When it comes to internet marketing, there are a lot of obvious key elements common to various online marketing strategies. A well designed website, appropriate use of Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and other Social Media platforms, as well a cleverly implemented E-mail marketing campaign all spring to mind as key elements of any internet marketing strategy. However, when blogging comes up in internet marketing talks, there tends to be a lot of discussion centered around how effective of a tool the blog actually is.
Creating a well crafted and meaningful blog for your business can be a considerable time commitment. If your blog misses the mark with your audience, or your online viewers aren’t quite willing to take the time to read your business’s blog, the amount of time which has gone into your blog has ended up being time wasted. The goal of successful online marketing strategies should be to get the most from online users with a small amount of work on your part. With this in mind, you might think that a blog is not a key element of a complete online marketing strategy.
The bottom line is, that your online marketing campaign will not be complete without a well written and consistant blog. There are a number of key reasons why your business absolutely needs to blog, here are just a few:
An argument can be made that traditional blogging can now be done via Social Media Platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. A lot of businesses have chosen to amp up their Social networking sites while neglecting to blog at all. This is a mistake.
When it comes to Social Media sites the faction of your audience which meets you here are looking for instant gratification, meaning they want short, easily devoured posts. Ignoring your Social Media audience’s need for concise Facebook posts will lead to them removing your page from their timeline. Additionally, when it comes to posting the same amount of information conveyed in a blog on your Twitter account, you’re looking at posting well over one hundred back to back 140 character Tweets for an average blog. Posting in this way is a sure fire way to get your business’ Twitter account unfollowed. You can link to your blog on social media, but it’s not a place to post the whole thing.
A blog allows you to write a well rounded informative piece which your audience can click into, read, enjoy, and share. With this in mind, think of Social Media not as a replacement to your blog, but rather an avenue for sharing your blog’s content.
A corporate blog is an excellent way to prove that you really know what you’re talking about. Posting regular articles which are cleverly written and informative not only give your audience something to click into and engage with, but it also gives some validity to the claims that you are good at what you say you’re good at.
It is one thing for a business to claim on their website “hey, we’re really good at installing irrigation systems” and then list off the services they offer and expect people needing irrigation system installation to utilize their services. It is a whole other, much more effective thing to craft a well written piece on irrigation installation backed by your business’s expert knowledge and passion for irrigation and to finish the piece off with “we’re really good at installing irrigation systems, please contact us”. In this way, blogging is an excellent way to show your expert knowledge tail feathers helping to create a bond of trust between you and your audience.
A well written blog which accurately represents your business and what you are trying to achieve through your online marketing efforts can serve a number of purposes when it comes to marketing yourself, and taking the coveted step from being a business to becoming a brand.
An excellent example of utilizing a blog as part of a branding strategy is the blog maintained by Lululemon Athelitca. This is a brand which has built itself up out of a passion for Yoga and living a healthy lifestyle. A browse through their recent blog posts shows a focus on yoga practices and well being Their enjoyable, informative pieces create a feeling which sucks Lululemon’s ever burgeoning audience into what has been described as the “Cult of Lulu” and is part of a branding strategy which has spread like wildfire from the original Lululemon location on 4th Avenue in Vancouver all the way to Australia and back again.
Blogs of this nature serve as a means of sharing yourself with your audience. It helps to drill home the point of what your business is all about, and it creates something which is sharable and allows you to get yourself and your message out there.
The goal of Search Engine Marketing is to increase your Google ranking in order to drive more traffic to your website. We’ve spent enough time going over Black-Hate SEO practices and what not to do on your website, but what we haven’t spent enough time talking about is what you should do.
So, what should you do to improve your Google search engine ranking? You should blog.
Google has taken drastic steps to reward websites for having great content. How does Google know if your site’s content is good? Well, they measure things like Bounce Rate, Click Through Rate, as well as the time a user spends on your page. This means your site has to have content which is engaging enough to keep the user engrossed in your article, useful to them in terms of what they were searching for, and inspire them to click through the other pages of your website.
Additionally, adding a blog to your website allows you to utilize targeted keywords which will serve as an anchor to bring users to your page while your engaging content keeps them there.
A key feature of your blog needs to be its quality. Crafting a high quality blog can be time consuming considering the research that goes into selecting keywords and measuring the success of your blog with your audience. Guaranteed SEO offers blogging services to take the time and guess work out creating a well written interesting and engaging blog. For more information on our blogging services, please contact us.
