In this article, I’m talking about the ROI of blogging – the return on investment for a small business or social enterprise when they blog consistently. And when the focus of your blog is service to customers, it can become a content library of valuable, searchable information related to your specialty.
I will stress the importance of your organization’s blog content for educating existing customers, acquiring new customers, and establishing credibility.
Tell me…
When we have a question these days, where is the first place we go?
Google, right? (Or Firefox, or Bing, or… The point is, a search engine.)
Sometimes we can get a quick answer from the search engine results page. But more often those pages lead us to blogs, where we can get more complete answers – and, sometimes, really in-depth, valuable information.
The best answers usually show up on the first page of search results. These articles have been vetted by previous users. They are well optimized, so the search engines know exactly what they are about and why a searcher would go there. The infrastructure of keywords and meta-tagging is in place to guide both man and machine.
If the article is REALLY good, we may bookmark it for future reference. We might also go on to read more articles from that website to see what related material we might enjoy.
Why Blogging?
But, if that article were never posted – if it were absent, altogether – there’s a good possibility we would never learn about that particular brand.
So …in simple terms?
Well-developed content helps people get the answers to their questions – and, by doing so, helps elevate the value of brands.
Google sees it that way. So should you.
Blogging consistently is one way to capture many customers who want to hear about you, get educated, and maybe even work with you.
So today, we’ll cover the ROI of blogging, so your business doesn’t miss out on the gold mine that it is!
- Why Is Blog Content So Important For Businesses?
- Which Businesses Gain The Most From Blog Content?
- How Do I Write An Effective Blog For My Business?: A 12-Step Formula
- How Many Blogs Should I Write Each Month?
- How Can I Make My Blog Content Stand out?
- Where Can My Business Get Expert Blog Writing Done?
Why Is Blog Content So Important For Businesses?
1. Blogging Helps Educate Customers
First, it’s proven that customers need to understand what they’re buying before they do so.
If we look at a marketing/sales funnel, potential customers become aware that you exist in the awareness stage, then move on to the consideration stage. The consideration stage is where you have the opportunity to educate them — about their problem, your solutions, and more — and basically help them make more informed decisions.
(Especially if you’re in B2B and your customers are savvy and experienced business owners that know exactly what they’re looking for.)
What’s also great is that once you piece together great content, it can remain on your website for however long you’d like. Some of your most important content will be “evergreen,” so that it can continually educate new leads as they discover your company.
Educating your potential customers is especially important if you have complex service offerings.
For example, say you do web development, and your business offers many different packages and price points. Your blog content can be the best way for your potential customers to understand web design and the building blocks of websites well enough to choose you, and to be a good partner on any project you work on together.
2. Blogging Helps Establish Credibility & Authority
Credibility and authority are essential for your business.
After all, customers want to invest in a product or service from a company that can be trusted (it only makes sense.)
This is what you can expect a solid, well-designed blog to do for you. The simple fact that you share valuable, reliable content can position your brand as a source of information.
And when you can piece together statistics and information from SMEs (subject matter experts), you’re well on your way to both credibility and authority.
3. Helps You Rank On Search Engines To Drive Traffic
Blogging helps you rank on search engines like Google and Bing based on the use of competitive keywords.
When you use a keyword tool, you can find keywords people are searching for and implement them into your content.
This is known as SEO (search engine optimization), but it doesn’t just end with keywords.
Your blog content’s backlinks (linking to other credible sites), internal linking (linking to your own pages), along with your meta descriptions, all contribute to your SEO results.
And get this:
According to BrightEdge, 53.3% of all website traffic in the world starts from an organic search.
With great SEO, you can rank higher on search results, leading to more traffic on your website from your ideal customers (because they searched the keyword after all.)
4. Helps You Generate and Convert Leads Long Term
With website traffic, your blog content can help you generate leads by asking them to take action at the end of your posts (more on this later).
While there are many kinds of blogs, and getting to know you better IS a goal of your blog, most of the posts on a business blog should somehow relate to the products or services you have to offer.
For example, if you’re a social enterprise looking to create employment for returning citizens or get homeless families into decent housing, tying in your mission to your topics will educate your readers about what you do. More importantly, you get the chance to tell them why, and how, and the impact that it makes. Without trying to sell them anything.
