In a recent article I outlined 8 steps to managing the chaos of a digital world focused on instant gratification. The article set the stage for building your digital marketing services and strategy to combat the reality we face as marketers. Building off that message I want to discuss how important your blog is to your business and goals, and why you need to understand how it connects. I'll outline the true point of blogging for your business and explain how the more you blog the more success you'll find with digital marketing.
One of the best ways you can increase your search engine rankings is by continually adding fresh and relevant content. Google loves fresh content! Simply building a launch pad website and letting it sit stagnantly without fresh content will leave you struggling to compete for valuable prospects. You need to develop your website continually, adding new pages about the services you really want people to discover.
Understanding Why You Need To Blog
There is no more effective tactic of increasing your content and number of pages on your website than to blog. If you don’t have a blog, you’ve messed up along the way and need to remedy that mistake immediately. Get your web designer to integrate a blog on your site immediately, it shouldn’t cost much and there should be several options depending on how your site was built. A blog has value because it lets you add new content quickly and efficiently, without the need for new page design and custom coding. This means it’s cheap and easy, meaning everyone from your secretary to your intern can contribute on a regular basis.
Companies that blog get 55% more website visitors -HubSpot
We suggest you put together a content plan that’s achievable and that involves as many people in your organization as possible, by requiring four different employees to each post one article per week you’ll soon easily generate content quickly enough to show results. We’ve written many articles on The Art & Science of Blogging that will help you navigate the waters of blogging.
Don't Be Misled, Understand the Point of Blogging
Do not forget the point of blogging or you'll end up trying to understand why your campaign is failing. The primary benefit of consistent, frequent blogging is to add new indexed pages to your website. Many organizations make a mistake when they don't keep that top of mind while they're blogging. They get caught up in the wrong things and completely blow their opportunity to drive bottom-line metrics they began their campaign to produce. It's about growing traffic, leads, nurturing mature leads, and handing sales warm opportunities.
- They get too caught up in capturing this magic voice and the perfect sentence structure.
- They get too caught up in the concept that every article needs to be perfect.
- Articles sit in review for weeks, if not months
- Their team isn't fed enough new content to promote
- Their SERP rankings don't grow as fast as they should
- Every KPI they're tracking suffers
You'll be much better off one year from now with 100 published articles with 20-30 great ones to promote than you'll be with 20-30 total articles that all meet some built-up expectation you've developed. If you can avoid the pitfall of over-analyzing your content and focus on continually publishing as many good articles as you can you'll see amazing results from inbound marketing. You'll also find that many of your articles will turn out to be fantastic and you'll have plenty to promote throughout social media, email marketing, etc.
Some Additional Thoughts on Risk vs Reward
While the benefits of blogging frequently are far greater than the negatives many organizations continue to struggle with writing and publishing articles. One obstacle you may encounter is you may just be afraid to put yourself out there. You might be scared of failure or overly concerned about what people think about you. You may also be reluctant to share your inside-information or intellectual property.
You may fear your competition will swoop in and profit from the information you broadcasted on the internet. Our advice is to cast your fears and inhibitions aside. Your writing will improve over time and the benefits from publishing advice consistently on your website will far outweigh any perceived consequences. Not every piece of content you publish will be great, (we’re living proof of that) but you’ll never become great if you don’t work at it.