According to the Content Marketing Institute, 79% of B2B marketers use blogs to distribute content for content marketing purposes. In addition, 60% of the most successful B2B marketers that responded to this survey said blogging was the most effective format to use to distribute content for content marketing purposes.
These marketers are maintaining blogs for their respective companies for various reasons, including getting more leads and conversions, driving traffic to their websites, and establishing their brands as thought leaders in their industries.
That being said, blogging has its own disadvantages. Whether or not blogging is an appropriate marketing tool for your business requires you to consider the pros and cons and decide whether the former outweighs the latter.
The Benefits of Blogging for B2B Marketers
Blogging can be one of the most lucrative marketing channels for B2B marketers. You can drive traffic to your website, improve your SEO efforts, establish your brand as a thought leader, and get meaningful feedback from readers, all of which contribute to consistent marketing results. Let’s look at these in more detail below.
Drive Traffic to Your Website
A website is essentially a business’s home base. People can learn about the products and services being offered, familiarize themselves with the brand story, and make purchases. It’s a place that you want current and potential customers to visit often.
A good blog can help drive organic traffic to your website. People want to read blog content that’s useful, entertaining, and engaging. So, if you’re providing that content, the chances are they’ll visit your blog frequently to consume it.
Improve Your SEO Efforts
On the topic of driving traffic to your website, a blog can also significantly improve your SEO efforts. It provides more opportunities for you to use keywords and phrases your target audience is searching for.
When you optimize your blog content effectively using Google’s guidance, it increases the chances of your blog and site showing up high on search engine results pages. This will lead to a constant influx of organic traffic to your website and, hopefully, more leads and conversions.
Establish Your Brand as an Industry Thought Leader
Thought leadership is defined by WGU as, “the expression of ideas that demonstrate you have expertise in a particular field, area, or topic.” Aside from demonstrating their expertise in a particular field, thought leaders drive change and meaningful conversations and offer unique advice that inspires others.
One of the best ways to do all of the above is to blog. You can establish your brand as an industry thought leader by creating blog content that is unique, rather than reminiscent of what’s already out there.
Moreover, people follow thought leaders. They want to connect, converse, and grow their relationships with them. This is the core of marketing, thus making a blog an incredibly effective marketing tool.
Get Meaningful Feedback from Readers
In a blog, you have the unique opportunity to test the pulse of your readers and your audience through comments and reviews — an all too frequent activity among users. Each month, users post up to 77 million new comments according to WordPress. This should excite marketers as the comment section can be one of the best sources of meaningful feedback around.
Of course, there will be simple comments like “Great blog post!” or “Thanks for the good read,” which shouldn’t be discounted because they tell you you’re going in the right direction.
There will also be a lot of in-depth comments that address the specifics of what a person liked, didn’t like, was confused about, and what they want to know more about in the post. There will be a lot of questions too.
You can use this information to improve your blog and further connections with current and potential customers by addressing what they want to be addressed.
The Downfalls of Using Blogging as a Marketing Tool
As impactful as the above benefits are, there are potential pitfalls to be aware of, starting with how a blog is another marketing channel you must promote.
It’s Another Marketing Channel to Promote
You’re likely already promoting a variety of marketing channels to your target audience, including an email list, social media profiles, a podcast, events, and ads. Thoroughly promoting these marketing channels already takes up a significant amount of time, effort, and resources.
If you add a blog to your marketing channel arsenal, you’ll have to promote it to get real results. That means stretching your time, effort, and resources even more. If you’re already stretched thin, adding another marketing channel to your plate may not be the best decision.
Too Much Irrelevant Content is a Thing
It isn’t so much about having too much blog content as it is about having too much irrelevant blog content. Many marketers make the mistake of churning out content to keep up with the competition.
What they end up creating is irrelevant blog content that doesn’t address what their target audience wants to be addressed. As a result, visitors aren’t likely to come back to the blog.
In addition, a huge part of a successful blog is earning backlinks. You want quality blogs and publications to link to your blog content to increase your authority and improve your brand reputation.
They won’t link to shallow content that repeats what’s already on the internet. But they will link to relevant, unique content that’s entertaining, engaging, and useful.
Ultimately, there are noteworthy benefits to using a blog as a marketing tool. But blogging doesn’t come without disadvantages. Weigh both equally to determine if starting a blog is best for your business objectives and target audience.
If you decide to move forward with a blog, rely on a strategic approach to your blog’s content and connect with your audience to ensure you generate consistent results with this marketing tool.
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