The staff at 24 Communications are part of the Forge family and they always have valuable info to share. We’ve snagged a blog post written by Charlotte Donlon from them focusing on the reasons why blogs are effective!
According to The Content Marketing Institute’s B2C 2018 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America report, organizations with an extremely successful or a very successful content marketing approach say blogs are one of the most effective formats for helping them reach their objectives. The only marketing tool more effective for these businesses is email.
1. Your Blog Can Be Used for Email Content
Even though email is the most effective marketing strategy, don’t dismiss blogs. Email and blogs go hand in hand because blog content can be used for email content. Including links to your blog in your email newsletters can help drive readers, current customers, and potential customers to your website.
2. Your Blog Can Be Used to Share Helpful Information
Your customers have the same question we all have: What’s in it for me? Your blog posts can answer that question for your customers and your potential customers. How do your products or services solve their problems? How do your products or services make their life easier? How do your products or services help them achieve their goals? Blog posts are a great way to communicate these specifics to your audience.
3. Your Blog Can Be Used to Highlight Your Products and Services
Do you have a new product or service that you need to introduce to the world? Writing a blog post about your new offering will help spread the word.
4. Your Blog Can Be Used to Respond to Objections
You know why a customer might hesitate to purchase your product or service. Why not use your blog to respond to those objections? Your customers and potential customers will see that you are trying to listen to them and trying to understand their point of view which will make them more willing to consider your point of view and more willing to move past their objections.
5. Your Blog Can Help Generate More Leads and Sales
On average, companies with blogs produce 67% more leads per month than those without.
6. Your Blog Can Help You Connect with Existing and Potential Customers
Many consumers feel more positive about a brand and more connected to a brand after reading custom content, especially if that content tells stories about the company’s brand in ways readers can relate to. Stories about your mission and your goals and ways you give back to your community will resonate with readers, customers, and potential customers.
7. Your Blog Can Increase Traffic to Your Website
Let’s talk about compounding. One in ten blog posts are “compounding,” meaning organic search consistently increases traffic over time. Compounding posts are important because one compounding blog post generates as much website traffic as six regular posts combined. Also, compounding blog posts generate 38% of all blog traffic. There’s no way to know which of your blog posts will be compounding posts. But if you aren’t blogging, it’s safe to say you won’t have any at all.
8. Your Blog Can Help You Tell Your Story
You have a story to tell. And your customers want to know it. Most consumers—70% of them— prefer learning about a company through custom content like blog posts instead of through paid ads. That’s a great incentive to blog more and give your customers the content what they want.
9. Your Blog Can Help Build Trust
Customized content can help build trust with your customers and potential customers. They will see that you know what you’re talking about. They will see that you care enough about your products and services to allocate resources to creating unique content. And if you provide custom content that’s beneficial to them, they will see that you desire to help them. It’s easier to trust someone who is knowledgeable, who cares, and who wants to help you.
24 Communications is here to help you develop and implement your content marketing strategy, and can find strategic and creative ways to leverage your content across multiple platforms to expand your brand’s reach.
Get in touch to learn more.