A blog is a powerful marketing tool. Blogs serve as a personal space to build your brand, a billboard for encouraging sales, and a platform for developing a content marketing strategy. In the United States, 81 percent of consumers trust advice from blogs. It’s little surprise that 47 percent of business-to-consumer marketers consider blogs to be one of the three most important ways to distribute content. But writing a blog isn’t as easy as it might seem. Good blog content creation is essential.
Understanding Blog Content Creation
Blog content creation is a key element of a good content marketing strategy. However, it involves a lot more effort than simply writing a few articles and publishing them. Poor content has the potential to do more harm than good by damaging your reputation. Meanwhile good content may go unnoticed if you don’t adequately promote it. In 2015, 28.3 million U.S. internet users updated a blog at least once per month. Understanding why content is important, and what qualifies as good content, makes it easier to develop a blog as part of your content marketing strategy.
Why Is Good Content Important?
Good blog content offers three main benefits to your business:
Inbound marketing
Traditional advertising is becoming less effective as more people use ad blockers to control what they see online. If you publish good content, those same people may actively seek out your website.
Improved SEO
Google’s algorithm for determining search ranking considers the quality of content on your site. Therefore good content helps your page to float to the top. Furthermore, websites with blogs have 434 percent more indexed pages, which is another important SEO factor.
Building a reputation
You want to build a reputation as a respected voice in your chosen field. The best way to do that is to put out great content as often as possible so that people find it, enjoy it, and share it.
What Are the Key Elements of a Good Blog?
There are three main elements of good blog content creation:
A defined purpose
Do you want to educate existing customers, generate sales leads, reach a wider audience, or build your reputation? The best blog content has a specific goal, and successfully feeds into a greater marketing strategy.
Quality content
Good blog content is well written. It’s free of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, clearly laid out, factually accurate, useful, and engaging. People should want to read it, and come back regularly.
Regular content
A great article may encourage a lot of visitors once, but you want a lot of visitors every day. A regular content publication schedule helps to ensure your marketing campaign is always moving in the right direction. Keep in mind that marketers who publish at least 16 blog posts per month get 3.5 times more traffic than marketers who publish four or less blog posts.
5 Top Examples of Blog Content Creation
There are many examples of high-quality blogs to inspire your own content:
Buffer
This social media management solutions provider developed a blog presence by writing high-quality content that was good enough for influencers to share with established audiences. Using influencers to engage an audience is a strong strategy, as 30 percent of consumers are more likely to buy a product recommended by a non-celebrity blogger. The company now has multiple blogs speaking to different demographics, increasing the chances that potential customers are going to find the type of content they enjoy.
Tuts+
The aim of content marketing is to provide value-added content that potential customers want to read. Rather than paying for advertising, you provide solutions to problems. So when people look for answers, they find your blog. This is exactly what Tuts+ does. The blog offers thousands of free tutorials on software development, web design, and graphic design. These resources make it an invaluable resource for start-ups, established businesses, and students.
Huffington Post
Your blog is also your advertising billboard. Visitors are arriving for great content, and pairing their answers with the right advertising has the potential to reap huge rewards. Take the success of Huffington Post for example. The blog launched in 2005, and Forbes has estimated its value at around $1 billion. The site’s main revenue stream comes from digital adverts.
Mashable
Your blog shouldn’t (and probably won’t) work in isolation. It needs to be another cog in your marketing system, and you need to take the time to promote your content to ensure people see it. Mashable is an excellent example of a company that understands how to use social media platforms to enhance online presence and reach a wider audience.
Hubspot
It’s important to update your blog regularly. Forbes advises publishing new content at least once or twice a week. Furthermore, it’s a good idea to keep changing up the type of content. Hubspot provides regular, high-quality, long-form posts on its blog, and also offers ebooks and videos.
Different Methods for Blog Content Creation
There are five main approaches to blog content creation. The best option for you depends on your marketing goals, the age and size of your company, the number of staff you have, and your marketing budget.
Do it yourself
This is the most obvious solution for start-ups. It has the benefit of helping you to learn the ropes of content creation. It also gives you an opportunity to find your own voice. Unfortunately, it’s labor intensive and you may find you don’t have enough time to post regularly. It’s also not a good idea if you lack the writing chops to put out really good articles.
Employ in-house content creators
Large companies may want to keep all of the content creation in house. This makes it easier to orchestrate campaigns. However it’s the most costly option, as it involves having specialists on the payroll.
Use guest writers
Guest writers provide a fresh perspective, and usually provide content in exchange for links to their own sites. It’s a cost-effective option that may boost your SEO through backlinks. Take note that there is increased risk of poor content, and no guarantee of regular material.
Outsource
It’s possible to hire freelancers by contacting them directly, but you may prefer to go through a content marketing marketplace. This is a platform that provides the means for marketers and content creators to meet, exchange ideas, and negotiate terms.
Employ a content creation agency
If you want to outsource all aspects of your blog creation, look for a respected content creation agency.
Final Thought: Keep It Fresh
A blog has the potential to be the lynchpin of your marketing strategy, as long as you go about blog content creation in the right way. Quality is of the utmost importance. Constantly evolving and adapting to the current marketing landscape is key. Publish fresh content regularly, and develop new ideas and perspectives to encourage repeat visits. Keep in mind that internet users spend 23 percent of their time on blogs and social media. Fresh content is the best way to ensure they spend a fair amount of that time on your site.
