Benefits of Hiring a Marketing Agency (And 7 Things to Look for in One)
Staying on top of your company's digital marketing can be challenging. From managing your social media presence to optimizing your search engine rankings,...
Chances are, you spend a fair amount of time working on your brand’s marketing. You’re constantly looking for ways to grow your business, boost your brand awareness, and improve your reputation among your audience. You probably even allocate some of your budget towards paid ads and other forms of marketing. What you might not realize, however, is that your company blog can be just as effective as any form of paid advertising.
If your business doesn’t already have a company blog or if you’ve had a hard time keeping up with it, we’ve got some tips that will help you come up with engaging blog content that your readers will love. And if you don’t already have a blog set up, these tips can walk you through how to create a company blog that will help your business grow.
There are so many reasons to set up and maintain a blog on your business website, regardless of what industry you’re in. For starters, it doesn’t cost a thing (other than your time and whatever you pay to host your blog). This makes it one of the most affordable and effective forms of digital marketing out there.
And when your blog is properly maintained and regularly updated with useful content, you can enjoy other benefits, such as:
One of the biggest hangups business owners run into when creating or maintaining a company blog is simply figuring out what to post. If you don’t know what to write about, there are some tips worth following that will help you craft engaging and share-worthy blog posts every time.
Start by simply knowing your audience; this is often easier said than done. By learning as much as you possibly can about the people reading your blog, you can brainstorm and craft content that will interest them specifically. If you have a means of contacting your target audience (whether directly or via social media, for example), you might even want to ask them for feedback on the types of blog content they would like to see.
Your audience, for instance, may want to see a blog about new products and/or services that your company will be offering. Product demonstration blogs can also be helpful. Meanwhile, occasional blogs on advancements or industry news may also be of interest to your audience.
Even if you’ll be the only one taking the time to write these blog posts, this doesn’t mean that you can’t (or shouldn’t) get input on topics from others within your company. Consider holding a brainstorming session with a handful of your best employees to develop some potential blog topics. The more you can come up with, the better. From there, you can create a plan to post one new blog per week based on the ideas that your team comes up with. This can save you a lot of time researching topics on your own each week.
One of the main benefits of having a company blog is boosting your search engine rankings—but you won’t be able to take full advantage of these SEO benefits if you don’t know how to write a blog that’s SEO-focused.
The best thing you can do when writing a blog (from an SEO perspective) is to conduct extensive keyword research before you start writing. This means getting a better feel for exactly what your target audience is searching for online so that you can incorporate those exact keywords (both short- and long-tail) into your blog content. This, in turn, will help your blog and business website rank higher.
While you don’t want to regurgitate the same ideas that your competition has already covered in their blog, it can be helpful to take a peek at your competitors’ blogs to see what’s already been done versus what you might still be able to tackle. Furthermore, suppose you feel that none of your competitors have done a particularly good job covering a certain topic or have left out important information. In that case, this is an excellent opportunity to write your own comprehensive post that will be more helpful to your audience and fill those gaps.
It’s a good idea to have both short- and long-form posts on your blog. Shorter blogs should hover somewhere around the 400-500 word mark, whereas longer posts may be closer to 1,000 words. Regardless of the length of your blogs, make sure you break up your text with plenty of subheadings, bullet lists, and the like. This will make it easier for your audience to read. Images are also a great way to break up long chunks of text while adding visual appeal to your content.
Never miss an opportunity to include a call to action (CTA) at the end of your blog. A CTA could encourage your readers to visit your website, reach out to your company, or even sign up for an email newsletter. Whatever it is, make sure you’re clear about what you want your readers to do and include direct links whenever possible.
Coming up with ideas for your business blog may not always be easy. However, with these tips in mind, you can be well on your way to creating some great blog content that your readers will love.
And of course, if you need any help along the way when it comes to crafting great blog content, our team at Strategic Growth Advisors is here to help. Reach out today to learn more about what we can do for your business!
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