While understanding the basics of starting a blog and writing posts comes easily to many, finding the right audience can be more challenging, and using a blog to successfully market a product or brand is a skill all content creators spend time mastering. If a business has good content but few readers, it indicates that their strategy needs to be reworked.
In this article, we’ll cover the dos and don’ts of blog-based marketing in 2024, so to help you better market your blog effectively and boost reader numbers.
Table of Contents
Why businesses should jump on blogging as a marketing strategy
The dos of using blogging as a marketing strategy
The don’ts of blogging as a marketing strategy
Summary
Why businesses should jump on blogging as a marketing strategy
Here’s an interesting stat: 55% of marketers say blogging is their main focus for getting customers. Why? Because they’ve been shown to be 13 times more likely to get good returns than those who don’t use blogging.
Over the past decade, many businesses have boosted their profits, increased brand awareness, and gained more customers simply by creating useful blog posts for their audiences. The key here is that they create content that is valuable – just having a blog isn’t enough; it must have a clear purpose. For this reason, blogging is one of the most effective ways companies can attract customers to their business or product.
The dos of using blogging as a marketing strategy
Blogs are key to any business marketing plan and aim to promote products and services. But brands must market the blog itself to enjoy the benefits. A blog marketing plan will incorporate strategies as to how a business can share and promote blog posts – as we mentioned before, simply creating a blog isn’t enough to attract readers.
For a blog to successfully attract traffic, convert visitors, boost revenue, and establish the affiliated brand as an expert in their fields, they require an effective marketing plan. Businesses can use these best practices to promote their blogs to the target audience.
Know who the blog is targeting
Before businesses can market their blogs, they must know who they are marketing to. Finding the target audience is necessary for a successful blog marketing plan. Here are four places retailers can use to search for their target readers.
Social media
It’s no secret that people spend a lot of time on social media, making it a great resource for businesses. They can use Facebook groups and follow hashtags on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram to see what’s trending in their niche. With such insights, businesses can understand what their potential readers want to read.
Discussion forums
Forums like Quora are great for finding people interested in specific topics. Retailers can learn about their interests and problems and even promote their blogs by answering questions and sharing their expertise.
Comments sections
Look at the comments on competitor blogs, YouTube channels, and podcasts. These channels can give business buyers insight into their audience’s likes, dislikes, and questions. They can then use this info to craft content that resonates with them.
Talk to the audience
Don’t be afraid to talk directly with your target audience. Businesses can meet future customers at conventions, seminars, local groups, and online via Zoom. It’s a great way to better understand their needs and interests.
Always refer to the buyer’s persona
When writing blogs, businesses must consider who their ideal customer is. They must ask, “Who are they?” and “Why do they need our product or service?” While tip #1 helps answer these questions, retailers must now use the answers to create buyer personas.
How can retailers create a buyer persona? For one, they can use this free template from HubSpot to build one. Afterward, they can create a detailed description of each persona retailers create, which can be referred to whenever they need to write blog posts.
Once your buyer personas are complete, business buyers can easily create content tailored to their target customer’s wants, needs, and challenges. Additionally, tailored content helps turn blogs into powerful tools for converting leads, especially when they are able to demonstrate a product or service’s value. As businesses further understand their audience’s behavior, they can create new personas or improve old ones.
Monitor the competition
Beyond prowling the competition’s comment section, businesses must also watch what they do with their blogs. The competition can show businesses (especially new ones) what blog content works for their target audience and what doesn’t. When retailers analyze their competitors’ blogs, they can also see what they are trying to offer and find ways to offer unique content that only their business can provide.
So, how can businesses monitor their competition effectively? Start by making a list of five to 10 top competitors and study their content. Note the types of content they share, their unique blogging methods, and how well they rank for the same keywords that you will want to target.
After that, identify any gaps in your content that need to be filled. This can easily be achieved with tools like QuickSprout, Open Site Explorer by Moz, and SEMRush Competitor Research to make it easier.
Do keyword and SEO research
In an ideal world, every business’s website or blog would appear on the first page of a search engine when related terms were searched. However, in order to attain maximum visibility requires significant research of keywords and phrases that customers are likely to search for, and then including them in a natural and unforced way in content like blog posts. Proper SEO and keyword research before writing can help brands improve their chances of ranking higher on the search engine results page (SERP).
Luckily, keyword and SEO research is not difficult, especially when businesses use helpful tools. The process starts with brands listing five to 10 keyword groups they want to rank for, along with related long-tail keywords. Then, businesses can include them strategically to help their blogs rank higher. Tools like Google Keyword Planner, Moz Keyword Explorer, Ahrefs, Keyword Surfer, and SEMrush can help retailers find high-ranking keywords for their blogs.
