A good blog has potential to be your greatest lead generation asset.
People search the web for everything all the time. Better yet– customers are searching the web for solutions to their problems all the time.
In the age of content marketing, blogging has fast become one of the most effective ways to market your brand.
You are in charge of your personal brand and your sales success. You just have to take ownership and find a way to connect with your customer on their terms.
Key takeaways:
- When you know your audience and end goals, you can build a strong foundation for a successful blog.
- Your blog is an opportunity to build your brand, demonstrate your values, prove your industry knowledge, and create trust and customer loyalty.
- By creating content your customers can use, you’ll find your audience more easily and create evergreen content to boost traffic in the long run.
So, Why Should You Blog for Your Business?
92% of content marketers use blogs as part of their marketing strategy. The bottom line is; blogging can help you generate leads.
The content that you publish on your site can bring in new visitors (and potential customers) as they search for information relevant to the products and services that your company has to offer.
It can also build a community and foster engagement, especially when you publish fresh and relevant content on a regular basis.
What’s more, blogging can help you position yourself as an industry expert. When you consistently publish articles about the latest industry trends, visitors will begin to perceive your site as a great source of insight.
Sharing valuable information is a great way to get customers to trust your brand, and blogging is the perfect platform for you to do exactly that. Blog posts have even been rated as the 5th most trustworthy source of information in 2021.
There’s no cut-and-dry way to define how to write a blog. One thing is for certain: writing the perfect blog post isn’t easy. From how-to pieces to industry news, you can cover a lot through a company blog.
Whether you’re just about to start your first B2B blog post, or you already have a blog up and running on your website, here are some B2B blogging tips to help you build a strong online presence and generate more leads:
Know Your Goals
Before you start drafting a new article for your blog, determine what your goal is for this particular post.
Is it to attract new visitors? Is it to generate business leads? Or is it to subtly inform your readers about the updates to your products and services?
Having a goal in mind for each post can help give you more direction while writing. From the preliminary research to the next steps of the process, your goal will help you stay on track.
Know Your Audience
Determine who your audience is and why you’re writing for them. Keep in mind that visitors may read your blog for a variety of reasons.
It may be to research a topic they barely know about, or it may be due to their need to address an immediate problem or concern. This is just one reason there needs to be a variety of content on your site.
The more you know about your audience, the more personal and relevant your content will be.
Show Some Personality
Remember that your blog serves as an extension of your company’s values and morals. Thus, your content should reflect your company’s values.
If your business values education and professionalism, make your posts more polished and formal. On the other hand, if your brand values entertainment, make your posts amusing and fun to read.
Either way, your blog is an opportunity for your customers and potential prospects to get to know more about your company. Take advantage of the unfiltered publishing opportunity.
Optimize, Optimize, Optimize
Make your blog more searchable by keeping it SEO-friendly.
Optimize keywords that are likely to be used by visitors when they’re searching for information related to your offerings. Integrate your blog with a writing platform like WordPress.
Unless you’re a keen developer, these platforms will make your articles much more easy for search engines to find and index.
Make Subscribing Worthwhile
Your blog subscribers are potentially going to be your best source for generating highly targeted leads. Subscribers have already shown interest in what you have to say in your blog. Take advantage of that interest and make sure they receive updates when you have new content posted.
Give them sneak peaks and special information and make it entertaining! No one needs another boring email to bog down their inbox.
Create Content Customers Can Use
With the excessive amount of stuff available on the web today, it’s more important than ever to relate back to your customer’s wants and needs. No one has time to read a blog post they don’t relate to or find useful or interesting.
There are a lot of ways to take this sentiment and relate it back to your company and your goals. Here are a few things to keep in mind when thinking about what kind of content to create:
- What questions are your clients asking?
Have you been asked the same question again and again by your customers and prospects? For example, “Why is cloud computing important to a non-profit company?”
If you keep hearing the same question over and over again, it’s time to write a blog post to answer it.
The key is backing it up with personal experience and research. Think of the most frequently asked questions you get from customers. By writing a blog post for each question you can not only anticipate customer and prospect needs, but drive more traffic for your website while doing it!
- What questions should they be asking?
Many customers don’t know what they don’t know. By anticipating what information your customers would want to know, you build a sense of trust and establish leadership..
This approach will help position you as a solver vs. a seller.
- What are some current industry trends and news?
By shedding more light on current events within your industry you can build more trust and credibility for your company.
Most of the time your customers aren’t keeping up with the what’s-what in your niche industry. Taking the time to understand the current trends and mapping them to meet the needs of your customers goes a long way in building a strong relationship and showing thought leadership.
- What are some of the complex issues of your industry?
Explaining a complex issue, like cloud or big data, in an easy-to-understand way is a gift that can pay off in a lot of ways.
If you take the complex and make it consumable with a simple blog post, then you can become a go-to resource. This kind of evergreen content will drive more traffic for your website as well as show your credibility.
Are you ready to start blogging?
Being aware of any blogging mistakes that you might commit (or are currently committing) can help point your content marketing in the right direction.
Your blog may exist to help you increase sales, but having a strictly sales-oriented content can put readers off instead of attracting and enticing them. Remember, people read articles because they want to be informed and educated, not necessarily because they want to make a direct purchase.
Don’t forget to promote your blog too. Social media, article directories, and online publishing platforms are your friends when it comes to reaching out to targeted communities.
Maintaining a successful business blog is never easy. Tips like these can help your team stay on track when it comes to the decision making process of content marketing.
Want to reap the benefits of having a great blog but skip the difficulty that is creating one? Check out our Content Builder Service or set up a quick consultation today!
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