From the editor: This article was originally published on Digital Printing Hotspot
There are contradictory reports of the effectiveness of blogging. There are reports that blogging is effective and others that say it is ineffective. Blogging is considered an important tool in a content marketing strategy.
What is content marketing? According to the Content Marketing Institute, “Content marketing is a strategic
marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain clearly defined audience – and ultimately drive profitable customer action.”
Personally, I am an advocate of content marketing. Sales of many products are researched on the internet. In the simplest terms, blogging can make it more likely that those people searching the internet find you. I have written thousands of blogs since I started in April 2010. Here are five reasons to consider blogging:
- Positions the author as a thought leader. The best business blogs provide insights that help customers achieve their business goals or answers customers’ questions. Often sales people discuss their frustration of answering the same questions over and over again, especially when it requires an in-depth explanation. Not only can a blog provide more details consistently, but it also positions an author as a thought leader which enhances their value proposition.
- Effectiveness. There are reports that B-B (Business to Business) companies who regularly blog receive 67% more leads / month. There’s also evidence that 57% of marketers believe they have gained customers by blogging.
- Driving Traffic. Blogging is most effective at driving traffic to your website. The content of blogs is indexed by the search engines and potential customers looking for suppliers type keywords into a search engine. Once you understand the key words used by your customers and prospects and the difference between long tail and short tail keywords, you can start moving up the rankings on the search engines and improve your SEO (search engine optimization).
- Converts Traffic to Leads. As more traffic is driven to your website, you can convert the traffic into leads. The key is mastering the call to action. Typically, the call to action offers an exchange content (download whitepapers, infographics, free trials, etc.) for the person’s contact information and permission to contact them.
- Long term marketing strategy. Marketing experts can point out the advantages of different marketing strategies. One problem however is that many marketing strategies are short-lived. In contrast, as long as your blog is posted there are more and more people likely to find it
If you’re interested in learning more, read this post on Five Steps for More Effective Blogs.
Howie Fenton is the Vice President of Consulting Services for IMG. He helps companies measure, identify and overcome operational issues. To learn more about measuring performance, benchmarking to leaders, increasing productivity, and improving your value e-mail hfenton@imgresults.com.
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Content marketing only costs time. It’s incredibly cost-effective, and even better–it offers compounding returns. Your first few months of a content marketing strategy might not yield much in the way of results, but your next few months will start to see growth. The few months after that will see more growth. By the time you’re a few years in, your return could easily quadruple your investment (or more), consistently.
Content marketing is inexpensive, safe, available for anyone in any industry, and beneficial in many different areas. The sooner you start investing in it, the sooner you’ll start to see results, and the better results you’ll eventually see. Whether you’re in it for the increased traffic, higher conversion rates, or just better relationships with your customers, there’s no reason content marketing shouldn’t be included in your marketing arsenal.
Hey Anthony, I couldn’t agree more! Content marketing does cost time, which is something a lot of small business owners don’t have. Hopefully, by educating themselves and reading articles such as this one, they’ll reconsider and prioritize content marketing and give it enough time to show results.