We’re big advocates of creating a blog as part of your content marketing strategy. Blog marketing can bring a wealth of benefits to businesses and even though the upkeep can be time-consuming, the SEO benefits can be huge.

 

There have been many times when we have managed to get specific blog articles ranking for major keywords. Using our extensive knowledge of SEO, on both a technical and content level, we can’t recommend blog marketing highly enough.

 

What is a Blog?

Blogging is a way of displaying your passions and expertise in a relatable way for your customers or clients. A blog allows you to be able to express your core values and help to create a well-rounded brand identity online. Many businesses will use a blog format to promote the latest news about their company, helping to create a more reliable image or to keep their customers up to date with any substantial changes. However, many will use the format to promote their business as an expert in their industry.

 

Blog Marketing

The aim of blog marketing is to reach a business’ target market and reach a customer base without the usual ‘hard sell’ technique that more sales focused businesses adopt. Through the use of integration, blog marketing is now commonly used as a business website.

 

Previously, a company's website was separated from an onsite blog, whereas now many businesses are seeing the SEO benefits of having a blog on their main site. Blog marketing has become increasingly popular now that businesses have seen that a softer sell is a better approach with the new, clued-up customer base. Blog marketing helps to build trust between the business and the customer, by offering them free information such as tips or advice. These blog readers are more likely to keep your brand at the forefront of their mind.

 

The benefits of blog marketing for businesses

There are a number of benefits to having a blog for your business, including:

 

Inexpensive

Blogs are inexpensive as there are many free blogging platforms you can use to set up your own blog. Many blogging platforms, such as Wordpress or Blogger, can be fully customised using HTML, meaning you can design them to fit in seamlessly with the branding of your main website.

 

Creating content for your blog can be done by an in-house marketing team, however, due to its time-consuming nature, it’s better to hire an agency to take care of this side of things. An agency will be able to implement the best SEO practices, to make sure your blog marketing is reaching its full potential.  

 

Helping to build a brand  

Your blog can also be the ideal way to cement your brand identity, helping you to develop a consistent tone of voice, imagery and personality. In an online world filled with big brands and lots of noise, standing out from the crowd is more important than ever.  

 

Increasing Traffic

When search engines search for websites they look for new content, therefore if you update your blog often, then you have a better chance of ranking for your keywords. Long-tail keywords can also help get your content straight to the most relevant audience, helping improve not only your sales funnel but also bringing in a user base that is more likely to convert.

 

Connecting to Your Customers

Building trust between a brand and consumers is something that has quickly become the norm. Large ad campaigns, both online and offline, can help brands appeal to their customers on a more ‘down-to-earth’ level. Think of campaigns such as the Always ‘Like a Girl’ campaign, which uses content to grab the attention of their target audience. Don’t be afraid of being different to others in your industry, creativity could be the key to placing you far above the rest.

 

Tips for setting up your own blog

First of all, you need to consider a few questions: What content is going to go on your blog? How often are you going to post on your blog? Every week, every month? Are you writing content for B2B or B2C?

 

Knowing your audience inside and out from the very beginning is crucial to the success of your blog. We can help you identify who you should be targeting and advise you on how your blog content should shift or change to meet your customer’s needs. Once we know who you’re trying to target, your tone of voice and personality will be easier to pin down, helping us create content that not only offers SEO benefits but helps build a bridge between you and your customers.

Want to talk more about content marketing? Get in touch with us here at Firecask or give us a call on 0161 222 8655, we’re super friendly I promise!