Why Article Writing Is Important for Your Long-Term Business Success
Today
we are operating our business in a world of relationship marketing and
content marketing. Gone are the days of "push" marketing where big
advertising campaigns were an effective way to get the word out about
your products and services.
Now it's all about "pull" marketing
where we want to pull our potential clients into our world and allow
them the opportunity to get to know, like and trust us before they do
business with us.
One of the best ways to develop the benefits of
relationship marketing is through blogging. This is nothing new; many
marketers have been saying this for a few years now.
So why are so many entrepreneurs and business owners not bothering with blogging?
I
encourage every client I work with to blog but only a few actually do.
Instead of fully embracing the business benefits of blogging, I get a
lot of excuses like:
-
I don't have the time
-
I can't write
-
I can't be bothered; it's too much work
-
I don't know what to write about
-
I don't know how to blog
-
I don't see the value, my target market doesn't read blogs
-
And so on...
While some of these reasons can be quite legit in their
minds, when it comes down to it, the biggest source of resistance is the
unwillingness to make a commitment towards this very effective
marketing strategy.
What they don't realize is once that
commitment is made, it's amazing how the HOW appears and suddenly there
IS time and knowing what to write about DOES materialize. It happened to
me and it can for you too.
For many years, I used a lot of these
excuses myself. If you've been a client of ours over the long haul, you
may recall my first newsletters were not only far and few between (I was
lucky if I got one out every 4-6 months) but they were also epic
novels.
I was literally setting myself up to not do them very
often. They took way too much time, effort and energy - something I
didn't have a lot of, so I did them as rarely as possible.
It took
me a long time to realize that I didn't have to write about EVERYTHING
in EVERY newsletter. After all, there is something to be said about
overwhelming the readers. I bet only a fraction of all that I wrote ever
got read...
But in my defence, because one of my Sacred Gifts is the gift of knowledge, I was strongly compelled (and still am) to share
all of my knowledge with each and every newsletter!
Since
then I've become much wiser and strategic about blogging and
newsletters and for the past year have been posting a minimum of 2 blog
posts a week and sending out a weekly newsletter.
By the way, I
mention newsletters because the two are very much intertwined - blogging
and newsletters go hand in hand. I'll explain more in a bit.
First let's talk about why you should be blogging.
It's important to understand there are two entities that you want to read your blog posts: Search Engines and Potential Clients.
With that in mind, here are 10 reasons why blogging should be at the top of your marketing to-do list:
-
More SEO Traffic
Keywords pertinent to your industry will bring qualified
traffic back to website who are looking for solutions in those areas.
This is what search engine optimization is all about - getting picked up
in the search engines so people who are looking for your type of
product or service actually find you.
You want to ensure you use
pertinent keywords and phrases that your potential clients are using
when typing in their search query. So putting yourself in your
prospect's mind is necessary when creating topics, categories and
keywords for each article you write.
-
Higher Search Engine Standings
In order for people to find you in the search engines,
your blog post needs to be seen as high up in the search results as
possible. If you're showing up on page 5, then the odds are very slim
anyone will find you.
The goods news is that fresh content tells
the search engines your website is still alive and well and you will be
rewarded as such. So the more often you blog the more likely the search
engines will boost you higher up in the results.
Aside from
frequency, popular content also tells the search engines your website is
worthy of higher positioning. The more people that get engaged in your
blog posts, the more you benefit from this popularity.
This is why
you want to encourage your readers to post a comment at the bottom of
your blog and get some conversation going. (After you finish reading
this article, please post a comment below and tell me your biggest
takeaway from it!)
Another search engine benefit to blogging is
the ability to create inbound links within the content of your post.
These links can click to other pages within your website that you want
the readers to reference.
Inbound links signal to search engines
that other pages on your website must be popular since they are being
linked to; therefore, your website will be rewarded with higher
standings.
-
Gain Credibility
Each time you write a blog post that shares your
knowledge and expertise, you are positioning yourself as a thought
leader in your industry and gaining more credibility as someone that can
be trusted by your readers.
