I’m not a parent but I can imagine most parents hear the Buy Why? question from their kids almost every day, usually with a whiny tone and at a loud volume. I also can understand how tempting it is to reply, “Because I said so!” just like our parents did to us. How many of us vowed as kids that we would never say that when we became adults? Ha!
Why Do You Need a Blog?!?!?
As an adult, I find myself asking clients this question often (without the whine) and “because I said so” is just as unsatisfying. Actually, it can be downright costly to a client because it shows they are acting on impulse and not thinking about strategy. For example, a client may ask me to write a blog for them. The company has never had a blog before. They are newbies in the content marketing world. But their competitors are killing it with content marketing and they want to jump on the bandwagon.
My client has no idea what they are going to do with blog once it’s published. They don’t have a marketing campaign behind it. There are no revenue, engagement, or awareness goals to measure its success. They don’t even know if their website will support a blog or how to make sure it’s searchable. Now, I can do all of that for them. And I will, if they let me. But the point is, a blog (or any content marketing) is not a field of dreams. If you build it, they will not come. You need to tell the right story, at the right time, in the right place, for the right people. The “But Why” question is critical in any content marketing plan.
Blog Objectives
So, let’s assume my client agrees and we start to strategize about how a blog can help them meet their business goals. As I’ve said in past posts and articles, long-form content like blogs are great tools to educate and inform your target audience. Use a blog to:
- Answer common questions about your product/service.
- Tell stories that show how your product/service solved a problem for a customer
- Building credibility and trust through relevant thought leadership content
- Drive traffic to your website using critical keywords
- Encourage comments from readers and drive engagement with your audience
- Drive lead generation through valuable content
- Increase your email list with CTAs to subscribe for more content
- Build a community around your brand and encourage customer loyalty
Target Audience
The key to a successful blog is knowing who your target audience is and what is important to them. Build your content around solving their problems, making their life better, and building a relationship with them that lasts long past that first purchase. Your target audience are your potential customers. They could also be potential employees, partners, board members, vendors, government and community leaders, or anyone you feel is important to the success of your business.
Blog Metrics
But how do you know your blog is succeeding? These metrics will help you understand how engaged your audience is with your long-form content.
- Traffic on blog page: Not only is is important to measure how many people find your blog page, it’s also important to understand how they got there. This is how you will measure the performance of your marketing campaigns and what elements of it resonated with your target audience.
- Time on site: The average attention span for most of us is 8.25 seconds. The longer a reader stays on your blog page, the more interest and engagement they have with your content.
- Bounce rate: Bounce rate measures the percentage of users who leave your site after viewing just one page, indicating how engaging your content is. Review the bounce rate for your blog page and compare it to your overall site bounce rate. A good bounce rate is below 50%.
- Scroll depth: This metric can help you understand how much of your content is consumed so that you can make adjustments. This doesn’t necessarily mean your content is boring. It could just mean, the reader got overwhelmed by too much text. You may need to break up the text with more sub-headers or shorten the overall length.
- Shares: Sharing is a positive indication of engagement and interest, so tracking social shares of your long-form content can help you understand its popularity and impact.
- Comments: If a reader is taking the time to sign into your site and leave a comment, they are engaged. Make sure to answer them back and ask if you can place them on your email list for more content.
A blog can be a viable part of an overall marketing plan as long as you are thoughtful about the reasons why you have one and the objectives you want to achieve through it. When paired with a more traditional marketing and advertising campaign, you can build a powerful marketing strategic plan that will elevate your brand, build an engaged customer base, and increase sales.
Need me to ask you that important “But Why?” question and keep you on track with your marketing strategy? I’d love to help. Contact me today.
