Why should you start a blog in 2018?
Everyone is on social media and many of the ‘experts’ say websites will be obsolete soon. Wouldn’t it be better to use a platform like Medium instead of paying a web designer to make your website and to manage it?
The answer to that question is 100% no!
According to the Content Marketing Institute, “76% of B2B marketers still blog,” so I don’t see a decline happening any time soon.
A blog is the best way to tell your story without the shackles of the social platform’s idiosyncrasies and algorithms.
Social media presents a cookie-cutter approach to marketing while blogs have more customizable options to give your content an authentic look. Being the complete ‘you,’ is only possible with a blog that fully exemplifies the subtleties of who and what you represent. How are you going to stand out from all the other people in your industry with just a picture on your Facebook page?
A blog gives you the opportunity to change the colors, fonts, images, videos, locations, etc. If you’re still looking for an ROI push, “content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about 3 times as many leads.” – DemandMetric
If you’re on the fence about whether or not your brand still needs or needs to start a blog, this article will clear that debate.
Own Your Piece Of Internet Real Estate
When you start a blog, you’ll realize very quickly that you control who sees your posts.
If you use a provider like Facebook or Medium, you are at the mercy of their algorithm which if you follow closely, changes quite a bit. They make changes to ensure the ‘right’ people get to see your posts.
Who is the ‘right’ person? It should be who you decide not who Facebook thinks is right.
If you saw the recent Facebook commercial you know that they are rearranging their algorithm to favor your posts being seen by your family. Is that who you want to market your business to? I don’t think so.
Your own blog is your way to market to the demographics you choose. You control who gets to see what you create, by using the keywords and phrases your customers use consistently to find what you sell.
On Facebook, you need to pay for that kind of exposure. They day Facebook Ads came into being was the day your posts became less likely to be seen.
You still have to get traffic to your website, which can be a struggle, but with the right techniques and with the combination of social media you’ll drive traffic if you’re consistent and the quality of your content is high.
Your Blog is Your Party
Starting a blog means you’re building a community, which is essential for online marketing.
You have to create a fun and inspiring place with your blog. It needs to be informative and easy to navigate.
The key to any good marketing campaign on social media or even print ads is to point your readers somewhere. Today, that somewhere should be your website. The place where you control the rules and have the majority of your content.
I love to use the analogy of your blog being your ‘party.’ Think about the parties you’ve been to. The best ones were probably the ones you felt the most comfortable.
This is the same way you want to treat your readers when they visit your website.
They should hit the homepage and know exactly where to go.
If you follow the tendencies of traffic on a website it goes:
- Home Page
- About Page
- Services
- Blog (Repeat Traffic)
When you go to party, don’t you want to know who’s house it is and what they do? The same works for your website, so make sure your about page is on point.
The next place they go is to your services tab if you have one.
The about page and the services tab are going to be hit once, but the place you need to have your best stuff is your blog. The blog creates the repeat traffic, and this is where you need to have the best content.
A good blog post should have:
- Images
- Videos
- Graphics
- Thorough Content
- Links to Your Other Blogs
- Helpful Links to Your Favorite Blogs
- Entertainment
- Humor
- Great Formatting
- Current Information
The best blogs are so informative that college professors even use them in their classes instead of textbooks. The more information you have the better rank you’re going to get on Google searches. You can’t do that with Facebook or Medium. You have to suffer through what Facebook likes to promote, which is sometimes difficult to figure out.
A Blog is Essential for a Complete Brand
When someone finds you on social media they no doubt will look you up. Can you represent your brand more effectively on Facebook with limited customizations? Of course not.
Every business should have its own website so they can tell their story with their true ‘colors.’
Where else can you talk about who you are, what you do, sell your products, and show off your company in the best light possible? The only answer to that is your own website.
When you add a blog to that, the persuasive power of your brand multiplies leaps and bounds.
But why?
The time the reader spends on your blog is far greater than reading your Facebook posts. Plus, there are fewer distractions on your website to take their attention away.
Look at Facebook today and you’ll see ads everywhere, games, birthday’s, etc. to take your reader’s attention from your work. On your blog, you control what the customer looks at, and that attention is vital to your bottom-line.
Be Your Client’s ‘Infotainment’
Becoming an authority in your industry is essential to your success. If you’re not on social media you’ll fall behind. If you don’t have a place for your followers to explore after they watch your videos or read your posts, you’re missing out on key opportunities to sell your products.
Think about the last time you watched a video on Youtube. Odds are that is was something educational, because one of the most watched types of videos is ‘infotainment.’
Your clients, if they are in the market for what you sell, will go online and start brushing up on their options. They will not call you without some knowledge of what’s out there, and you can bet if they are calling you there is a reason. Either they are unsure of the cost and are “just checking prices” or they are wanting to sign up right now. Most likely they are not “just checking prices” so from a sales perspective you should try to close them if you’re effectively warming them up with content.
Your social media is where your customers get a taste of what you’re all about. Your blog is where they start to get in-depth with your process, and it’s also where you present the option for a call when they’re ready.
The quality of the ‘infotainment’ you have on your website will determine how much time they spend in your world.
If you have a website that lacks content they most likely will not call you.
This process of effectively warming them up makes your conversion rate go through the roof.
Summary
The internet today, especially on social media, is a very noisy place.
Everyone has their own way get clients and make more money, and if you really dig into those people and strategies you’ll find that most of their tactics will work. However, one of the common themes they all have is a blog.
The really successful ones use that blog to get people to sign up for their email newsletters.
Those email newsletters are what they use to make their money. They use them to sell products, books, classes, and services.
I’m sure you’ve already seen this before, but it works and that’s why they do it. The problem is that no one cares about that anymore because most people know it works and that is not enough to build a class around.
They have to use some new “growth-hacks” to get you more Instagram followers or teach you how to monetize Snapchat. The truth is using those platforms can make you tons of money, but monetizing them requires a place to sell them those products. You can don’t that on Snapchat.
Your blog is also not the place to directly sell your products either, but you won’t sell a thing without one.
The key to blogging for bucks is to create the best content you can and distribute it to all of your social platforms. The readers will follow the links you provide to the blog and read the post. While they do that they get an opportunity to sign up for your email list and that’s where you make your money.
For more information on creating content like a pro, check out this article, Content Marketing Made Easy in 2018 with These Tools [Beginner’s Guide].