Blogging also gives you the
opportunity to position yourself as someone passionate and knowledgeable
on the topics you write about. That passion can be a very compelling
reason for people to do business with you.
It also provides you
with an opportunity to share your ideas, personality, values and beliefs
- all of which help build your credibility through the eyes of your
ideal target market.
-
Build community
The more you write about topics that relate to your
target market, the more they will feel like they are a part of your
community... your inner circle, where you have a prime opportunity to
develop the "know, like and trust" factor with them.
The more this
happens, the more they will trust you to do business with. So when
writing, you want to share stories that people relate to and feel like
you understand them to keep building that trust.
-
Create Sharable Social Media Content
With every post you write, you can share it to your
social media channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ etc.
This can be done automatically if you use WordPress but I don't
recommend that. Instead, ensure you have the social sharing plugin
installed and manually share your articles. This way you can add in a
personal note and intentionally share the post at an optimal time.
Each
post can also be shared to article curation services like Buffer,
Feedly, Spunge!t, Scoop!t, Digg, Stumble Upon, and many others.
And
of course, your readers can also share your blog posts to THEIR
followers, which expands your brand reach considerably. So go ahead and
use the controls on the left and share this post to your social media
peeps, it would be greatly appreciated!
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Provides Newsletter Content
As mentioned earlier, your blogging efforts are closely
intertwined with your newsletter. When I send out our weekly
newsletters, they include a "feature article" which, you guessed it, is
the blog article I wrote that week!
So all you need to do is write
your blog article and then in your newsletter, write a quick
introduction and then a brief teaser to the article so that your
subscribers will then click on the "Read more" link and are sent back to
your blog to read the whole article.
-
Build Better Customer Relationships
By writing on a consistent basis and sending those
articles to your list of existing clients and customers, they will feel
like you didn't abandon them.
Your articles will help them feel
you continue to support them and their needs, that you continue to be a
source of information for them to turn to and receive guidance from. All
of which builds a stronger and ongoing relationship with them.
You
also have an opportunity to share what is new not only in your business
but also in your industry. Blogging provides an ability to keep your
customers and followers informed.
Lastly, writing articles allows
your customers to get to know you on a more personal level. Don't be
afraid to share past struggles and how you overcame them or current
stories that relate to a teaching lesson. These all help solidify the
feeling that you are all in it together.
-
Generate Leads and List Building Opportunities
Never write an article that has no purpose.
Before
writing and aside from wanting to share your knowledge, think about the
purpose of your article. What do you want people to do after reading it?
If
that purpose is to generate business leads, then add a call to action
at the bottom of each post asking people to either contact you for more
information, or build your list by having them sign up for your
newsletter and receive a free give away.
If they continually enjoy
what you are writing in your blog posts, it will be a natural
progression for them to want to get notified by email via your
newsletter each time you write and add a new post to your blog.
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Repurpose to Article Directories
Once an article is written for your blog, that doesn't
mean that's the only place you can post it! There are several websites
that are literally a directory of articles. These article repositories
take submissions from anyone and if approved, will display your article
in their site.
Some example directory sites include many great
directories. You can also repost your article in LinkedIn Pulse and
Medium for more exposure.
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Opens New Doors for Opportunities and Global Networking
Lastly, because of the above factors, your brand visibility increases a huge amount when you blog on a consistent basis.
This
means more people will get to know of you, which opens up a lot of
potential opportunity to create JV partnerships with those that
complement your business, being a guest author on other blogs, being
invited to expert interviews and more.
There you have it! Are you ready to get committed to blogging now?
Blogging
is one of the strongest long-term strategies that you can do for your
business. If you aren't consistently writing on your blog already, you
shouldn't ignore it's benefits any longer.
So I suggest getting
past the excuses and do what it takes to not only get a blog installed
in your website but create a consistent editorial calendar in order to
reap the financial benefits for your business. And if you need help,
that's what we do every day for our clients.Give me a call and let's
discuss how we can help you get your blogging on!
What are your biggest challenges about blogging? Leave a comment below and I'll do my best to help.