The Blogosphere is here and it is not going anywhere. It’s not just for people talking about what they’re eating for lunch or their next celebrity crush. Blogging is big business for entrepreneurs and business owners. CEO Blog Nation has a blogging community and we regularly blog for entrepreneurs and business owners and there are numerous reasons to blog. Rescue a CEO asked some businesses how they use blogging to help their business.
#1- Create topics of interest
We post weekly to our blog on topics of interest to customers and prospects. Those include cyber-security, productivity and revenue-generating tips and articles. We promote our posts with press releases on PRNewswire to generate traffic to the website (100+ click-thrus per release). We also curate blog content to include in our monthly newsletter and promote with Facebook and Twitter posts.
Thanks to Carl Mazzanti, eMazzanti Technologies!
#2- Drive traffic
At first, I thought blogging was pointless for marketing purposes of my business. I soon realized that by creating valuable and engaging content for my blog I was able to harness the power of search engine optimization (SEO). Writing good quality content will get your content seen by millions of people around the world and the best part of this, it's free traffic. This effectively reduced advertising costs for my business and is a very powerful marketing tactic that can save thousands of dollars in the long term.
Thanks to Marco Baatjes, Bottom Line Cents!
#3- Build Our Authority
More and more, our business blog is a tool for enhancing our reputation. Consumers look for signs that a business is trustworthy before they buy, and search engines reward authoritative, expert content with better search rankings. Our blog posts are also very often the starting point — and sometimes a key source — for writing off-site articles. As a whole, blogging enables us to share the knowledge and experience of multiple members of our team, which builds trust with prospective clients, reaffirms the faith placed in us by current clients, and builds the credibility of our company both on our website and through third-party posting.
Thanks to Dan Goldstein, Page 1 Solutions, LLC!
#4- Provide value
At SaleHoo, we focus on providing values to our audience with targeted, useful content. Too often, bloggers make sales their top priority, and consequently, their content suffers. Instead, make engaging your customers your No. 1 goal, and readership and sales will naturally follow. We also focus on varying your content. There are a number of content options such as interviewing an expert, product reviews, top ten lists, how-to articles, industry news and company news. We want out blog to turn readers to customers, and the best way to do that is by providing interesting and fun content.
Thanks to Simon Slade, SaleHoo!
#5- An education tool
The masses are more curious than ever about CBD’s benefits and uses, and there’s a lot to know. When considering CBD, it’s vital you know what to look for ; where's it grown, how it's extracted, has it been tested for potency and purity? There’s a whole new language to learn – full spectrum, broad spectrum, isolate, and distillate. Buying from a company you can trust is important. We blog about the latest findings, how to know what you’re getting, and of course, our products. When customers learn about the benefits of CBD and they decide they want to try it, our blog feeds our sales. But the education piece is tantamount.
Thanks to Steve Schultheis, Steve’s Goods!
#6- Two ways
The blog content educates and helps them while showing my expertise. By sharing information through my blog content, clients + potential clients either learn how to write copy + content on their own or they realize they need to buy one of my digital products or hire me to write their copy + content for them.
Thanks to Kristie Lorette McCauley, Wedding Planner Copy!
#7- Share the Knowledge
As a classically trained professional chef, and restaurant kitchen design consultant, I see our blog as a tool to help educate our clients, in the same way I may have used a culinary text to educate a young cook in a restaurant. Being a chef for over 15 years has taught me that when I take the time to guide a new cook and teach them my craft, without asking for anything in return; I create a valuable and mutually beneficial relationship. I see our blog similarly, as an opportunity to create a mutually beneficial relationship with our clients, while at the same time; not asking for anything in return.
Thanks to Victor Cardamone, Mise Design Group!
#8- Build relationships and credibility
At Distinction Agency, our talented influencers and athletes work hard to create engaging content for the brands they represent, so why wouldn't we create some of our own content as well? As a young company, getting our name out there is of utmost importance, and we've found that commenting on trending topics in the marketing, influencer marketing and sports business verticals is a great way to do that. Writing specific blog posts on these topics not only gets our name out there but also builds credibility as a company. We want brands and talent to have confidence in our services, so when considering us as an option we hope they check out our blog posts. Writing these posts and combining them with our social media strategies will build a following that will aid us in our growth as a company.
Thanks to Alex Onaindia, Distinction Agency!
#9- Bridge communication gap
Much like everything else these days, the lighting industry moves at lightning speed. We at Wavelength are always seeking out the latest advancements in LED technology—and determining how—or if—they'll make our customers' lives better. Recently, we have used our blog to break down the complicated energy codes in New York’s latest climate legislation so that the information is accessible and easily understood by facilities managers, building owners, and anyone looking to perform a retrofit project in New York City. Our blog also allows us to speak directly to our clients, answer the questions they have about confusing fixtures and ballasts, and share our opinions on industry news as it happens. Essentially, we use our blog to bridge the communication gap between the lighting world and our customers, establishing our expertise, agility, and streamlined service.
