As discussed earlier, in Digital Marketing, the term blog was created by combining the words web and log to make weblog that was later simplified to blog.
When blogs initially emerged in the 1990s, they were primarily used as online diaries for people; to share personal narratives of their lives. However, since then, they’ve expanded to incorporate writing and media on various themes; including news, politics, music, food, business, and even blogging itself.
Visionary entrepreneurs identified the blog format as a marketing tool, and they began using it to deliver information and updates; to their existing clients and attract new business opportunities.
How Does Blog Marketing Work?
Blog marketing is a content marketing technique in which publishers use blog posts for brands to connect with a specific target audience and engage them; to convert them into leads and then sales eventually.
Blogging has a history, and over time it has proven itself to be a very impactful marketing tool. Today, the majority of marketers (more than 50%) vouch for blogging and content marketing; according to them, blogging has helped them gain a good amount of customers.
According to them, this technique has helped them increase their positive ROI thirteen times. Subsequently, this remarkable jump in success has convinced them to make blogging their topmost content marketing priority.
Stats show that businesses that blog get twice as many email queries compared to those that don’t.
Many business websites have a separate section for their blogs with a link mostly found on their website’s home page.
In contrast, some corporates prefer a different website (blog site) to publish their blogs. This practice makes it easier for them to administer the blog site and allows their visitor’s easy access.
Here are some big brand examples who maintain their blog sites separately; for some inspiration:
- Starbucks: Starbucks Stories & News
- Samsung: Samsung Newsroom
- Airbnb: AT Airbnb
- Nike: NIKE NEWS
If Samsung and Nike are doing it, then it must have value.
Besides, some blogs proved to be so powerful in history that the bloggers created full-fledged businesses out of their blogs.
Today we know some of those big businesses as:
Blog Marketing Pros & Cons
Starting blog marketing for your small business would be one of the best decisions you will take. In short term, this strategy will help you drive traffic to your business website plus in long term, it will establish you as a subject matter expert and industry leader.
\”Everything has its PROS and CONS!! Become a PRO to handle the CONS!!\” – Bharat Jackson
Helps Establish Contact With Potential Leads & Buyers
People are curious about those they are doing business with! Blogging is a great way to introduce yourself and your brand to your audience by establishing your brand as an industry leader.
Do this by providing valuable insights and information; about your industry, brand, product, or service in your blog posts.
The coolest thing about blog marketing is its freedom to engage with your potential customers using information or guidelines they love to consume. And for that, they are compelled to keep returning to your website. These visits first turn them into leads and then customers eventually.
A blog helps the business establish trust and rapport with their current and future customers by being the platform where customers ask questions or share their feedback, allowing the company to improve its current level of service and customer care.
Cost-Effective Compared To Traditional Advertising or Marketing
If you are not working on building a digital presence, then you are at a loss. To move with time, you must have a website as well as the required social media presence.
Blogs will help you build your sales funnel and generate leads that you can work on to turn into sales and revenue. If you have basic writing and computer skills, you can successfully learn to run your blog yourself.
You can also hire content creators to do the job for you, provided you have proper blogging for business and content marketing strategy in place that your team can follow.
User-Friendly Content Creation Platforms & Tools
With the most basic computer and writing skills, you can learn to use some popular blogging platforms that would allow you to do your blogging yourself.
Here are some top platforms recommended by QuickSprout with information about who they are best for:
- Wix — Best for beginners building a professional blog
- WordPress with Bluehost — Best for highly scalable and customizable blogs
- Squarespace — Best for photographers, artists, and designers
- LinkedIn — Best for networking with thought leaders and influencers
- Medium — Best for getting a foothold in blogging for an audience
The majority of these blogging platforms are easy to use, and if you know how to copy, paste, type, drag, drop and upload, then you can have your professional-looking blog up and running.
Allows Sharing Business Updates | Industry News | Tips
Internet users in the US spend 3X more time on blogs than they do on email.
And around 77% of internet users read blogs and have rated them as the 5th most trustworthy source for gathering information online. Businesses use blogs to:
- Inform their audience about their business, mission, and vision in more detail from time to time.
- Identify common problems or challenges their readers face and let them know how their products or services can solve those problems.
- Provide more information about their products or services and how they are different from what their competitors are offering.
- Give detailed instruction with pictures on how to use a product or service.
- Answer all Frequently Asked Questions
- Brief customers on how to maintain or store a product in between and after use.