So instead of: “Hey, this article is great, thanks.”
Instead, they’ll think, “Hey, this article is great — I’d like to know more about what they do!”
With that said, you’re also communicating what makes your business valuable (which is what customers want to know.)
Finally, in your communication you can let your brand personality shine through the words you use. (Which is another driver that will magnetize the right people to your business.)
Which Businesses Gain The Most From Blog Content?
Any business can benefit from writing a blog.
But there are specific businesses that should especially write content consistently:
SaaS Companies
SaaS stands for “software as a service.”
These companies typically offer a subscription-type business model for a service software.
Examples?
Think of CRM companies, financial apps, and even electronic signature services.
SaaS companies should especially leverage blogging because they fall under businesses that NEED to educate their customers the most.
Especially with technology being such a vital part of today’s culture, customers want to know new ways of making their lives (professional or business) easier.
SaaS companies should focus on tying their blog topics to common problems their customers are facing and introducing new technical solutions.
Social Enterprises
Social enterprises are out to make big positive impacts on society. As a business model that is based in social impact and uses its profits for impact, blog content can help you forge powerful relationships with all the people you have to influence. A typical list for a social enterprise may include not only customers, but also investors, funders and donors, team members, volunteers, program enrollees — and more.
Maybe you’re wondering: How?
Well, for starters, although social enterprises are growing at a rapid rate — even Financier mentions that “It [Social entrepreneurship] is growing rapidly in size, scope, and support.” There are still people that aren’t too familiar with the concept…
Meaning the average person can tell a for-profit business from a non-profit, but this new category is a hybrid. According to the Social Enterprise Alliance, a social enterprise is a business built for impact. It is a growing sector of the economy, and communicating its impact is a critical need.
So it stands to reason that if you’re running a social enterprise, when you meet your consumers online you have to enroll them in your vision, your solutions, and your impact.
A strong blog can do that. It can strengthen the brand of an individual social enterprise, and support the sector as a whole as more people come to understand the concept.
As people search for topics related to your cause, they’ll be met with the exact thing they’re looking for!
This will help them connect with your brand and enter the key parts of your marketing funnel.
- Awareness – Your website, brand, article(s).
- Interest – The contents of your blog
- Desire – The contents of your blog(s), website, story, product, or service.
- Action – Your Call to Actions
You can attract the right people to your social enterprise with a blogging presence, whether customers, employees, contractors, or other advocates.
Website Development Companies and Other Service-Based Businesses
Services-based businesses like web development, marketing agencies, graphic design, etc., can offer the market tons of valuable information when they make consistent blog content.
Competition can often be fierce in these fields, so having blog content that can rank you for search keywords and bringing your business authority can be all you need to stand out.
These businesses should look to also provide objective content, which can separate who needs their services and who doesn’t.
For example, a web development company can write an article about the different levels of a website based on company size and needs.
This form of objective information helps bring trust from your readers because they can put themselves in the correct category and invest the right amount of capital on a website that fits them. This is one of the many ways to make your content stand out (we’ll cover more later.)
With all this said, I’m sure your burning question is:
How do I even write a great article anyway?
That’s our next section!
How Do I Write An Effective Blog For My Business?: A 12 Step-Formula
- Pinpoint Monthly Topics – Think of topics related to your niche that also have adequate search volume.
- Research Keywords – These will be sprinkled into your blog to help your blog rank on google. Google Search console, Moz, and SEMrush are great keyword search helpers. You’ll know your keyword competition as well as search volumes.
- Create An Outline For Each Article – This will help you structure your article neatly. Develop an eye-catching title, meta-description, and subheadings that chronologically make sense.
- Talk Their Language – Serve the customer with the topic by speaking their language, not yours. Use the words and phrases your customers do to bring a sense of relatability to your brand. If you need ideas, think of doing market research or speaking with past/present customers.
- Keep It Actionable – Your blog should have multiple practical takeaways that readers can apply. The actionability of your articles will be valuable towards what your audience wants to know, learn and apply.
- Give Examples – Examples are one of the best ways to learn about a subject. Constant Content even mentions that examples make things more straightforward, give further information, and add context to your writing. Think of making your examples also personal from time to time.
