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- Offer advice and insight from an executive recruiter’s perspective
The Bristol Breakroom blog provides employers and candidates with a variety of content from a recruiter’s perspective. As an executive search firm, we write blog articles regarding hiring best practices, job search advice, and industry news. We also use our blog to highlight completed searches and announce company updates such as promotions, new hires, and anniversaries. To offer additional insight that will benefit our audience, we invite career coaches and resume writers to create guest blog articles to feature on our website. Not only is The Bristol Breakroom a valuable resource for executives seeking hiring and career advice, but it is also a great way to market our firm’s extensive knowledge in the recruitment process and our specialized industries.
Thanks to Benjamin Farber, Bristol Associates, Inc.!
#2- TWO things
Blogging has a lot of benefits for so many different businesses, but in our case it has helped with two big things: to connect and to educate. We connect with our audience through our blog more than social media because of the amount of content we can publish there versus a post on Instagram for example. With that said, we work hard on putting valuable content about all things beauty which has helped drive traffic to our website and sales page, so the page performance has been much better since we started blogging more consistently. The main thinking we like to point out is that we strive to put content that informs and educates our customers so they know what they’re buying or what to look for when shopping for beauty supplies, or a skincare product, even if it’s not from us. Trust is the biggest thing when it comes to brand growth as your customers will come back to you again and again whether to buy a product they love, try a new one, or just ask some questions about new products and brands they have seen on the market.
Thanks to Keith Eneix, Taut USA – Renew Alliance!
#3- Bring our community to one platform
Our app is video user-generated content for beauty enthusiasts sharing product reviews, routines, and tips. We wanted to bring our community to a blog platform where they can be a part of trending topics in a long-form content style. We love sharing our community's videos embedded in these blog posts as well so site visitors get a real sense of how people are using beauty products.
Thanks to Savannah Scott, Supergreat!
#4- Stay on top of SEO
I started blogging before I ever wanted to start a business in the health and wellness niche. My blog has helped me to define the type of customer I can serve and what type of business I want to start, which is a holistic health and wellness coaching. Now my blog serves as a driver of traffic to my website and business, as well as a marketing and educational tool for my audience. Going forward, I will continue to use my blog to stay on top of SEO, to promote my business, and to inform my readers about the latest in the health and wellness industry.
Thanks to Christine Songco, Third Bliss!
#5- Provide initial value
My blog is a place to provide initial value to my audience so that people learn a tidbit of information about what I do. Oftentimes, once they learn how complicated something really is, that's when they realize they need to hire someone for help. That's why I end every blog with a call-to-action for either a consultation or guiding them to a freebie download.
Thanks to Rachael Flores, Fiori Marketing!
#6- Attract more visitors
One of our most successful SEO tactics is to publish long-form content on our blog page about the science of mitochondrial cell research, our product, and how it all relates to health and wellness. We also stay in the forefront of SEO by publishing our case studies and research on our website to attract more site visitors to learn about our product and its benefits.
Thanks to Shaun Price, MitoQ!
#7- Create an appealing online platform
If you want your blog to become a workhorse for your company, you'll need to put some effort into making it appealing to your ideal customers or clients. Make an effort to make your blog look professional by investing in decent hosting and a premium theme. Visitors would not want to return to your blog if it does not look appealing.
Thanks to Nicole Graham, Womenio!
#8- Make my business more welcoming
Most clients are skeptical about booking a virtual appointment so I thought a blog will help them open up. I use the blog section to make my business more welcoming and research-relevant. I visualized that even if visitors were simply checking my business' website, they would get useful information. That’s why I post about the latest policies and commonly asked questions about finances.In short, I use my blog to communicate my firm's vision, business expertise, corporate standards, and personality they can relate to.
Thanks to Francisco Remolino, Remolino Associates!
#9- Establish authority
By consistently creating blog posts that are useful for our target customers, it has helped establish our brand as an authority in their eyes. Establishing authority is somewhat not as concrete as leads and traffic, but it's pretty powerful than you might think. For example, if the target customers find solutions to their common problems from our blog posts, they will be much more likely to come into the sales process since we've already helped them before. This is the power of authority and trust, it's important for nearly all businesses.
