In increasingly competitive and clusteredmarkets, blogs are a cost-effective way of establishing sustainable growth by building clients' trust and distinguishing your business by your thought leadership and industry relevant content.
REALISING A BLOGGING ROI
Who has the time to blog?
A recent article from the Marketing Insider Group quoted four hours as the average time it takes a person to write a blog. What business owner has the luxury of setting aside four uninterrupted hours to write? That is, assuming the business owner enjoys writing. For many people writing is the equivalent of a trip to the dentist. Something that needs to be done but which you put off for as long as possible.
In the enthusiasm of setting up a new website, many business owners will write one or two posts, but then the business and life take over, and writing is forgotten.
FOUR REASONS BUSINESSES NEED TO FIND THE TIME OR THE RESOURCES FOR BLOGS
One of the consequences of COVID with the lockdowns and people working from home has been the increasing importance for businesses of having a strong online presence. People search online before they engage with companies. While this behaviour was present pre-COVID, it has become more common with the last two years' events.
Given this change in customers' and clients' habits, blogging provides a way to engage and build customer engagement.
1. BLOGGING BUILDS YOUR ONLINE "MUSCLE" THAT ALLOWS CLIENTS TO FIND YOU
Blogging allows you to be found by people at all stages of the sales funnel, whether they are existing clients, new clients, or potential clients.
Studies have found that when a website has between 21 – 54 posts, traffic goes up by around 30%.
Browsing online is the new window shopping. Just as stores use their windows to create displays to entice people into the store, your website is equivalent to your shop window. Blogging is a way of boosting the number of people "visiting" your store, and the greater the number of people who visit, the greater the opportunity to convert lookers into clients.
Remember, it isn't just about writing a blog, posting it and hoping it will get some client engagement. In a previous article, I wrote about the S&P approach, the spray and pray, which is what posting a blog and hoping it reaches clients is.
If you spend four hours writing a blog, it is essential to optimise with SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to reach your potential client base.
Adding an optimised blog means there is a greater chance of your website being listed on the first page of a search engine such as Google or Bing. Being listed on the first page of a search engine will also increase the traffic to your website. A blog gives a business more opportunities to be optimised than a simple website on its own.
2. BLOGS ALLOW YOU TO ADVERTISE 24/7 COST-EFFECTIVELY
Blogging will enable you to build your online muscle by having a stronger online presence. It also allows you to advertise 24/7.
Businesses will often spend large amounts of money on paid advertising while failing to fully understand and fully utilise the power of their website. Indeed, if businesses spend money on advertising without first having a fully optimised website that enhances potential clients' experience and addresses their problems, the company is simply wasting money on advertising.
Browsing online is the new window shopping. Just as stores use their windows to create displays to entice people into the store, your website is equivalent to your shop window.
Rather than spending money on advertising, spending time or engaging someone to write blogs that demonstrate what your company does and how it solves clients' pain points is a cost-effective way of advertising.
Not only are blogs a cost-effective way of advertising, but they also generate higher-quality leads. It brings people into your sales funnel who already know your business has the solution for the problem they want to resolve. This brings us to the third point.
3. BLOGS HELP BUILD TRUST WITH CLIENTS
Advertising creates interest with potential clients; blogs build trust. A person interested in becoming a client must first trust that your business can provide what they are looking for in a way that suits them. Blogs are a way to build trust.
This means you have higher-quality leads coming to your website and can start building trust with these leads so that by the time you speak to the person, there is a foundation for you to build on.
It is the equivalent of having a warm lead vs a cold lead. Working with a warm lead is much easier because there is a base that can be built on.
This aspect of building trust is essential in B2C businesses such as law firms, accounting, and medical practices. In businesses where high trust is required from clients, the trust-building process can begin with high-quality blogs demonstrating how the company or practice assists clients.
The other aspect of building trust is having credibility as a thought leader. Blogs help establish your business as a thought leader and build confidence. In the USA, thirty-five per cent of B2B buyers spend one to three hours/week reviewing thought leadership content before making a decision.
4. A BLOG ALLOWS FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH
Having a blog that allows your website to rank higher in search settings attracts more people. More people means more potential clients. An optimised blog is a cost-effective way of advertising when your business is closed and your potential clients are searching online.
An optimised blog also attracts higher-quality leads and builds trust in potential clients. These are important factors that assist organisations in creating sustainable growth.
It is also important to remember that blogs have longevity that ad campaigns don't. Ad campaigns run for a set period and are often forgotten as new campaigns demand attention. Blogs are more permanent. Hubspot has also found that one in ten blogs is a compounding post that builds sustainable growth.
These are four important reasons why businesses should be blogging. But what if you don't enjoy writing or don't have four hours to spare?
I DON'T HAVE FOUR HOURS TO WRITE
At Tonic, we have a blog production service that will write blogs targeting your industry. The advantage of using our service is we write content that specifically supports your Google ranking objectives whilst balancing the need of writing relevant engaging content for your audience.
In increasingly competitive markets, blogs are a cost-effective way of building sustainable growth by building clients' trust and distinguishing your business by your thought leadership and content.
