INBOUND ACCELERATOR

In the rush to keep social media content current and relevant, we often create material that is top-of-mind at the moment but loses its connection rapidly. And that works—for social media.

Even as new forms of content catch the attention of marketers and consumers, from constantly evolving social media to interactive website features and virtual or augmented reality, both groups still return to one of the basics time and again: business blogs.

Business blogs are among the three primary forms of media used in the content marketing strategies today, according to HubSpot, with both B2B and B2C brands relying on storytelling to grow awareness, increase website traffic and SEO performance, and drive lead generation.

This has been quite a year, hasn’t it? An ongoing global pandemic, civil unrest in cities across the US, a shift in how businesses operate, and for marketers, a need to at least try to stay a half-step ahead of the messages our customers need to hear in times like these.

There are many reasons a business blog should be a part of your content marketing strategy. Business blogs improve your website’s SEO and search rankings. They establish authority and thought leadership in your industry. Blogging provides opportunities to engage with readers and can be used in conjunction with other marketing strategies for lead generation. (More on why you should, or shouldn’t, use a business blog: 7 Reasons You Shouldn’t Have a Business Blog.)

Business blogs have been around for more than a decade, and in some reports they are losing ground to other content strategies in marketers’ arsenals. So, if you don’t already have a business blog, why should you start one now?

In some professions, there are no questions about how to get the results you want. Precise manuals spell out exactly how to replace an engine part or calculate the needed statistics in an actuarial table. But with marketing and content creation, the guidelines are a little more, let’s say, open to interpretation.

This includes writing business blog posts that deliver results – wouldn’t it be great if there were an absolute answer to what works? Then you would know whether to write long or “KISS” by keeping it short and simple. Unfortunately, the answer is not exact, but there are some statistics, best practices and complicating factors to keep in mind as you find the perfect length for your next blog post.

There was a time when every conversation around search engine optimization focused on one specific topic: keywords. How to choose keywords (such as selecting keywords that have a high search rating, but are ones that allow you to be competitive). Where to place keywords in the structure of your website (also called on-page SEO). How to work keywords into your content.

Much of the discussion around marketing blogs or business blogs centers on how to use blogs to drive traffic and convert leads. And it should be, because that is the ultimate goal of all inbound marketing, and a business blog is an essential tool in the inbound marketer’s arsenal.

But it is also important to consider how you can make each individual tool in that arsenal more powerful. How can you increase your blog’s effectiveness, reach, and performance?

Business blogs have the potential to increase website traffic, build trust and thought leadership within your industry and drive online lead generation. But before they can accomplish those goals, business blogs must attract and keep readers.