Blogs for B2B Brands Are No Longer Optional
As your B2B brand continues to grow its online presence, you’ll probably be looking for other digital marketing opportunities. If you’ve already taken the steps to ensure your website doesn’t suck, consider yourself ahead of the game. But it doesn’t end there. For most B2B brands, the purpose of their website is to bring in new clients. Whether it’s by providing them with information on the company’s services, or allowing customers to purchase products directly, the ultimate goal of the website is to drive new business. Blogs for B2B brands can play a crucial roll in this as well.
Source: WebDAM.com, 2014
Blogs are one of the top lead generation tools for B2B brands. In 2013, B2B companies that maintained a blog increased their monthly leads by 67%, and by posting 3-4 times per week, saw five times more web traffic. What’s obvious here is that if you aren’t blogging, you should be. Still not convinced? Here are 4 reasons to suck it up and start writing:
- Validate Your Expertise
Having a blog is a great way to position yourself and your company as an expert on a given topic. The written word holds weight, and serves to illustrate your dedication and knowledge of the topic. Blogging is all about building trust with an audience that will go on to use and share your product or service. If you want to be seen as an expert at what you do, you must write about it. Don’t sell, don’t talk about how great your brand is, simply inform. - Improve Search Engine Rankings
Ranking high on search engines is no longer optional, it’s critical.
Search engines want to display the most relevant and up-to-date information that’s available. You’ve probably heard the phrase “Content is king” more times than you can count, but that’s because it’s true. Content is the key to helping users find your website. Creating relevant, keyword rich, targeted content is an easy way to start increasing those rankings.
- 24/7 Communication Platform
Whether you have 100,000 people following your blog or just 10, there is one extremely important element: Community. It’s where your audience becomes connected not only to you, but to each other. The platform not only allows you to share content, but provides the ability for your audience to engage, share, and connect around thoughts and ideas in your industry. - Strengthen Your Expertise
Blogs are a good place to plant a seed and begin a conversation, but deepening your expertise usually requires diving in a bit further. Skating around the surface of broad issues like branding or social media can get old quickly and doesn’t do much for broadening your knowledge. By narrowing the focus of your writing you will force yourself into the depth of your subject matter to the point where you will have no choice but to think through some new, unexplored issues. Feel free to plant your ideas in your posts then go back and tend to the ones that have germinated.
Blogging can be tough, tedious, and time consuming. There’s no immediate gratification, and it can be hard to think of something of value to write. But all of that changes if you’re consistent, you provide good content, and you inform rather than sell. Once you get going and reap the rewards of a consistent program, you’ll be on your way to discovering new ideas, audiences, and leads.
Tags: B2B marketing, blog, content marketing, content strategy, lead generation