For the past year, I have been on the blogging soapbox. But, don’t just take it from me; watch this video:
Whether I am presenting at conferences or making recommendations to clients, I sound like a broken record when I announce, “If I had one dollar to spend on my marketing mix for next year, I would spend it on creating and executing a blog strategy.” I have seen the results of an effective blog content strategy in terms of increasing brand awareness and generating business in the forms of leads, inquiries, and conversions.
In a nutshell, I echo the opinion of Tom Peters, who stated in no uncertain terms: “It’s the best damn marketing tool by an order of magnitude that I have ever had, and it’s free.”
Consider this: Organizations that blog get 55% more traffic to their web sites and generate 70% more inquiries compared to organizations that don’t maintain a blog. Despite this astounding fact, there are many who are still not aware of a blog’s power or importance. I routinely field questions, including:
- Why do we need a blog?
- Who is going to write the blog?
- Who is going to create the strategy for the blog?
- Who will edit the blog?
- Who approves the blog?
My answers:
- You need a blog to generate relevant and timely content so that you are recognized as a thought-leader in your industry. In the process, you will become more appealing to your target audience (who will start to find your web site and learn about what you offer) as well as Google and other search engines, who will reward you via higher search engine rankings.
- Anyone in your organization who has expertise related to what you sell and/or deliver can become a blog author.
- Your marketing team can develop a blog strategy based on your marketing goals. If your organization’s mission is to perform cancer research, your blog strategy can focus on doctors who are investigating cures using innovative methods, patient stories that promote hope, etc. In other words, let your mission, internal experts, and external constituents dictate your content.
- Find a strong writer or two who are internal or external to your organization and have them edit/proofread your blog posts before publishing them. It is difficult to be the writer and editor at the same time.
- Blogs can be approved by a sole member of your team or by committee. Often, it is best to run a draft by the person at your organization who has the most expertise in terms of the post’s content.
Here are several of my favorite blogs that serve as excellent examples in terms of what to emulate:
Finally, some questions for you…
- Are you blogging?
- What impact has your blog had on your marketing efforts?