Thanks to Michael Hennessy, Wavelength Lighting!
#10- Three ways
We use our blog to provide information about topics that are trending in the marketing industry and to share content surrounding our own upcoming products and projects. For example, if we are working on video production capabilities for YouTube advertising (which we are), we may write about the structure of building an effective ad, or how to set up a campaign – information that is both tactical and actionable for our readers but also tells the reader about our capabilities as a company. Our blogs are also value-based tools for our sales team to share with prospects. If our team has a call scheduled next week about PPC advertising, our team can send a link to an article about what is trending in PPC – to keep top of mind until that call.
Thanks to Bernard May, National Positions!
#11- For business
We use blogging for business for SEO value, educate our target audience, and increase sales. By analyzing search queries in search console, I know what information people are looking for already on our website. Crafting blog articles around these keywords, I provide valuable information and answer questions for consumers while focusing on SEO. Within the blog article, I do internal linking to direct these consumers to the product or services that will best serve them and increase our sales.
Thanks to Tracy Iseminger, Crimson Vine Marketing!
#12- Create a brand story
We travel around the world, seeking out folk artists and traditional artists that we would like to represent in our gift shop. Our blog consists of interviews with these artists. We include pictures of us meeting the artists to create our brand's story. Our customers can follow our story and meet the artists themselves through our experiences.
Thanks to Ted Jackson, Hello! Good Morning!
#13- Training resource
We use our blog as a training resource for not only our clients but for any small or medium sized businesses to learn more about digital marketing. We build websites and do digital marketing for small and medium-sized businesses and we know that many people who are working hard running their business may not have the time to dive deep into learning local SEO, for example. We use our blog as a jumping off point for clients seeking to learn more about specific topics we've covered, and we also use them as tools when we teach educational workshops.
Thanks to Allison Schmidt, Get Online NOLA!
#14- Segment and focus our retargeting ads
One of the cool things we’ve been doing with our blog is using it to better segment and focus our retargeting ads. For example, we will now show specific ads to visitors based on what content they viewed on the blog – it’s led to much higher conversions and is a great way to get SEO and PPC working together.
Thanks to Quincy Smith, Ampjar!
#15- For a number of different reasons
We share our own tips and tricks for social media marketing, explain what we do in further detail and keep our audience updated with what's happening in social media news every month. However, we also do blog posts for special events like our birthday or if we've added a new service to help advance the business. Our blog isn't only a place to help advise our audience, but to explain more about what we do, the benefits of our help and our processes as a team too.
Thanks to Olivia Newman, Giraffe Social Media!
#16- Market our business
We started our blog soon after we launched Mashvisor, and it's turned into our main marketing tool. We've reached a level where we publish daily articles on various topics related to real estate investing, being a real estate agent, and property management as real estate investors, agents, and property managers are our major target users. We make sure that each blog we publish is unique and offers real value to our audience. The real estate industry is very competitive, so we have to make sure that readers get the maximum benefit from all our articles. One feature which helps us write unique content is using our own real estate data and analysis to identify the best locations for investing in rental properties as well as to analyze specific real estate markets. No one else has this data. Moreover, in each article we show users how the different tools and features of our platform can help them become successful real estate investors or grow their real estate career.
Thanks to Peter Abualzolof, Mashvisor!
#17- As a funnel for consulting clients
My company uses our blog as our business as well as a funnel for consulting clients. Our website was created with the intention of helping people with security-related issues. Luckily, we now help people every single day and have managed to turn a profit through testing amazing products and affiliate marketing. By offering actionable advice and tips we have cultivated a loyal reader base. This has built trust within our community and has enabled us to review products we have tested thoroughly. Luckily, in this day and age, if you have web traffic it is easy to monetize it in an up-front way.
Thanks to Will Ellis, Privacy Australia!
#18- Showcase our strategy and business-thinking chops
Our blog serves one core purpose: showcase our strategy and business-thinking chops once we're actively talking to a prospective client. We create value-rich posts, usually 900+ words or longer, that focus in on one of the key service areas we provide. We're extremely transparent in offering step-by-step how to's, tactics for how to assess typical marketing challenges, and cheat sheets for how to select the best practices for individual businesses. By having these posts on-hand, we have valuable content that we can share after initial and follow-up conversations. It helps us nurture prospective clients, educate them about best practices, and showcase our know-how. In sum, our blogs posts are essential nurturing tools that let us build confidence and trust so that we can close deals.
Thanks to Laura Troyani, PlanBeyond!
#19- The sales engine of my business
I do all I can to ensure that every blog post I publish is the best article on the topic in the entire online world. This means that my blog posts are typically 2,000 to 4,000 words long. I get a lot of organic traffic to my various posts, and I offer a post-specific lead magnet for almost every post I write. When readers download this lead magnet, they are also subscribing to my mailing list — this is how I'm able to convert many leads into happy customers down the road. In this way, my blog is the sales engine of my business, because creating valuable content for my readers helps them to trust me.
Thanks to Daniel Wong