A blog is an article, news bulletin or educational / promotional, informative content piece that is published in the blog section of a website or a blogging site. Ranging from 500-3000 words, blogs can be short form or long form, & usually focus on specific subjects in the attempt of sharing insights, educational information, trends & information of similar nature. Blogs typically are associated with content sharing of a nature which fosters long term engagement & community building while establishing trust & credibility.
The informative nature of blogs in the formats of being educative, informational, fact / updates sharing, research & other forms of non advertising content is much more preferred by viewers. A blog usually has a well defined target audience segment addressing topics of interest for that particular genus in the viewership.
Apart from being enlightening & enriching in nature of content, blogs are extensively used today by companies to engage & build relationships with the customers, while acquiring new ones. Blogs also are an excellent source today for driving traffic to your website & are a leading source of organic traffic as well. Studies suggest that websites associated with blogs bring in 55% more traffic than the ones without one.
Unlike most other mediums of publishing, blogs can be regularly updated with fresh content to stay relevant to search engines. It is also an excellent resource to constantly engage with the target audience & building rapport over time. Blogs offer an opportunity for personalized user content experience augmenting individual connections & loyalty.
Above & beyond the description of the efficacies of blogging, a brand can find ample grounds to manifest the glaring needs for one or in purview of their brand image as it can generate their added visibility.
Needless to say, leading brand today has blogging as a part of their active social media strategy
As mentioned in the SEO section, Off Page SEO has its roots deeply entrenched in the schematics of search engines that basically let the audience worldwide search for information, products & services using keywords & having a blog establishes credibility & backlink features that make your site search friendly. The Domain Authority Score or Page Authority Score happens to be an important factor in featuring a website's ranking position on the SERP.
Helps Boost Your Website Traffic - Not just a great way to be boost brand credibility but also drive traffic by being your brand's multimedia channel. On the Blog, you can not just offer information, explain your vision, answer questions & describe your product/services but be able to connect with the audience as well.
A Great Way To Understand Your Audience - Blog is a platform that enables a two way conversation between you as a brand & the prospective customer. It makes the customer feel empowered by offering them a forum to voice their opinion. You have the option to explain your brand vision & at the same time receive the customer's unbiased opinion.
Aids Lead Conversion - A Blog is an ideal platform to mold & convince a prospective customer by getting to know their preferences / choices & letting them feel being in position of authority by influencing their decision subtly & getting them to choose your brand (Call To Action).
Fosters Establishing Your Brand Authority - About 62% of buyers today seek social proof before making a decision to buy. Examples of social proof are buyers reviews, customer testimonials etc. You enable all these features through the blog wherein they can feel free to give a positive opinion, vouch & add credibility etc that strengthens your brand value.
Helps Build A Loyal Audience / Community - Consistent engagement with the customers & prospects stimulates trust & credibility, in turn fostering community building. Explaining your products / services, educating prospects with facts, answering questions, accepting feedback & offering promotions etc helps in building along term connection & loyalty.
Supports Building A Long Term SEO - Influencing customers & prospects with 'Call To Action', explicating facts & what sets you apart / ahead of your competitors helps sending traffic to your website apart from link building that helps your search page results rankings. The ability to use an exhaustive set of keywords in various topics too helps your SERP rankings.
Offers A Platform For Direct Engagement With Customers - Customers want to be heard & when a brand engages in direct interaction with prospects & customers, it invokes a sense of integrity & honesty of the brand. Accepting feedback & answering queries also reflects authenticity of a brands claims & aids trust & support. Trust builds automatically when you show you care about the customer's feelings.
Engenders Value Addition To The Brand Image - All leading brands understand the value of blogging & engage in one. Having a blog & connecting directly with the audience adds value to the brand image along with strengthening the customer-seller trust factor. Regular posts & qualitative content aids in elevating the brands image within the prospective audience.
Aids Identification & Creation Of Buyer Personas - Customers always tell you what they want & how. You as a brand interacting directly with the customers have the option to identify & better understand their preferences & most importantly the 'dislikes'. You can build 'Buyer Personas' & understand 'what' & 'when' to sell a particular customer.
If people don't get to see your content itself, no matter how celestial the quality & design, all is futile. That itself indispensably warrants for the imperative need for the SEO magic to be visible to the audience in the first place. Next, let's say you did hit the 'visibility' spotlight somehow & even your content is meticulously designed but without research, you'd probably be selling brooms to people looking to buy an airplane.
Research also allows you to pinpoint as well as personalize a buyers experience. A buyer would really feel ecstatic, if the company presented him with products in their wish list.
Blogging is a mix of content writing embellished with SEO, in tune with the research groundwork, which in true essence requisites the need for a seasoned content writer, an SEO wiz & a researcher. If you're not armed with meticulously crafted content in fine tune with the keywords, driven by research that identifies the prospective audience & their preferences then you're just shooting in the dark. Just imagine, billions of pages being published everyday & brands engaging professional services to rank higher & higher on the search results, your first worry is to be first visible itself.
Hence, in in its true merit, research helps you identify your prospective audience & their inclinations & picks. The SEO on the other hand, ensures your contents gets discovered by people actively searching for what you're showing & landing on the search engine results. Next, of course if your content in not enchanting enough to appeal to the viewers then imagine all that rigorous spade work being flushed out for nothing. Think again... let's at least catch up for a chat to see what works out best for you.