What IS it about these blogs?
You put together a killer website. It's mobile responsive, jam packed full of eye candy and compelling content, and even has gated content for visitors to download in exchange for their contact information.
You believe in permission-based marketing, because you, like every other red-blooded American/Earthling, hate being spammed! But you're asking questions about it and other black-hat methodologies for generating business leads, like cold-calling off of purchased lists or building link-farms to your website - because organic traffic is still hard to come by!
You even had professional SEO services in there to rearrange the words and tags and titles to fit language that should be attracting visitors in droves...
But something isn't clicking... Could it be... the blog?
I know this is probably the most obvious answer, and maybe even conceived by my readers as being a little snarky or cocky, but I am totally sincere about it. If you don't have a blog, it's the #1 sign that you need help with writing one.
It's 2015, and if you haven't heard, Google, Bing, Yahoo, and all of their extended brethren, want to provide content that is more educational in nature. (Bill Gates called it when he claimed, "Content is King" back in 1996 - BTW) Something about the fact that users prefer valuable information over schemes that side-step quality mechanisms.
Crazy... I know, right?
So, we want quick access to educational content, because it empowers us as people to make better choices. Great, but what does that have to do with blogging? Well, just about everything.
~ SEO - Remember SEO? Back in the day it was about convincing the search engines that other people find you fascinating. Now, it's not so much about convincing the search engines of your endearing qualities, but rather, the humans that use them. That's a big difference, and blogging addresses this by helping you feed your readers content that helps them and ideas that grow over time.
~ Engagement - High bounce rates are haunting, but when you deploy black-hat tactics that side step those precious quality control mechanisms, you circumvent the process that is actually there to help you find the balance between attraction and conversion, so high bounce rates should be expected. You dilute your results with a bunch of rif-raff that skews the analtyics while attracting the internet's underbelly. Blogs, on the other hand, bring visitors to your site for very specific reasons, and deliver what they promised by providing insight they desire.
People love education; content is king. Thank you again, Bill Gates.
Has anybody asked you the question, "why blog in the first place?"
Are you trying to position yourself as a thought leader? Are you trying to attract visitors to your website? Why? Why do any of those matter?
I remember being faced with this question once upon a time when my agency was still a specialized social media consultancy. I blogged once a week, because I wanted more visitors to my website, but I was absolutely stumped when the question was posed to me.
"More visitors" doesn't on its own mean ANYTHING. It doesn't mean more leads. It doesn't mean more customers. It simply means "more visitors," something that does not translate to currency, fame, or fortune of any kind. It's simply a blip on a report...
Okay, so why blog?
~ Attract, Engage, Convert, Learn, Delight, and Engage again... and again... and again. and again. It's part of a bigger picture marketing strategy that doesn't feel like marketing.
It really is quite difficult to blog when there's no bigger picture strategy driving the bus. I've been there, done that, and struggled every step of the way.
Great blog ideas don't happen by accident, lightning, or luck. They are well thought out and deeply integrated with the SEO, social media, email marketing, and website strategies. If you're having a hard time coming up with things to write about, it may just very well be because you need a more sophisticated system in place.
I always have a running tally of 5 - 10 developed blog ideas sitting in the stables, ready to be taken out to the races. Each of them have the following make-up:
~ Written from personal experiences
~ Framed around targeted keywords
~ Related to at least one piece of content for download
~ Formatting is the "how to," the "list," or the "visual"
~ (more here)
This is just one of many technical components to blogging that you want to comply with. Yes, you blog for your readers first, but these things make it easier for the search engines to understand what it is you're trying to accomplish and for your visitors to decide whether to click.
Your meta description won't necessarily help you rise in the ranks, but will make a world of difference with those clicks. Each one of your blog posts should have one that ties succinctly with the topics being discussed and centers around targeted keywords.\
I know you're busy... Although your blog posts will continue working for you as long as the content is relevant, this really is a dish best served consistently. The more you blog, the bigger your digital footprint, the more you exercise your favorite keywords, and the more you can mix it up in your social media marketing efforts.
If I'm following somebody on Twitter, and I get nothing but the same 3 blog posts put in front of me, I'm unfollowing them as soon as I realize what's happening.
Content is the heart and soul of any good campaign driven by the inbound marketing methodology. Active blogging is what keeps it current and keeps you relevant.
Just like anything else with inbound marketing, the more you put into it, the more it puts into you.
There really isn't a clearer or more revelatory sign that a blogging strategy is way off course than when it's littered with advertisements and case studies. They have no place in an environment that is supposed to be educational in nature.
Sure, as a business, you aren't blogging purely for kicks and grins. You're doing it because done well it attracts visitors to your website. But getting them there is only half the battle. You still want to engage them, and because ads and case studies are a stretch from the educational format your visitors are actually looking for, publishing them in place of your blogs is going to feel like a bait n' switch. Your blog posts should help them discover the roots of their challenges, and the best paths to resolving them... paths that sometimes/often lead to working with you.
When that happens, bravo. Your blogging is a success!
Eliminating ads and case studies doesn't mean eliminating the idea that your blog should help you generate viable leads. On the contrary, that's exactly why we blog to begin with!
Your articles should relate in some way or another to content that can be downloaded by your visitors. Gating the content propels the lead conversion, and qualfies out a lot of the tire kickers. Handing over an email to a business, after all, implies consent for them to email you, and your visitors know this. So, when you provide opportunities for visitors to give you their contact information in exchange for your content, you're making those blog posts go to work for you.
If your blog isn't developed with visitor attraction AND lead conversion in mind, it's time to hire a blog writing service.
If you don't have a blog and customers are important to you, there should be a race to the Google button to find a blog writing service that speaks your language.
Interested in setting up a free inbound marketing assessment to explore blogging for your business? Click HERE