Blogging allows a business ample opportunities to engage with its prospects and build communication over time that turns them into returning loyal customers.
Helpful information for readers to guide them to overcome their challenges and improve their lives will surely strengthen their trust and create a better bond with your business.
Enhances SEO Ranking on Google SERPs
Blogging is excellent for SEO.
One good long-form value-filled article can get your website tons of backlinks which I call ‘SEO Superfood,’ as they are known to super enhance SEO and Google page rankings.
Here are some key stats to consider:
- Companies who blog get 97% more links to their websites.
- Websites that also have a blog are shown to have 434% more indexed pages.
- SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads (such as direct mail or print advertising) have a 1.7% close rate.
- 72% of online marketers describe content creation as their most effective SEO tactic.
- Blogging has grown by 12% since 2015.
- B2B marketers who have blogs get 67% more leads than those who don’t.
Leads generated through blogs and enhanced SEO have a 14.6% closing rate compared to a 1.7% close rate of leads generated through other means like print advertising.
In case you are interested in initiating a blog marketing strategy for your business but are facing challenges in figuring out a clear path, then you can always {reach out to us} with details about your business and vision. We will be more than happy to provide you with all the help and information you need to plan and do it RIGHT the first time.
Keypoint To Note: A blog in itself is a business. And like any other business, it requires an initial investment of money, time, resources, and efforts.
But with time, just like other businesses, a blog can also generate revenue from various means to sustain itself and create an additional income and profit.
Once it is established, you can start accepting advertisement banners, promoting affiliate products, selling digital products, providing online training, and getting sponsors to create more revenue streams for your company.
Blog Marketing Cons
Requires Considerable Investment of Time, Effort & Resource
Like anything worthwhile in life, blogging also comes with a price tag/considerable hard work. Just like any business, a blog would require consistency before showing some results.
How to overcome it?
Plan and strategize properly with the core aim to succeed. You can do this by aligning your efforts with your key goals and objectives to maximize traffic, conversions, and revenue from your blog site from day one.
Whether you plan to create content yourself or engage a team to do it, you must know the type of content you need to make, how much, and in what frequency. Plus, you must know where and how to promote that content to meet your desired goal expectations.
Haste Makes Waste
Before you start investing in content, it is crucial to identify the target audience for which you will be creating that content. Sketch out user personas to understand their challenges and pain points that you can help resolve with your content, product, or service.
The right approach is to use your blog content to discuss your customers’ problems and challenges and then provide actionable solutions and tips to those problems.
Considering that 77 million new blog comments are generated by readers each month, there is a huge possibility that you will start getting some valuable feedback that would probably guide you on how to cater to their needs better.
Coming up with new content ideas and creating fresh posts to keep your blog alive and up to date in terms of content and audience engagement is intense work; however, at the same time, when you start seeing results, it will become fun, and you will be more motivated to do it.
Blogging, no doubt, is time-consuming in every aspect. But if that time is put to the proper use and is not wasted, this exercise can fetch some fantastic results over some time that may last a lifetime.
Creating A Profitable Business Blog
Now that you know the pros and cons of adding a blog to your business, let’s talk about making it sustainable and profitable more quickly.
By ‘Quickly,’ don’t assume that I will reveal some hidden secret to overnight or quick success, but I will share very successful ways that just a few people use.
Just know that there are several ways to make money blogging as a publisher. And small businesses can use some or most of those ways to start generating revenue.
Google Adsense
‘Google AdSense provides a way for publishers to earn money from their online content. AdSense works by matching ads to your site based on your content and visitors. The ads are created and paid for by advertisers who want to promote their products. Since these advertisers pay different prices for different ads, the amount you earn will vary.’ – Google.
You can advertise products and services that you may not offer but are relevant to your business, industry/niche, or readers. Plus, the process to get Adsense activated on your website will authenticate and ensure that your website content, design, navigation, and other aspects such as website’s ownership and the loading speed is of standard quality.
These factors make a huge difference in your website visitor experience and how your blog readers begin to perceive your brand. And I think that getting Adsense activated is a great way to start earning and at the same time create a solid and positive impression on your readers about your website and brand from day one.
Amazon Associates Program
Affiliate marketing is a great way to earn through your blog site that people will visit seeking information and knowledge in a specific niche.
What is Affiliate marketing & Amazon Associates Program?
‘Affiliate marketing is an advertising model in which a company compensates third-party publishers to generate traffic or leads to the company’s products and services. The third-party publishers are affiliates, and the commission fee incentivizes them to find ways to promote the company.’ – Investopedia.
