We get the following questions a lot:
“Is blogging really worth it?”
“Do people really even read blogs anymore?”
The short, and immediate, answer is “YES!” But, here is why it makes so much sense to invest in blogging and content marketing:
Your customers do their research.
People are savvy consumers. Before making a purchase decision, buyers will turn to the Internet to do their due diligence. Consider these findings:
- 94% of B2B buyers will research online before choosing a vendor.
- 81% of shoppers will conduct online research before buying.
Before someone decides to do business with you, chances are they have already done their research. If you’re no where to be found and don’t aid in that research, you won’t be invited to the sales conversation and won’t have the chance to win their business. Blogging and content marketing gets you an opportunity to earn their business.
Google wants you to write this content.
Google’s webmaster blog has come out and specifically said that good, quality content that is timely and relevant is the single best way to improve search engine rankings and drive traffic to your website. By consistently adding fresh and relevant content about the problems and solutions your product(s) and service(s) solve, you’ll rank higher in search engines for a variety of terms and earn more traffic.
You have a lot of competition.
Most businesses don’t have a monopoly on their industry. Instead, you problem have several, dozens, hundreds, thousands…of competitors. These competitors are vying for the attention of the same target audience and competing for the same limited budgets! How are you going to win the buyers attention? That’s right, by providing valuable content that positions you as the leader in the industry.
You can use blog content EVERYWHERE to reach customers.
Once you write a blog post you can use that content in many different ways to reach prospects and brand yourself as an industry leader. Send a monthly newsletter that features links to your top blogs. Use your content on social media to pull prospects back to your site. Post your content (or links to it), on LinkedIn through Pulse or LinkedIn Groups. Turn your content into a Slideshare or video. Create printable articles that your sales team can use. There are dozens of other places you can repurpose your content—once you write it. Take advantages of these amazing ways to position yourself as an expert in your market or industry.
Does content marketing work?
Getting back to our short answer: yes, it sure does! And, if you leverage your blog content in new and engaging ways you’ll get exponential value out of one single post!
If you’re considering content marketing to support your business, we can help. As the leading content marketing agency in Buffalo, we can help craft a great marketing plan that gets results. Contact us today.