If you’re like the majority of the marketing professionals in the world where your stomach gets tight the moment you read, or are told of the importance of blogging, it might be due to the fact you already have too much on your plate, you don’t consider yourself a writer, or you’re stumped as to what you’d write about anyhow.
Regardless of how long it takes you to work through the five stages of grief each time the importance of blogging is thrown in your face, you owe it to the success of your organization to let down your guard and embrace it, or risk ignoring all these messages at the peril of your company.
Ok, maybe it’s not that dramatic. Or maybe it is. I’ll let you be the judge as you read through the following proof that blogging should be the cornerstone of your marketing strategy.
Reason #1 | The search engines love fresh, new, valuable content.
Considering the fact that 93% of all buying decisions start with a visit to the search engines, it’s critical for you to pay attention to what makes the search engines “happy.”
The bottom line is fresh websites with valuable content will outperform stale websites 100% of the time.
A very basic explanation of an extremely complicated process is this. When the search engines crawl your website by following links, they essentially take note of new content that exists since the last visit. When they return time and time again with no additional content added, you essentially train them to decrease the frequency of visits and it sends clear sign as to the relevancy (or lack thereof) of your site.
PLEASE NOTE: I said they love fresh, new, VALUABLE content. It’s truly about quality content and not just creating superficial content for the sake of luring attention to your company from the search engines.
Reason #2 | Blogging increases the credibility of your organization.
The rapid proliferation of media and the ever-growing number of advertising channels combined with the history of deceptive advertising practices has destroyed consumer confidence. Blogging is one of the best ways to provide value to the personas you serve by answering the questions they need to answer during their buyer journey.
You want your organization to be viewed as more credible than your competition, don’t you?
Blogging is your chance to do just that!
Reason #3 | Giving back leads to good karma.
I’m quite certain you wouldn’t have achieved the level of success in your career if it weren’t for people coming along side of you and sharing their knowledge along the way. Now is your opportunity to give back! You’ll find the more you share the knowledge you’ve acquired with the personas you serve, the more you’ll be rewarded with loyalty and increased awareness of how kick ass your organization is.
Reason #4 | People buy from people, not brands.
As I mentioned in reason number two, the lack of belief in the messages brands push into the marketplace has created a true need for organizations to show their human side. Warts and all. Blogging is an excellent medium to “be real” and talk about the real issues that plague your personas in a conversational and interesting way. The deeper the connection you can build between your personas and your brand the better. You can only do that if they get to know the real people behind the logo.
Reason #5 | You’ll find that your selling cycle gets much shorter.
There has been recent research conducted which has shown that on average, 56% of the buying process has been completed before a potential customer reaches out to talk to a sales person. Imagine how much easier your life could be if you answered the majority of your personas questions prior to them raising their hand to talk. Even more so, think about the volume of people who never reach out to you because you haven’t made the same effort that your fiercest competitor has. Although hearing this might sting a bit, the first step in healing is admitting you have a problem.
Reason #6 | Companies who blog average 55% more visitors.
Think about that for a minute. If you’ve put in the work to create a solid web presence and the traffic you receive converts well, you can immediately see an increase in sales or leads by investing time serving your personas by delivering valuable content on your blog. That’s low hanging fruit that you should definitely pick right away!
No Buts About It…
Although the thought of embarking on the blogging journey may seem as daunting as hiking the Appalachian Trail with a 40lb backpack on in the middle of winter, it’s truly not. You’re a marketing professional, and the reason you’re successful is because you understand the audience you serve. Look at blogging as an excellent way to showcase your understanding as well as the best opportunity to create a deep, long-lasting relationships with your audience and the organization you serve.
Planning is the most important next step in alleviating the anxiety of getting started and we’d like to help. Click the button below to download our content calendar. It will help you avoid the challenge of sitting down in front of a blank screen wondering what the heck you’re going to write about now that you’ve decided to get started.