Creating online content is one of the best, and easiest, ways to bring in a new audience while building loyalty and trust with your client base. Hubspot’s State of Inbound Marketing Report found that companies with blogs generate 126% more leads than those that don’t. A blog allows businesses to prove they are knowledgeable, trustworthy, and supportive by providing useful information, while also marketing their output in an organic context. There are many proven ways that you can use your company blog to help you grow your business. Here are our top eight:
1. Blog Often
If you want to keep your audience engaged and stay on the minds of potential customers, you need to provide them with new content regularly. In addition, the more unique posts you have, the more opportunities you have to draw in new customers through a search. Hubspot found that companies publishing 16 or more posts each month got almost 3.5 times more traffic than companies publishing four or less. Commit to posting at least every other day, and your numbers will rise quickly.
2. Develop A Voice
Your blog will be consistent with your brand voice, and creating longer content will give you a chance to expand and explore it. This gives your audience an opportunity to get to know you more in-depth, and to connect with your message and style. Create a hypothetical image of your readers to ascertain clarity on their preferences, passion and problems. This develops a more personal relationship and stronger connection between your business and your audience, and will encourage loyalty and patronage.
3. Sell Your Products And/Or Services
Include your products and/or services throughout your posts. Allow potential customers to learn about your products and/or services in the context of larger issues or topics. This way they can come to natural conclusions about what makes your business important. Use this visibility to up-sell and cross-sell through trustworthy recommendation, instead of direct advertisement. Amazon reports that cross-selling accounts for 35% of their income, and a blog is a great place generate revenue.
4. Make Your Posts Interactive
This gives both current and potential customers a new way to engage with your business. Ask a question or include a poll that encourages readers to think about a topic related to your business or field and connect. When possible, respond back to their comments. You will build a strong audience that feel as though you are listening to them, and this will ultimately lead to loyal customers.
5. Include A Call To Action
Giving your readers a direct link to a related part of your website after you’ve engaged them with specific content will make it clear how your business is related to their interests, and how they can use your products and/or services. This builds a funnel for people interested in your field to ease in to becoming paying customers.
6. Engage Influencers In Your Field
The Nielsen Global Trust in Advertising Survey found that 92% of consumers around the world trust recommendations from individuals they know above all other forms of advertising. Interview well-known people in your field or ask them to write a guest blog post on your site. You can also ask them to link to your posts on their own blogs, or to share your posts on social media. This adds credibility to your name and brings in a new audience that is already vetted to have an interest in what you do.
7. Embed Your Blog On To A Page Of Your Website
You will greatly increase your business’s search engine optimization (SEO), as the bulk of content means more opportunities for readers to find you. According to Inbound Writer, blogs give websites on average 434% more indexed pages and 97% more indexed links. Make sure your posts include keywords and update your blog regularly – this will give your entire website a great advantage when potential customers search for a topic in your field.
8. Grow Your Mailing List
Conduct giveaways or offer a newsletter through your blog and collect the emails of those who enter. From here, you can start to engage more deeply with your leads and build a more personal rapport through more pointed emails.
Learn what your clients are interested in and get started posting on key topics, issues, and questions in your field. Use these tips to maximize your blog’s potential and you’ll reach new audiences to grow your business quickly!
About the Author
Anurag Gupta heads the content team for WeblinkIndia.net , a well-known website design & development company based out of India. He loves to write and share his views on the latest developments in the world of content marketing.
