You’re missing out on valuable opportunities to gain better visibility on the web if you don’t have a blog. A company blog provides numerous benefits in terms of getting your site a higher search engine results page (SERP) ranking. Your company blog can also increase quality traffic and boost conversion rates when you use search engine optimization. You’ll need an effective content distribution plan to reap the most benefits from your blog.
A company blog provides many opportunities for generating organic traffic, which is by far the most beneficial type of traffic you can generate. Organic traffic consists of people who already know about your company or are looking for products or services that you offer. With organic traffic, you essentially get a captive audience comprised of people who are more likely to pay attention to your message. Attracting this type of audience also gives you a better chance of converting site visits to actual sales.
By using effective search engine optimization (SEO) methods in your company blog, you will have a much better chance of having your site indexed by Google and other search engines. Methods such as proper keyword optimization, link building, and hosting search-relevant content all contribute toward high Google rankings. A higher search engine ranking, in turn, results in a higher likelihood of attracting organic traffic.
Social Media
Having a company blog could effectively boost your social media presence and vice versa. Most business owners tend to treat their social media pages and their primary website as individual entities. Often, there is little connection between them and few opportunities for interaction between both platforms.
But adopting a more coordinated approach that treats social media and web pages as part of the same overall marketing campaign could provide numerous benefits. Company blogs provide you with a convenient opportunity to relate your domain to your social media. You could share any worthwhile content that you have on your website to your social media audience, greatly expanding the reach of that content.
Connecting your blog to your social media also increases engagement across both platforms. The content that you share on social media has a good chance of being shared if it is relevant to the needs and interests of your audience. It could also draw more traffic to your site without additional marketing expenses.
To further boost the benefits of a blog for social media campaign purposes, it’s imperative that you add social sharing buttons to the actual blog. In doing this, you make it quick and easy for your readers to share your posts via their own social media profiles, which can skyrocket your brand awareness. You can use social media tracking tools to see how well your content is performing on different social media platforms.
Customer Engagement
Increasing customer engagement is one of the primary goals of any website. Even information-focused or instructional blog pages stand to gain considerable benefits from increased audience engagement. If you can provide an environment that encourages a healthy exchange of ideas and communication between you and your audience, you are much more likely to experience an increase in traffic.
Customer engagement is especially important for e-commerce sites. Having a blog connected to your e-commerce website allows you to engage with customers on a more direct and personal level. You could either post content designed to encourage comments or address customer concerns or queries directly in the comments section.
The benefits of engaging with your audience via a company blog are considerable. By maintaining an active presence on your blog, you give readers the impression of a company that truly cares about what its customers think. This is a great way to build trust, which in turn will provide many long-term benefits to your company.
Unless you’re an established company that has had a loyal and devoted following for many years, you probably have a long way to go in regards to creating a solid brand identity. A company blog provides you a relatively quick
Think about the many ways you can embed your brand into the collective consciousness of your audience. For starters, you can explain what your company is about and what your advocacies are. You can introduce a new line of products or explain how your approach differs from that of other companies in your niche. A company blog can help you do all these and more. An active blog can also help you accomplish many of the same goals as a full-fledged marketing campaign, even without a huge marketing budget.
Establish Authority
Once you have nurtured your brand past the growing stages of establishing an identity, it’s time to turn your efforts toward establishing yourself as an authority in your niche. Again, a company blog provides an effective platform for doing this, enabling you to establish yourself as an industry authority without having to spend a lot of time and resources on marketing.
Better still, using a company blog to establish your brand as an authority helps you come across as authentic and genuine. By adopting a more personal and accommodating persona in your blog, you give your audience the sense that they are communicating with a real person that genuinely cares about addressing their needs and concerns. This approach is certainly more effective than pages and pages of impersonal marketing copy, which do little to build trust and foster a mutually-beneficial exchange between brand and audience.
Lead Generation
Finally, a company blog can provide many opportunities for lead generation, which in turn can provide significant long-term benefits for your brand. If you’re a B2B company, you’re likely to generate 67 percent more leads with a blog when compared to companies that don’t have one.
By themselves, blogs aren’t ideally suited for converting site visits into sales. People come to blogs for entertainment, to get information, or to engage with the blog owner. In most cases, they aren’t looking to make a purchase. Any perceived attempt to push them to make a purchase will likely be received negatively. Confronted with a particularly aggressive or strong-handed pitch, they may even decide to leave the blog entirely and never return.
Remember, the blog is all about providing valuable information. It’s not about promoting your brand. It’s about outlining a problem the audience is facing and letting them know a solution is available. You don’t so much talk about your brand as the solution, but more about the fact that a solution (which you just so happen to sell) is available for them to take advantage of. It’s the perfect opportunity for you to highlight the various solutions that are available and how yours is better. Just make sure you clearly outline why yours is better.
You might also want to highlight options that are better than yours under certain circumstances. For example, there may be cheaper alternatives available. You could create a blog post about the benefits of your solution, then provide examples of solutions that are better suited to those who can’t afford your option. That is what providing true value to the audience is all about.
It’s especially important to adopt a more subtle approach when the primary purpose of your blog is lead generation. You always want to keep the conversation light and casual, providing useful information and creating opportunities for engagement without being the least bit pushy.
Audiences are more likely to trust you if they feel that you have their best interests in mind. Give them the option to choose what product, service or course of action is most beneficial to them. Treat your audience with the respect they deserve and they will be more likely to turn to you for a solution when the time comes to make a purchase decision.
Social Media
Customer Engagement
