. This is how blogging became so popular to begin with – the writers developed relationships with their readers, and therefore the reader (potential client) wants to stay around to continue seeing where the story might go. This is also the model that a successful business blog will take.

Create content which is interesting, helpful, relevant, and valuable for your reader. Readers engage with content that provides meaning, so as you write posts around the various services you provide, be sure to give specific information and address specific questions. Give your audience something that matters. This type of content helps build the relationship because by providing information and being helpful, you are becoming their expert in your particular field. Then, when they need the services you provide, they will come straight to you, their expert.

We always hear “create shareable content,” and above is how you do that. Content which is meaningful and important is much more likely to be shared by your audience with their friends, co-workers, on social media, etc. Sharing is crucial, because this is really how you get the word out; this is how blogging works. And if you figure out how blogging works in general, then you can fine-tune it to work for your company.

Why

The obvious answer to “why?” – because it works! A well done blog connects with potential consumers and clients in a way that almost no other medium can do. Content marketing (like blogging) is also part of many types of online marketing such as social media marketing (with people sharing great content), SEO (Google ranks great content), PPC (you need great landing pages for high quality scores), and inbound marketing (great content is what drives your traffic).

We have used our own blog as a way to do a bit of research into this notion. For example, in the first 90 days of our blogging (inbound marketing campaign), with just 2 posts per week, we have seen an increase of 28% in overall number of visits to our website. This kind of increase is amazing, and can be attributed entirely to following the above “rules” about how to manage an effective and impactful blogging campaign.