- Mention Your Product or Service – With the great insights you provide in your article, they won’t be mad if you mention your service. Make sure it’s relevant to what you’re talking about and not an abrupt, in-your-face advertisement. This step is crucial because sometimes readers skim your articles to get just a bit of information. So, when you mention your product, it is just an invitation. It gives them the chance to check it out before hitting the back button.
- Make It Readable – Use short paragraphs (2-3 sentences) to make your content readable and somewhat skimmable. Bullet points are also your friend when it comes to articles being more readable and toning down monotony.
- Leverage Statistics & Experts – Statistics help to back up your point of view with data. Make sure the source you’re getting the stats from is credible and up to date (aka not too dated). SMEs (subject matter experts) can also help you give great information. These can be professionals you interview, business partners, and the like who share solid insights.
- Link Internally AND Externally – As mentioned earlier, a link strategy helps your SEO. Internal linking is when you link a word or phrase to other relevant pages on your website. On the other hand, external linking is when you link a word or phrase to a particular website (think of linking to a statistic, for example.)
- End with a call to action – This statement tells the reader what you want them to do next at the end of your article. You don’t want to be too salesy but aim for clarity and conciseness. Your CTA should continue to lead with a “service” mindset rather than sales. For example, instead of “book a free call today,” you can say, “Feel free to schedule a call, and we’ll help you with xyz..”
- Add Images & Art – Websites with images help grab the attention of readers. It’s found that adding images helps people relate to your topic better and even makes your article seem longer, according to ShoutMeLoud.
- Be Consistent – Blogging consistency is very important. This means you’re not only posting great content each month, but the number of articles you put out is the same amount, if not more.
How Many Blogs Should I Write Each Month?
It’s the million-dollar question, so here’s my (expert) two cents:
The more, the better.
But:
Only as many as you can pack with value to the customer.
Hubspot reported that B2B companies that publish 16+ blogs each month got 3.5x the amount of traffic as companies that publish 0-4 posts per month. We’re all struggling to keep up with that aggressive a schedule. But it makes a difference.
B2C companies that post 16+ blogs each month are similar, gaining 4.5x the amount of traffic as those that do 0-4 posts each month.
Here’s another kicker…
Forbes reports that 75% of Hubspot’s blog views, and 90% of their leads come from older posts.
Which means that posting consistently great blogs has a fantastic long-term ROI.
The takeaway is to start with at least 1 blog per month, with a focus on quality over quantity!
As time goes on, rev up your posting frequency, and your older blogs will tend to pick up steam (visitors, leads, etc.)
The more you put out, the more you’re feeding to search algorithms which will pay you dividends in the future!
Lastly, think of hiring a content writing company like The Allyson Group to help you put out tons of valuable content.
Content writing companies typically have a grasp of what works with blog content and the search engine know-how to get you results.
How Can I Make My Blog Content Stand out?
Blog content that stands out packs a punch!
If you’re a business owner, your blogs should be taken seriously and written with great attention to detail. This means your articles are run through a grammar checker like Grammarly Premium to ensure it’s valuable and digestible.
Here are 5 ways to make your blog content stand out from the rest:
- Avoid Filler Content – Words and phrases that just take up space/fill your word count without substance.
- Get Personal About Your Brand – Talk about your experience when it comes to your niche.
- Talk About Your Customer’s Problems – Focus on the customer and what you want them to know, think, and feel throughout each blog post.
- Collaborate With Experts – Have the input of experts in your content.
- Have A Unique Theme – Whether it’s artwork, certain types of images, or the way you format your article, have a shtick that’s a little different from other blogs.
Where Can My Business Get Expert Blog Writing Done?
So you understand the clear ROI you can gain from blogging, and now you just need the right team of people.
Well, you’re in the right place because The Allyson Group helps companies of many types like social enterprises, web development businesses, and other organizations write high-quality blog content.
The content we create for you will help your future customers learn about your brand and your company’s value.
I’d love to hear about your message and what you envision with your content.
Have time for a chat? You can book a call with me, and I’ll look forward to showing you what The Allyson Group can do for you.