Remember, Google’s algorithms are always evolving to be more intuitive. That’s why old tactics like keyword stuffing can actually now hurt blog ranking. Instead, businesses should focus on writing engaging content for their audience first and search engines second.
Determine the best places to share content
Businesses must also decide where it makes most sense to share their blog content. If they already have a website, sharing it there is probably the easiest way to get a start. For example, if retailers use HubSpot CRM and blogging software, they can add articles to their website’s landing pages.
Other places to share content include social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as online publishing sites like Medium. Brands can also collaborate with industry leaders, experts, and influencers to share content on their websites and social media profiles.
Make blogs more marketable with easy layouts
A blog’s layout is more important than most businesses think; it’s not just about getting people to visit the blog but also keeping them there. A good layout is a great way to reduce bounce rates. Here are some tips brands can use to improve their blog’s user experience:
Clean and easy designs
Blogs should have enough white space to keep readers focused on the text and images. Headers and subheaders will also make blogs easier for consumers to scan. But for longer posts, ensure blogs have a clickable table of contents, allowing readers to access their preferred section without scrolling.
Easy navigation
Remember to use a top and bottom menu for blogs. It gives posts easy access to different areas of the blog, meaning consumers won’t get frustrated when they have to find something they missed. Also, brands should include internal links in their posts to promote further exploration of their content.
Strong branding
Always have a clear and unique visual style. Businesses can do this with a recognizable logo and color scheme. It makes the blog more memorable and distinct.
Use analytics to measure blog marketing effectiveness
One surefire way to maximize blog performance is to dive into Google’s analytics data. This provides valuable insights into your audience’s behavior, such as where they come from and which pages they visit. Study metrics like real-time visitors, audience, acquisition, behavior, and conversions to see the effectiveness of your marketing strategies.
Additionally, brands can leverage social media analytics to understand their audience’s engagement on different platforms. For example, Pinterest analytics can show demographics, impressions, and post-performance. Remember to create free business accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest to access these insights.
The don’ts of blogging as a marketing strategy
Forgetting the target audience
For any blog content to succeed, it must engage the target audience and prompt them to act. Businesses must not assume their content works if they haven’t considered their audience and what they want them to do. Understanding the audience’s pains, challenges, and goals helps to keep them engaged and boosts the likelihood of conversion, so ignoring or forgetting this point will put your blogging strategy in a bad spot.
Solution
Choose topics that directly address the target audience’s needs. Businesses must also define their buyer persona to understand the customers’ jobs, goals, and daily struggles. This knowledge will guide the content’s tone, format, and complexity, ensuring brands connect with the right people in the right way.
Writing without editing
Many businesses forget to edit their writing. They think it sounds perfect as they wrote it, but that’s often not the case. Remember, writing is not for the writer; it’s for the audience. So, it’s prudent to always look over the first draft, even if it already “sounds good.”
Solution
Writers should take a break after finishing their first draft before spending time to edit and refine them. Even experienced writers need to edit. They must fix typos, run-on sentences, and mistakes that may not initially be obvious. Lastly, ensure the story flows in a way that keeps readers engaged.
Covering only trending news
Brands must avoid basing their entire blog strategy on trendy topics that quickly become outdated. Instead, they should focus on evergreen content with trendy angles. For instance, they can ditch covering news that may become irrelevant by discussing broader topics related to their business and products. Updating these blogs with new content while maintaining the core message can also be an easy way to ensure they remain relevant.
Using a stream-of-consciousness writing style
Brands must avoid treating their writing like a brain dump. While it’s tempting to let ideas flow freely, it often results in sub-par blog posts. Blogs need clear organization for easy scanning – a stream-of-consciousness style won’t help.
Solution
Choose the type of post you want to write (a how-to post, list-based post, or curated collection post) before creating an outline to shape the blog’s sections and content. Outlining improves clarity, organization, and flow, especially for complex topics.
Businesses just starting out can try easier content like listicles or step-by-step guides. Include headers to make the post skimmable. Break up paragraphs, add relevant images, and use formatting that guides readers to the information that they’re looking for.
Plagiarizing content
Copying content doesn’t fly in school, and it’s a definite no-go for professional blogs. Plus, Google can punish plagiarized sites, hurting the blog’s growth.
Solution
If you’re going to include them, always cite others’ ideas properly. It will help you to avoid the penalties that come with plagiarism.
Summary
When businesses build a popular blog in their niche, they are creating a resource that will hopefully attract potential customers for years to come. This strategy is boosted if they consistently post helpful content that addresses their readers’ problems and interests, helping to earn their customers’ trust and support and leading to improved business growth.
But as with any strategy, there are things businesses should and shouldn’t do. Retailers should define their main goal before gradually trying different tactics to improve their blog’s performance using the steps the pointers discussed in this article.
For more tips on how to improve your business strategy, make sure to subscribe to Alibaba.com Reads.
