The Power of the Blog

It’s a question every marketer (including all of us at McCauley Marketing Services) gets asked at some point – “do blogs really matter?” While not all business-owners can recognize the value of a good blog on the surface, the answer is a resounding “yes!” Not only do the blogs get read more often than many executives think (in fact, according to a study by HubSpot, nearly 50% of people read blogs more than once per day!), but they serve a number of purposes that help you have a well-rounded web presence.

• Blogs help your website perform better.

The most powerful way to get your website in front of your target audience is with search engine optimization (SEO) strategies, which help search engines identify your site as relevant when a user searches for a related term or subject. Posting to your blog on a regular basis (think once per week) means your website will continuously have recently-updated content, which signals search engines that it’s more likely to be relevant than the site of a competitor who hasn’t posted new content in months. Plus, if you track your site’s SEO performance and take note of the keywords for which your site isn’t performing well, you can write blogs using those keywords as a way to directly improve your SEO for those specific terms.

• Blogs let you engage with your audience on a more personal level.

While your brand should influence the tone in which your website content is written, the text on your site’s primary pages typically conveys a more professional impression. Blogs, on the other hand, are typically written in a more casual and informal style. This allows you to speak to your readers on a more personal level and can help them feel more comfortable with you and your company, and this bond makes them more likely to trust you with their business.

• Blogs give you interesting information to share on social media marketing pages and help you lead followers to your site.

Let’s say you’re a medical spa who offers around fifteen different treatments. Realistically, there are only so many times you can post about any one of your services before your followers start to get bored. While each of your treatments’ pages probably focus on an explanation of the procedure, blogs can focus on narrower and more exciting topics (like “Top Ten Wrinkle Treatments for a Busy Schedule”). These can both generate interest in your social media pages and lead your followers to your website so they can look around and learn more about your services.

• Blogs give you the opportunity to showcase your expertise.

While you want your audience to become comfortable with you, it’s also important to set yourself apart by showing that you are an expert in your field. Building trust is a crucial way to convert readers to customers, and blogs give you the opportunity to educate your audience by going into detail about various aspects of your field and highlighting your professional knowledge.

• Blogs allow you to talk about current events in your field.

When there’s news about your field or a highly talked-about phenomenon, you can capitalize on it by discussing how it relates to your practice or company or by offering your two cents. While you could post your response to the topic on social media, a 300-word Facebook will quickly get skipped over, and trying to cram your message into 140 characters can easily lead to miscommunications because you weren’t able to choose your words as carefully as you wanted to. A blog, on the other hand, lets you give real-time responses while allowing you to have the space and time to convey your message accurately.

Blogging is both one of the most vital and one of the most underestimated marketing tactics today. But it’s important to realize that blogs are only helpful if they include interesting, well-written content. That’s why, especially if writing isn’t exactly your forte, your best option is often to work with a professional copywriter who can convey your brand and your message while using their own marketing expertise to know how to write content your readers will enjoy and seek out. To start discussing how our team of writers and marketing experts can create blogs that serve your company well, schedule a meeting with McCauley Marketing Services. Or, for more helpful marketing tips and information, join us on Facebook Twitter, and Google+.