I’m going Shakespeare on you today – to blog or not to blog, that is the question. Admittedly, I took some liberality with his wording. But the question is still valid. Is blogging worthwhile? The answer is “YES, yes it is!” In today’s marketing tip, I share three reasons why blogging is an effective B2B marketing tool, and as a bonus, three tips to make your blogging better.
Full transcript below.
Full Transcript
To blog or not to blog. I think that’s what William Shakespeare wrote, which of course he didn’t, but it’s still a really good question. And I’m going to give you some answers as to why, yes, blogging is a great idea. And I’m going to give you three tips to help make your blogging better. Hi, I’m Steve Phipps with Wayfind Marketing. This is your weekly marketing tip.
Now blogging is one of those content marketing tactics that’s been around for years. People think about it, maybe they’ll start, maybe you’ve started. Maybe you started writing some blogs, ran out of ideas. Maybe you just didn’t have time. So here are a few reasons to, yes, blog.
Number one, it gives you fresh content for the search engines. Now, depending on a bunch of different factors, blogging isn’t necessarily going to just increase the number of people coming to your website overnight. It can, however, generate leads, and you want to write good content that people want to read. So yes, it can help drive traffic through search engines.
Number two, it gives you content that you can share on social media. It’s content that you can share through email. So there’s different ways that you can use it beyond just sitting there on your blog.
And then it’s a great way to answer questions. And so, we do a lot of work with B to B companies, and it’s content that your sales person can use to share with a prospect, especially as they’re having conversation and certain questions come up. And a blog shows your authority, it shows that you know what you’re talking about. I mean, of course, that is assuming that you’re writing good content.
Now, for actually creating it, I’m going to give you three tips. Number one, what do I write about? Well, answer the questions that people ask you. What are the questions that your prospects ask? Well, write a blog post about that, because if they’re asking you those questions, then they’re probably searching for it on Google.
Number two is a planning tip. Plan your content quarterly. Now, if you’re blogging weekly, that’s going to be 13 blog posts. So sit down, take 30 minutes, an hour, think about what campaigns you’re going to be running that quarter. What are you promoting? What can you write content about that would help answer questions about that particular service or product. Or maybe there’s seasonality in your industry, maybe there are certain topics right now. But just sit down and just, you don’t have to write them all, but just list out, you know, 26 different topics, pick 13.
And then the final tip is on writing headlines, because let’s face it, the headline is one of the most important parts. It’s the biggest determinant as to whether or not somebody is going to read your post. So you’ve got to have a good headline. If your headline is boring, if your headline sucks, people won’t read your blog post. So, create 10 blog post titles. Yes, for one blog, 10 blog post titles, brainstorm it out, give yourself options. Once you get to about the fourth or fifth, your brain’s probably going to feel like it can’t come up with any more, but it can. Maybe get other people on your team to help brainstorm. And then if you want, use a headline analyzer, there’s a content management software called CoSchedule that has a headline analyzer. In fact, if you just Google that, you’ll find it.
So those are your tips. Should you blog to blog or not to blog? Yes, to blog. If you have further questions, message me. I’m happy to help you think through a blogging strategy for your business. Thanks.
