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These days, having a company website is no longer enough to stand out among the thousands of competitors you compete with in the digital space. Blogging isn’t just a place to host your company press releases, it’s about providing valuable content to your future customers.
What is business blogging? Blogging is a marketing tactic that uses articles to get your business more online visibility. A business blog is a marketing channel (just like social media, email campaigns, etc.) that helps support business growth.
No matter what kind of business you have, whether you’re a local mom and pop shop, or giant corporation, there are some serious benefits are seemingly endless.
Here are 5 benefits of business blogging:
1. Creates Brand Authority
Consistently updating an active blog for your business allows you to personify your business by giving it a voice. Your blog is a space to discuss industry related topics, market trends and upcoming products. Focusing on these topics actively builds brand-trust. Trust generates leads. Leads grow sales. Can you see where this is all going?
When you utilize your blog effectively, you are creating a two-way conversion between you and your customers, prospects and other industry professionals which can be very helpful for gathering insights for future business development.
Having an active blog helps you stay ahead of the curve when it comes to industry news and competitors. By staying ahead of the curve, you are positioning your company as a leader as opposed to a follower. Your blog also serves the purpose of having a place to share your brand story, although it should be noted that it’s not advised that you blog only about yourself as a company.
2. Business Blogging Fuels Your SEO
There are some pretty obvious SEO benefits blogs can offer, such as viewers spending longer amounts of time on your website, increasing page views and lowering bounce rates. However, it’s also important to mention that search engines love valuable content and reward it with higher search result placements.
As more people are putting out content to capture the attention of search engines, the algorithms are getting smarter. Your business blogging content should focus on having frequent high-quality content as opposed to having constant poor-quality content. Opt for longer blog posts because Google actually favors in-depth blog articles but a regularly updated blog, no matter the length of the articles, ranks higher in search engines than websites with no blog at all.
3. Supports Your Social Media Advertising Efforts
Using blog articles as part of your content strategy on both Facebook and LinkedIn platforms has been proven to be very effective. Depending on the nature of the industry, boosted blog posts typically generate more engagements as opposed to generic click campaigns. This increased engagement impacts your overall organic reach for the post, which essentially means you are getting more viewers and spending less money as you’re running your ad campaigns.
Aside from using blog content for your ads, leveraging your blog posts throughout your social media content also increases the chances of gaining extra exposure. When you can write a blog article that is so interesting that others will want to share it, you are ultimately gaining free exposure.
4. Generates a Great ROI
Business blogs are cost-effective marketing investments. Many business owners choose to outsource their blogging efforts entirely because it can be a time-consuming task when you are already wearing multiple hats for your business. According to Hubspot research, B2B marketers who use blogs as part of their content marketing mix get 67% more leads than those who don’t.
5. Blogs Serve as a Lead Generation Tool
Blogging is an integral part of your digital sales funnel. In addition to driving traffic to your website, business blogging offers a great opportunity for capturing leads. By using non-intrusive lead capturing tools such as lead capture forms and call-to-action buttons, you can gather valuable data on the quality of the leads your blog posts are generating.
How many times have you read a blog post and downloaded a free e-book because you were interested in gaining more insightful information about the topic you were reading? If you recall a moment where you have personally done this, congratulations! You were successfully moved from the inbound marketing stage of attraction to the stage of conversion.
Each blog post you create is an additional page that can be indexed by Google, which can be used with a combination of lead generating call-to-action buttons such as free webinars, fact sheets and e-books. Asking for emails isn’t an easy task but when you offer valuable data in exchange for emails, you can leverage it for better prospecting.
Although it can be difficult to find the time to keep up a business blog, you don’t want to neglect the benefits blogging has to offer. By utilizing a local outsourced marketing company, like BIS Designs, your blogs can serve as a central piece for all your other marketing efforts which can include social media, SEO, email marketing and much more.
When business blogging is done properly, it creates an opportunity that will have lifelong benefits to boosting your business marketing efforts.
RELATED:
12 Reasons Why Your Business Needs A Content Marketing Strategy
Author: Stephanie May
Phillip Long - CISSP, CEO of BIS Technology Group, along with his team of marketing and information technology experts, will walk you through an overview of what your business should be doing to protect your data and plan your digital marketing strategies.
About BIS Technology Group
BIS Technology Group is the technology leader on the Gulf Coast and is comprised of four divisions: Information Technology, Web Design & Digital Marketing, Office Equipment and Business Consulting. Together these divisions help local businesses exceed expectations and allow them to group to their full potential while minimizing risks. To learn more about BIS Technology Group, visit bistechnologygroup.com.
You may reach out to us at: Phone: 251-405-2527 Email: plong@askbis.com
Facebook is a popular way for companies to market their products and services to consumers like ourselves. In the past, it hasn’t been as helpful for businesses looking to market to other businesses. However, that’s no longer the case. Facebook is now proving itself to be a successful marketing tool for business-to-business (B2B) marketing.
LinkedIn has long been the most effective platform for businesses to market on social media to other companies. However, Facebook has over 1.4 billion monthly users allowing businesses to get their message in front of the right audience through paid advertising. Businesses are five times more likely to engage with a sales rep who shares a mutual connection. This is one reason why it’s important not to ignore Facebook. We have seen success with this social media strategy with our clients in Mobile, AL.
1. Expand your audience. Reach past your current audience through advertising on Facebook and targeting people that meet certain qualifications. 2. Target work categories. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram advertising allows you to go past general demographics to drill down to specific interests, job titles and income levels. 3. Offer incentives for lead generation. Using ads to target the audience you want, you can bring prospects to your website looking for access to the content you’re offering. By directing them to a landing page that asks them for their email address, you’re able to generate leads by giving them access to a free trial of your product or service, or access to an ebook or webinar.
4. Create custom audiences.
Custom audiences can be set up in Facebook by:
• Importing a list of emails from your contact database. • Upselling to customers that purchased a particular item or service (making recommendations). • Retargeting lost customers by putting a Facebook pixel on a certain web page to track if users completed your call to action. If they didn’t reach the ‘Thank you for signing up/purchasing’ page, then you can retarget your ads to those who missed out.
• Increase awareness, connections and leads. • Set you apart from your competitors. • Strengthen your company’s credibility. • Keep your business’ name at the top of potential customers’ minds.
Contact us for a complimentary marketing evaluation and let’s get your business back on track!