If you’ve dipped your toe in the waters of digital marketing, you’ve probably gotten the suggestion that your business start a blog. Many industry experts, agencies, and marketing blogs push business blogging for SEO benefits.
Blogging can benefit SEO, but it shouldn’t be just for SEO. Plus, SEO isn’t the most important strategy for some businesses.
How might a business use a blog outside of SEO?
As Forge Apollo’s current blog writer and Digital Marketing Specialist, I’ll take you through four ways we use business blogging for ourselves and our clients that aren’t SEO-based.
5 Ways to Use a Blog
1. Content for Email Marketing
Staying top of mind through email marketing will lead to clients thinking of you first as a solution to their needs.
Incorporating blog posts into email newsletters is an excellent way to provide value to your subscribers. They keep your audience engaged and encourage them to visit your website for more information.
Plus, the more email recipients engage with your content by clicking, the more likely your content is to stay in the inbox instead of ending up in spam (check out our article on email deliverability to learn more).
If you use HubSpot for email marketing, you can set up smart rules to show different blogs to different audience subsets. This allows you to connect with your audience through hyper-relevant content.
2. Support for Sales
Blog posts can serve as a resource for sales teams to answer frequently asked questions about products, services, or policies. This allows sales personnel to share detailed responses without extra effort. Plus, it streamlines the sales process and ensures consistency in the information provided.
For example, our sales department uses blog posts covering topics like custom vs template websites, which website CMS to use, website hosting options, and more to guide potential customers through the sale of our website packages. We also have one post that explains video licensing to help potential clients understand the language of our contracts.
3. Social Media Content
Social media requires a lot of fresh ideas to keep a feed engaging. Brands can repurpose blogs as social media content.
Sharing snippets or summaries of your blog posts on social media can drive traffic to your website. Plus, it can spark discussions among your audience, increasing engagement and brand visibility.
For example, we wrote a blog on cozy winter getaways for ICONA Resorts and turned that blog into a post on their Instagram.
View this post on Instagram
4. Boost Your Credibility
High-quality, informative blog posts can establish your business as an authority in your industry. This perceived expertise helps to build trust with your audience, which is critical for customer retention and attracting new business.
When potential customers visit your site, seeing a blog feed with high-quality content on relevant topics frames you as an expert in your industry.
5. Nurture Your Audience
Potential and current customers may encounter your brand in all buyer journey stages. A blog allows you to share content that meets them at each stage and helps nurture them to the next one for a smoother sales process.
Blog Topic Ideas
If your holdup is that your brand feels like it can’t keep up with a blog, a content writing service from Forge Apollo can help. Or, use these blog topic ideas to expand your idea of what content goes on a blog and inspire your strategy.
- Spotlight an employee or department
- Share your take on a piece of industry news
- Share in-depth answers to frequently asked questions
- Share tools, resources, or tips your clients or customers may find helpful
- Note trends in the industry that you’re seeing
- Explain how your audience would know it’s time for your service or product and how they would find the right solution for them.
- Introduce new products or services
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you measure the success of a blog post beyond SEO metrics?
Success beyond SEO metrics can be measured through engagement and conversion indicators such as page views, time spent on the page, bounce rate, comments, shares, and conversions like subscriber sign-ups or inquiries. Additionally, direct reader feedback can offer qualitative insights into content resonance and brand perception.
What are some best practices for repurposing blog content on different social media platforms?
Tailor blog content for social media by adjusting the message to fit each platform’s unique characteristics. Use concise messages for platforms like X and Threads, visually appealing posts for Instagram, and detailed summaries for LinkedIn. Incorporate direct links or platform-specific features to encourage clicks, and monitor engagement to optimize content strategy.
How frequently should a business update its blog?
The ideal frequency for updating a blog is once or twice per month. This consistency keeps content fresh and engages readers, but quality should not be compromised for quantity. If resources are limited, it’s better to publish less frequently but ensure each post is valuable and well-crafted to maintain credibility and reader interest. If you have enough content to cover and the bandwidth to make it high-quality, posting three or four times a month is also beneficial.
How can a business effectively measure the impact of its blog on sales support and customer nurturing?
To effectively measure the impact of a blog on sales support and customer nurturing, businesses should focus on key metrics like lead generation and conversion rates, traffic analysis, and customer feedback. Additionally, feedback from the sales team and examining customer retention rates can offer a deeper understanding of how blog content supports the sales process and nurtures customer relationships. Finally, using advanced analytics to attribute specific sales to blog interactions can pinpoint the direct impact of blogging efforts on revenue. Combining these approaches offers a holistic view of a blog’s contribution to business objectives.
Work With a Content Writing Partner in Philadelphia
While SEO is important, blogs provide far more value for your business than that alone. If you don’t feel confident in your team’s bandwidth or writing ability, the content writers at Forge Apollo can help.
We work with your team to get a deep understanding of your offering and organization so that we can create content that’s authentic to you and helpful to your audience. Plus, we offer email and social media marketing services to amplify the value of your blogs. Contact us today to get started.
