By Amara Young

Many small businesses struggle with creating a consistent blog schedule. Many large organizations think it doesn’t matter, and attempt to rely solely on  other marketing efforts instead of creating new blog content.  The question many marketers ask themselves is: how useful is blogging? We’re here to provide some insight on that topic.

We understand how hard it is to constantly come up with new content for your company blog. You might even wonder if anyone reads them or how they impact traffic. Here are 3 reasons why blogs absolutely deserve a place in your marketing strategy, and some tips on how to create fresh content.

1.) Leads

According to HubSpot’s marketing statistics in 2017, companies that publish 16 or more blogs per month get 4.5x more leads compared to companies with 0-4 posts per month.

Business to Consumer companies who posted 11 plus blogs per month gained 4x as many leads as those who only published 4-5.

Business to Business marketers who utilize blogging  get 67% more leads than those who do not. (Source)

What’s more is that blogs can not only have a direct impact on your number of leads, but they can also influence the number of sales your company closes. According to Demand Gen Report,  47% of buyers engage with 3-5 pieces of content on your site before ever speaking with a sales rep.

3.) Credibility

Not only can blogging help build domain authority by providing your site with 97% more inbound links (Source), consumers tend to be very trusting of blog posts, with 81% of online consumers trusting advice and information from blogs.

In terms of making purchases, 61% of U.S. online consumers have made a purchase based on a recommendation from a blog (Source).

Tips for Writing Blogs

1.) Create a Schedule

Create a blog schedule with ideas at the beginning of each month, and give yourself deadlines. This will ensure you aren’t trying to write content ‘on the fly’ as you have time. Once you get into the habit  of writing a certain number of posts per month, it will become easier and easier.

2.) Don’t Make Selling Your Focus

I know this sounds counterintuitive, but hear us out. Your blog should be something YOU would want to read in your downtime. It’s more about being interesting and informative for your readers. You’re trying to build a loyal client base sure, but in order to do that, you have to establish credibility with your audience. This leads us to our next tip…

3.) Create Topics That Interest You (and Titles Matter!)

Think about blogs that have caught your interest lately. Then think about how you can create titles and topics that are similar (except related to your industry). For example, would you be more likely to read a blog titled: “5 Ways to Ensure You Don’t Quit Your Diet,” or “Complex Carbohydrates and Their Relationship with Your Digestive System.” (That’s almost a trick question and it was unfair of us… technically longer titles are better for SEO purposes, but we know the first title would likely catch our attention faster.)  In this case, if we’re looking for ways to improve our diet, we don’t want to read a long scientific article about digestion, we want to know how we can eat better and stay on track. The first title tells us what we’re getting from the blog,  which is 5 tips and tricks -even the busiest of people know they can read it on their lunch break.

4.) Add Images

Use high quality images in your blogs, (citing your image source when necessary!). According to jeffbulas.com, blogs with images get 94% more views.

5.) Consider Outsourcing

We’re not going to go against our own advice about selling and say you should outsource to us, but…

In all seriousness, running a business and managing a lot of moving parts is difficult. We find more often than not clients appreciate knowing they will have a set number of blogs written and published every month. Whichever company you chose to write your articles, make sure they send them to you upfront. It’s much better to know what content will be published on your site ahead of time to ensure your team knows how to field any questions that might arise, and it gives you plenty of time to make changes. You should also ask them to provide you with detailed keyword planning, including search volume and trends for the keywords they intend to use. You want to make sure you get the most out of your blogs, and targeting low search volume keywords will not boost your traffic nearly as much as utilizing those that will really bring visitors to your site.

6.) Have Keywords in Mind, but Don’t Overuse Them

Even if you don’t decide to outsource, you can utilize Google’s Keyword Planner yourself by putting in keywords relevant to your industry. Your best bet is to select quality keywords that have medium to low competition but high search volume. You can use these keywords in creating your topics, but we believe you should create interesting topics based on what you yourself would search for, then sprinkle in the keywords naturally

Our last tip is to add us on social media. We’re constantly sharing statistics and tips and tricks to help you reach your marketing goals. #ShamelessPlug