6 reasons why blogging, for marketing and SEO, is important
Is blogging still relevant? The following figures illustrate this point.
There are 70 million new posts every month, and with WordPress alone, 42% of the world’s websites are built on this CMS architecture. Therefore, blogging continues to be a prominent part of online marketing strategies.
In fact, in a recent survey, across all content marketing formats such as video, infographics, e-books and online campaigns, 90% of companies used blogs to help market their brands in the last 12 months.
But how do they do this with the glut of content on the Internet today?
Well, they can do so by developing the right strategy and focusing on priorities around blogging, such as search engine optimization, and taking the time to get to know their customers, which we’ll discuss later.
But if you’re getting into SEO, or already star a content marketer, you may be wondering if it’s still worth it to build a blogging strategy for your cross-border business and spend some time outsourcing blogging? Without a doubt, it’s definitely worth it.
While social media has become an important part of a content strategy, that doesn’t mean blogging has been abandoned.
Blogging can bring you more quality traffic and can help you build brand awareness and authority. And those leads and traffic will convert into customers and help you create a loyal audience.
But crafting influential blogs that meet your company’s goals is a whole other topic.
So while they are important, it’s critical that you take the time to create an effective strategy that engages and grows your audience and draws people back to your brand’s website.
Why are blogs still important?
Now, let’s take a look at why blogging is critical for brands and some of the top brands’ strategies for making sure their blogs are impactful even in the evolving age of online marketing.
1. Blogging builds loyalty and trust
As mentioned earlier, blogging helps build loyalty and trust. But how do you do that?
Providing advice and reliable information that consumers can use will build authority for the topics you will discuss.
When it comes to your industry and product line, blogging is a great way to slowly build your audience and prove your expertise.
An important part of improving your content is the E-A-T concept, which stands for professionalism, authority and trustworthiness.
2. Blogging for visibility
The next part of building quality content is to let it be optimized for search engines. Blogging that answers the questions consumers ask in your industry can be very helpful for SEO.
In addition, adding keywords to your compelling and unique headlines and subheads, as well as well-researched and unique content, is a surefire way to help increase visibility.
Internal linking is another way to increase visibility. Building links to other pages on your site, blogs and product pages can help build brand awareness, visibility and authority.
It is also important to look at blog lengths that are comparable to the topic you are discussing to ensure you cover the topic completely and meet the length that will help rank on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Images are another great way to enhance content and visibility, which we’ll discuss in more detail later. For now, let’s move on to brand awareness.
3, Blogging to create brand awareness
New and original content can make your brand stand out more among other competitors.
When they are looking for answers to questions or want to learn more, your brand is at the top of the SERPs, providing them with the information they need.
The more you invest in your blogging strategy, the more likely you are to increase brand awareness, not only for SERPs, but also for sharing through social media.
4. Blogging generates new leads
If consumers like your content, they may want to see more.
This is a great way to get new leads by getting them to subscribe to your email list.
This way, it’s less intrusive than an ad that prompts them to sign up for emails to get coupons.
While this may be a good curb appeal for potential customers, blogging helps establish a connection before even asking for their information.
If they choose to read the content on your site, they already like your content and want to learn more. More relationships are built with your brand through unique, useful content.
Then, you can merge subscription opt-in pop-ups at the end of the blog or when scrolling, so they can quickly enter information and continue reading.
5, Blogging to drive engagement
One of the goals of most content marketers is to continue to build lasting relationships with new and existing customers.
Blogs provide more shareable content than just your product or service posts for consumers to share with others via social media.
This is a great way to educate customers, provide tips or how-to’s and build more connections with your brand.
Over time, slowly reminding consumers of your brand through your content can help convert readers into long-term customers.
In addition, blogging can add interesting points to the customer journey and provide different opportunities to share your content.
Finally, it allows consumers to engage with topics they are already interested in or want to learn more about, thus creating more topics for engagement.
6. Blogging lets you understand your customers’ needs
Generally speaking, consumers don’t have enough time to read blogs, so it’s important to find content that resonates with them to keep them on the page.
Trying to put yourself in your customers’ shoes and answer their questions is the purpose of blogging and can benefit both you and your customers.
This way, you can take the time to further research and understand your target market and give them the information they need.
A blog also provides an engaging space to post comments and feedback. You can find new ideas for important areas to improve and bloggers to engage with.
For example, maybe someone leaves a question that creates a great topic for another blog post.
It’s perfect for future inspiration, connecting with customers, and understanding their needs.
What is the future of blogging?
Over the years, top brands have undergone a considerable shift in optimizing its blogging strategy and best practices for engaging with readers through blogging.
Google Trends shows that content marketing and blogging will merge at some point, although the focus is now shifting to overall content.
It’s not enough to just type in keywords and produce content that you think Google wants to hear.
All content needs to be professionally designed and well thought out.
So now, let’s dive into how to go through the blog content to make sure it meets your goals.
How do you adapt to the ever-changing times of blogging?
When it comes to blogging, the baseline of concern is quality rather than quantity.
Don’t just make a blog for the sake of making a blog, because you also have to think about what content will help increase your brand awareness.
Search engines have evolved just like blogs, and are much better at assessing the quality of content.
Also, people don’t have time to read long, never-ending content, which makes it difficult to find key points.
Content needs descriptive and engaging headings and subheadings, as well as clear, concise content with effective keywords.
It is valuable to discuss a topic fully so that people can understand it, but also to be straightforward – no unnecessary nonsense.
In addition, it is critical to develop a long-term content strategy to ensure that you not only meet general business goals, but that you truly reach and understand your target market.
Multi-channel storytelling is the way to go
Content has always been considered king, but now that channels are also queen, multi-channel storytelling is about how you distribute content across different platforms. There are many social media sites and corporate messages where you can customize and share your content.
Check out where your target market is engaging.
Maybe it’s Facebook or Instagram, where you can create a promotional blog and bring it back to your website content page.
You can also look at merchant information or directories where you can share content, such as Google merchant profiles where you can share Google posts.
Visual content to attract more readers
Interweaving images, infographics, short videos and other visual content can help break down your topic.
It can also help you better highlight topics, describe hard-to-understand concepts and keep readers engaged.
Visible in Let’s Go
To increase visibility, it is critical to produce unique content and focus on keeping readers engaged.
In addition, it’s critical to keep your customers in mind when creating content so that it doesn’t fall through the cracks in the SERPs or get lost among other similar content.
Researching what your competitors are doing and where they rank on the SERPs is the start of improving brand awareness.
Then finding a unique angle or building on what they are talking about, while still answering what consumers are searching for, is the perfect balance to creating engaging blog content that ranks well.
Is blogging still important for cross-border brands today?
Yes, but like SEO, it is constantly evolving. At the core of an effective blogging strategy are the best practices for conducting SEO.
As SEO evolves, it’s important to evaluate your strategy to ensure that your content and entire website has the expertise, authority and trustworthiness that let search engines demand.
Even with all the changes in online marketing strategy, blogging is still a pillar.
Not only can blogging bring in leads, it can also increase brand awareness in your target market. If you take the time to understand simple SEO strategies and how to engage your audience, then you’re sure to have a thriving base of blog posts.
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