It's a Blog Eat Blog World
If you’ve never stumbled upon a blog along your internet travels you can count yourself among a very small number of people.
Even without realizing it you’ve probably come across one, because it seems as if every one and every company has a blog. *Psst… You’re on one now*.
But why? Why is it that blogs are everywhere?
A blog, short for weblog, started off as a way to write journal-like entries on the internet. People would share their personal stories with the world. It wasn’t until the mid-to-late 2000’s that blogs transformed.
Now, blogs have expanded to encompass more than individuals. Companies are using blogs to connect with the people they serve. They offer important information their customers want to read and are willing to share — that’s the idea anyway — because an informed customer is a better customer. If you offer customers additional information generally not found elsewhere, they will see you as a trusting authority figure in your industry and be more likely to do business with you.
The other purpose of a blog is much more technical and involves entities like Google and Bing. These search engines have developed methods of ranking websites and a great way of influencing that ranking is to use a blog. The blog is important because of the content you will put into it. This content should be valuable to your customer. So valuable in fact, they’ll want to link to it from their own website, giving you the coveted and often sought after backlink.
Without going into too much detail about the ranking process (you can catch that on a previous post): search engines just really like content. It’s the content of your website that people look and show up for. No one is returning to your website for the Contact page or even the About page… sorry.
Using Your Company Blog
If you want to use your website as the marketing tool it is intended to be, you’ll want a blog (or news or tips or updates— whatever you want to call it). But not just any blog, you want a blog that is unique to your company that only your company could produce. Just as your company has a brand and voice so too should it have a blog.
Even the most boring industries out there (I’m looking at you paper manufacturing) can find something their audience finds interesting. By discovering the content your audience wants most you can determine where to begin creating. Frequently asked questions is a great place to start. Incorporate video, written articles, inforgraphics and whatever else you can think of into the blog. Make it educational or funny, maybe a bit of both, whatever it takes to grab the attention and curiosity of your audience.
If you’d like help developing your blog content or online marketing strategy, contact us. We’d love to help.