Thanks to Darren Dean, WipeLock!
#10- As a marketing channel
Our blog is our primary marketing channel (via organic traffic) and we use it in 2 primary ways: to attract new users and to nurture existing users. For new users, we focus on relevant and SEO-researched content to drive them to our blog via Google. From there, we work to nurture and convert them by (1) getting them to opt in to one of our CTAs and (2) introducing other relevant content that they can consume. In short, our blog is the recipient of most of our marketing budget but also delivers consistent and relevant traffic to our business as the first step in the conversion process.
Thanks to Quincy Smith, TEFL Hero!
#11- Get organic reach
Two of my blogs rank high on Google. They bring around 5,000 visitors a day to my websites. Call to action elements and interlinking on the articles sell my products. I also have a new blog that has a long-playing strategy to share my researches and studies. I'm working with that format and hope to provide it soon.
Thanks to Anatolii Ulitovskyi, SEOtools.TV!
#12- As the actual social media of a business
And unlike the general notion, as with your other question about Facebook for business, a business's blog section should be used as the primary social network for the business. That's the strategy we follow – let me explain! A business' blog should be designed creatively; it should look engaging and must have different forms of content published accurately. Just like social media, a blog should have quizzes, pictures, engaging articles, videos, infographics, and all of them should relate generally and informative towards the business.
Thanks to Will Cannon, Uplead!
#13- Keep the site active
Search engines want a consistent amount of activity from a website to keep showing it in search results. Therefore we're committed to blogging weekly in order to keep active. Also, we use the blog to tailor the content we are posting at the people we are in talks with onboarding to our agency. For example, we have recently taken on many clients who are tradesmen and to help reassure them of our understanding of their industry we have written a blog dedicated to marketing in this sector.
Thanks to Connor Hewson, Assured Marketing!
#14- To increase revenue
How do we do that? Well, we know that our target audience, when they have a problem, goes to Google to get their questions answered? If we clearly answer their questions (and answer them better and more comprehensively than any of our competitors) then there's a good chance that they'll read it. And after they read it, there's a chance they'll reach out to hire us.
Thanks to Joey Randazzo, Portland SEO Growth!
#15- For educational purposes
It is focused on providing high-quality content that our target audience can use as resources and tools for growth. Any call-to-action we include on blog pages follows that same theme. Free education for our target customer. Of course the hope is they will eventually become a paid customer, but the blog is nothing but high-quality free educational content.
Thanks to Jennifer Rogina, ClearPath Online!
#16- Write monthly newsletters
A blog can be a very powerful tool for a business if you know how to use it properly. The problem is, many businesses let their blogs sit and collect dust and rarely utilize them. I use our blog to write quick monthly newsletters. That way, when sending the link to our newsletter out to our mailing list each month, we're also directing traffic to our site.
Thanks to Kate MacDonnell, Coffee Affection!
#17- Position our brand as a solutions-oriented partner
While we use short and sweet videos and out-of-the-box images in our social pages, the business blog does the heavy lifting. The goal is to position our brand as a solutions-oriented partner without boring readers with business talk. One way that has worked exceptionally well is to use article series within a specific business or life theme. The theme we pick for the next week could be a trending story, customer success stories (excellent approach to sharing case studies), or upcoming events. We also offer a more in-depth take on a topic we covered in a video, webinar, or podcast. Creating regular series takes effort. But it pays dividends in terms of return visitors, email opens, reach for our affiliate deals, emails, older content reads, and, ultimately, conversion rate. We noticed our audience is almost always waiting for a new series.
Thanks to Jon Torres
#18- Creates a two-way conversation
Blogs are powerful. They have helped us creates a two-way conversation with our customers, leads, and industry peers. With a more relatable tone and an interactive platform, we encourage feedback and discussion in the comment sections of our blogs. Having in-depth conversations with your customers is a great way to build trust and authority in your brand. Plus, it allows you to examine your business from your audience's point of view and make changes to improve your services. Instead of trying to pull new social media content ideas out of a hat, you can simply promote and link recent and relevant blog posts. You’re simultaneously strengthening your social media presence and bringing in new visitors. It’s a win-win.
Thanks to Richa Nathani, Dialed Labs!
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