Perhaps one of the most time-intensive components of an integrated business marketing strategy is maintaining a quality blog. Given all other priorities, some may wonder if there is even value in having a blog at all – after all, the blog is just giving away information for free, not selling any product or service. Social media outlets such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and LinkedIn also provide marketing value and are all so much faster and easier to maintain. Blogging takes time and energy, and does anyone really care about what you have to say anyway?
In fact, they do. Blogging continues to be a cornerstone of a successful integrated marketing strategy, complementing other social media channels, television/radio marketing, and offline print media that target your niche demographic. Following are three reasons why your niche business blog should not fall to the wayside, even when other channels are also utilized:
Drive Traffic to Website
Think about how likely it is that someone is searching online for the answer to a real-world question vs. your brand specifically. Chances are, potential consumers are looking to resolve a problem instead of searching for a specific business to help them. This is where your blog comes in. Answers abound in a quality blog – and they’re all related to your specialty! So when someone is searching for an answer and finds it within your blog, you have immediately created credibility and conveniently landed the potential customer directly on your site (or an extension thereof). Instead of SEO being limited to just verbiage around services that you offer, the sky is the limit as you can publish as many SEO-filled blog posts as desired.
Additionally, your blog posts can then become the foundation for other social media activities, like sharing posts on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn – or even your more traditional print and media advertising. They help you set the tone and theme for your other online and offline marketing channels, so that you can demonstrate a consistent message across all platforms to reach the widest audience.
Develop Authority and Trust
As you build up a volume of blog content that is informational, interesting, and valuable, you will begin to position yourself as an authority on your topic. When coupled with additional marketing channels, this develops optimal trust in your niche demographic, helping to ensure that you are one of the first brands considered in your specific industry. Readers will come back time and time again, and will share the information you’re providing with others. This allows all channels of your integrated marketing strategy to reach a primed audience who already respects and appreciates what you do.
Personalize Brand
Blogging is a great way to humanize your brand. People are hardwired to connect with other people – and a blog allows you to do that. Incorporate your personality and style into your blog. Engage readers: ask questions, broach hot topics, and develop an online community. This will connect you to your readers who will begin to think of you as a real person instead of simply a money-making business. As salespeople will attest, customers buy from people over companies. A strong blog helps to make you relatable to others.
For these and a variety of other reasons, blogs remain critical to a comprehensive integrated business marketing strategy. Managed correctly and in combination with other online and offline marketing channels, blogs will help to increase search engine rankings, engage and retain potential customers, and ultimately result in increased business profitability. To learn more, please Lori Jones today!