Source: Shutterstock
In a world of inbound promotion, blogging happens to be one of the most effective approaches. B2B businesses engaged in regular blogging got 67 percent more leads than the ones refraining from employing the technique.
There’s a simple reason why blogging delivers such excellent results – people love getting something from their interaction with brands. High quality, niche information is the key to building your reputation and setting yourself as the authority in the respective field.
The online audience believes that a blog is the fifth most trustworthy source of information out there. Needless to say, this trustworthiness can be used to attribute the right qualities to a brand.
Now that you know just how important blogging is, let’s take a look at some of the strategies for making the most of this approach and attracting customers through it.
It’s Not a Sales Channel, It’s a Blog
This is the most important rule you have to remember. If you’ve never attempted inbound marketing before, it may be difficult transitioning. Still, changing your approach is of utmost importance.A blog is not a sales billboard. Don’t treat it as such! A call to action every now and then is acceptable but don’t go beyond that. Your blog should feature high quality, unique and informative content that people enjoy.
The blog gives you a chance to build a relationship of trust with your audience. You’re not pushing anything. You’re not manipulating people. You’re simply providing the information that your audience needs in an attempt to boost brand loyalty.
This is the primary purpose of the blog. Once you build your loyal audience, you can undertake other steps to make people convert.
Be Patient and Tweak Your Approach
Using Google Analytics is of paramount importance for assessing the performance of your blogging campaign.Be patient and work on building high-quality content. While this is happening, check performance. Google Analytics provides a lot of information about the posts that have seen the highest level of engagement, the ones that attract backlinks and those that see the most traffic.
Based on this information, you can easily tweak your blogging strategy for maximum effectiveness in the future.
Don’t forget to check the audience data, as well. If your blog isn’t appealing to the right crowd, you’ll find it almost impossible to turn these people into customers.
Use Your Humor and Humanity
What could be more boring than a stuck-up corporate blog that’s full of jargon? Only a few things come to mind. People want to be informed and entertained when reading online content. A blog is a relatively informal communication medium. This is why you have to forget about corporate speak.If you manage to make people laugh, you’ll get much better results from the campaign.
The most important thing to remember is to use your own tone and to refrain from forcing it. Don’t replicate somebody else’s blog posts because you like them. This way, you’ll be depriving your texts of authenticity.
A blog gives you a chance to show the human face of your business. It could be warm, friendly, inviting or humorous. Know your persona and stick to it when producing texts. Consistency is one of the keys to building a loyal audience.
Premium Content
Once you build your audience through blogging, you may want to start offering specialized services to qualified leads.Turning people into customers can be a lengthy process that involves a lot of effort on your behalf. If you execute every single step correctly, however, you’ll benefit from a loyal clientele that will come back to you time and time again.
One of the ways to show your gratitude to readers and clients who have been around for some time is through premium content. It may come in the form of an exclusive newsletter or a downloadable whitepaper. Give these people something extra to show them your appreciation. Premium content enables direct communication with ideal customers, which could lead to an even more effective marketing approach in the future.
Conclude Every Post in the Right Way
The final paragraph of a blog post is as important as the first one. It affects the behavior of your audience and determines what people are going to do next.A good conclusion is usually brief, it summarizes your main points and it also includes a call to action.
Your call to action doesn’t have to be anything sales-related. It may encourage the audience to share their own experience on the topic or ask a question. It may also suggest following the brand on Twitter (or any other social platform) for additional information on the topic.
Whatever call to action you choose to focus on, make it relevant and refrain from being pushy. Suggest something and leave the final decision to your reader. You otherwise risk alienating people and getting a small number of conversions.
The conclusion ties it all together. You can’t have a blog post filled with useful, professional tips that flop in the last sentence. Put some effort into it. Otherwise, your blogging efforts will appear a bit too amateurish.
Remember that corporate blogging does pay off but you have to put the work in it. Take some time to assess your strengths and build a blog in the niche that you’re most knowledgeable about. Connect with your audience and learn from its feedback. Be patient, analyze performance and keep on working. Such a level of commitment will pay off in the future.
Author Bio: Alice is a passionate writer. The topics of her interest are blogging, marketing and business writing. Befriend her on Facebook or website.
Post a Comment