So all you have to do is divert traffic from your website to another website’s product or service page and make a commission on every visit or sale generated through you. However, commissions and terms & conditions of different programs vary.
Amazon | The Largest Affiliate Marketing Program
Amazon Associates, aka Amazon’s affiliate marketing program, is one of the largest affiliate marketing programs in the world. Additionally, this program helps content creators, publishers and bloggers monetize and make money from their website traffic.
‘Simply put, affiliate programs, also called associate programs, are arrangements in which an online merchant Web site pays affiliate Web sites a commission to send them traffic.’ – How Stuff Works.
There are millions of products and services available for sale on Amazon. Also, you may be using many of those products and services already and may even like them enough to recommend them to someone just as a well-wisher.
Without a doubt, that is what you need to do!
If you are using a software or tool or product that you did not create but have been using for some time now; because you like it or if there is a product that goes or works best with whatever you are selling, then all you have to do is in your blog post for what you sell mention those other products with your positive experience of them and while you do insert your affiliate link within the text so that readers can click it and head to that product page.
Suppose they buy anything you make a commission. To know more about the program, check out the following:
- Find out how the Associate’s program works.
- Learn more about how to qualify for this program.
- Find out about the Amazon Influencer Program.
- Learn more about how to earn in this program.
- Sign up for the program here.
- Learn more about how to sign up for the program.
Digital Products
Creating and selling useful digital products can be quite profitable. Besides compared to physical products, digital products have their own set of advantages, such as:
- No Need To Maintain An Inventory: From the start, you save on storage costs and do not have to worry about ordering more units to meet demand.
- Reproduce As Much As You Want: Digital products can be replicated and reproduced quickly and do not require the need to invest in additional building space (or staff) to deal with its production.
- Simple And Easy To Manage: There is no stock management or freight calculations to worry about as such. Just a simple click on ‘send’ can get the job done.
- 24/7/365 Instant & Free Delivery: Sell and deliver at all times instantly and for free. Making money while you sleep is perhaps one of the greatest advantages of selling digital products from your website.
The downside of Digital Products include:
- Challenging To Demonstrate Value: Digital products are not tangible and may seem unreal to many people. Because of this, digital products have a lower perceived value.
- Quality Product Takes Time To Develop: Quality requires attention to detail which takes time. And if your product lacks quality, then nobody is even going to buy it in the first place.
- Competition Is High: They require a lot of thinking, research, planning, creating, and demonstrating before they materialize.
How to overcome it?
Just make sure that it demonstrates enough value for someone to pay some price for it. It could be 50 cents or less even. The good thing is that with Digital Products, you won’t ever have to worry about it being out of stock. Any money you make, no matter how little, will be an extra income.
If you want to create something of high value that you can charge a premium price for, write something unique based on your personal experiences in your relevant field or niche. Besides, it is very well understood that things of value take considerable time but only then do we begin to value our creation as we know how much we have put into it.
\”Everyone you Will Ever Meet Knows Something that You Don’t\” – Bill Nye
I am sure you know something about your field that, if not all, the vast majority don’t. Think about it; I am sure you will find some gold. Or interview someone more senior and write an e-Book on your findings.
Give sufficient time to your Digital Product. Allow time for the core concept to develop. Sleepover it a few nights and let it take some natural form. Build on that concept till you finally have a masterpiece.
Here are some good resources that you can check out and study regarding creating digital products that sell.
Product Creation: How to Create Digital Products That Sell
Plus, take a look at these inspirations:
101 Profitable & Trending Digital Products to Sell in 2021
60+ unique digital product ideas for every niche
The high competition promises worthiness, as nobody would compete over something that does not offer a good return. Thinking, research, planning, creating, and demonstrating are all part of the deal. No pain, no gain!
Blog Marketing Bottomline
Blogs are one of the best tools of content marketing. The majority of internet users read blogs regularly which makes them the perfect choice to get your brand noticed.
By sharing with your readers useful and relevant content you will build trust and with time they will start seeing your brand as an industry leader; winning you many loyal customers over time.
Using the right CTAs & Leadmagnets will ensure that your visitors turn into leads whom you can gradually convert into customers using a good email marketing strategy. engaged
This online marketing tactic will help you connect and engage better with your prospects and customer. Moreover, blogs will encourage your readers to comment and share their valuable feedback that you may use to enhance your services more.
If you have any questions then please feel free to leave them in the comments section below or just get in touch here.
