The pandemic, lockdowns, economic downturn and decreasing consumer confidence have all been a blow to many businesses over the last couple of years. Many of you are looking for new ways to help grow your business and weather the storm.
We wanted to share something most businesses can be doing to grow their business: blogging. Blogs are a form of marketing ‘content’ which have so many benefits to business.
Blogs help your business by…
- letting customers/clients get to know you
- making it easier for Google to find you
- allowing you to demonstrate your expertise
- inspiring people to purchase a product/service they weren’t aware of
- leading readers to go on to download lead magnets (like e-books, whitepapers, e-guides, cheat sheets, checklists, templates, etc)
Today we will look at benefits number 2 and 5.
Making it easier for Google to find you
You may have heard a lot about the importance of SEO (search engine optimisation – put simply: ranking well on Google). But it all sounds so technical and expensive, doesn’t it? It doesn’t have to be.
Yes, producing a website which performs well will help your chances being found on Google. And yes, if you have the budget it is 100% worth investing in professional SEO support. We can help with that – so do speak to us.
How does Google work?
Google regularly updates its algorithm with the aim of finding and ranking the best quality webpages on search topics. It decides which pages to prioritise by a number of ways:
- Relevancy
This is where well-written blogs which have been created with specific search terms in mind will help you win. Make good use of keywords in your URL, meta tags, your title, your headings and in your body copy.
When I say keywords, think of them more as phrases. Google has come a long way since the times where content writers would win by keyword stuffing, now you are likely to be penalised for it. Google now picks up on alternative terms for the same topic and is looking for text which is written with its audience in mind.
- Authority
Backlinks are a way Google can tell how authoritative your website is. If other authoritative websites are linking back to yours, then chances are you are seen as an authority on a topic. There’s a whole strategy to this, which I won’t go into in this post. But outbound and internal links are also important to include in your blog, so don’t forget these. - Site performance
This is where a developer or SEO specialist could be helpful – from minifying your coding and reducing your page requests etc. Site performance affects the user’s experience of your website. If the website is too slow and sluggish, people will leave in search of a quicker one.
If your website is too hard to use on mobile, again your website visitors will disappear to find something easier.
Google looks at a range of performance indicators such as Time to Interactive and First Contentful Paint.
I appreciate for a non-techy, this just sounds baffling and scary. That’s why if you want to tackle this, speak to a professional. We can get this sorted for you so do get in touch.
Out of these three main elements Google uses to rank you, the first is something you can easily tackle with a well-planned content/blog schedule.
Generating leads through marketing content
Going back to our list of blog benefits to business, our 5th benefit was to encourage visitors to download ‘lead magnets’ such as downloadable e-guides.
Every blog should have a call to action (CTA) and lead magnets are a good option. If you don’t include a CTA, what did you want the reader to do after reading your blog? Think about what do you want your audience to do, feel, or decide at the end of reading your blog. Is there a product they should see more about or buy? Or your business model may be more geared to collecting leads and then nurturing the relationship until the point they are ready to commit to a service or high-cost purchase. If the latter, you need a lead magnet.
A great way to generate leads is to write a blog on a topic of interest to your reader and create a lead magnet that relates to this topic which helps them further down their purchasing journey.
Example: a law firm might write a blog on an update in the law that affects businesses. They then create a lead magnet with a checklist for complying with the new regulation. The checklist would be linked in the blog, so that interested readers go on to fill in their details to access the download. Hey presto, the law firm now has a new lead entered into their database to keep in touch with about related information which is of interest to them, and a potential client in the making.
In this blog, we have gone into depth about two very measurable benefits to your company. We looked at how you can boost your online visibility through blogging. And we looked at how blogging paired with lead magnets can give your sales team new leads to follow up on.
So how do you create this valuable content?
How do I create a well-planned blog schedule?
- Define your audience so you have a strong grasp of who they are, and their needs and purchase motivations.
>>get your free guide to define your audience << - Research your keywords in Google’s Keyword Planner and choose keywords which are relevant to your business but not so competitive you don’t stand a chance. You will need to choose longtailed keywords – as in don’t choose “shoes”, choose “stylish work shoes”.
- Schedule a calendar of blogs so you have regular, relevant content being published.
>>create a content calendar that adds value using our template << - Use a quality copywriter to write your blogs. You may be able to achieve this in-house or just give us a call if you need a professional to do the work for you.
- Now promote! They say marketing is 20% creation, 80% promotion. So go promote all over your social media, get your colleagues to share, ping it across to old clients, prospects, friends, your Gran… ok, you get the point.
- Review your analytics, optimize and plan the next batch. See which topics resounded with your audience through Google Analytics data. This data will inform your future content planning. Also, check which of the popular blogs could be updated in six months to remain ‘evergreen’. And make sure you link together related blogs so that you start to build a repository of information on a topic of expertise.
Lots to think about in this post. If you need help, Big Butterfly can provide copywriting, content and campaign planning, and SEO. Get in touch if you’d like professional support to achieve successful content marketing to grow your business.