EVERY business needs to have a blog—a formal place to post product information, news, updates and opinions. This is a great way to educate your customers and prospects, but it also is a way to have the search engines see that you have regular new content.
If you did not start your blog when you built your website, you need to be adding one there. This is not a “nice to have”. You will see from the statistics below that blogging is a key ingredient to making sure you have a strong organic presence online.
- In 2013 according to (eMarketer) over 118.4 billion dollars was spent on content marketing, videos and social media in the United States.
- A recent Nielsen study states 58% of consumers trust editorial content.
- Content + found (in 2013) companies with active blogs receive 97% more leads.
- Mobile-optimized content marketing increased from 15% in 2011 to 33% in 2012. By Q1 of 2013, tablets and mobile devices exceeded traditional desktops in conversion rates.
- According to Market Content Institute 55% of Marketers plan to increase content online in 2014.
- Marketing Sherpa states content creation is ranked as the single most effective SEO technique.
Keep Steps For Your Blog
I hope you are now convinced of the importance of blogging for your business. Now let’s review some of the key steps for your blog:
- Be consistent. Determine how often you want to blog and make sure you do this regularly. YellowSchmello recommends at least once a week.
- Blog posts should be 250 – 500 words.
- Each blog post should have one message with one featured keyword or phrase.
- Always include in your blog post an image or a video that will generate higher readership.
- Convert your blog post into an article. Syndicate your article on the internet via outlets like Ezine articles.
- After writing and posting your blog post, go to Pingler.com and alert the search engines that you added new content to your website.
Many will say, that is a lot of work. My response to that statement is that most companies don’t do the work required to build and maintain an organic presence online. That is why over 62% of companies outsource their content development and marketing affords.
Blogging is no longer a “nice to have”… it has become a requirement to stay in front of your clients and prospects.
