Business Growth Blog

Blogging isn't just a marketing activity: it's the foundation of sales and marketing. Here's how to use blog articles to increase sales.

Blogging is a powerful way to improve your online presence. You can pay for traffic via paid ads, but once you stop paying, you stop showing up in search results. Or, you pay to create an article one time, and it can drive traffic to your website for years and years. Literally. Here are real examples of organic search results from three companies that blog consistently, inconsistently, or not at all.

More and more companies are starting to see the value of blogging as a means to build credibility and trust and guide prospects through the buyer journey. Companies that blog get more website traffic and leads. Period.

There are a lot of savvy business leaders and industry experts out there that don’t blog. Unfortunately, their hard-earned “intellect” is not being used to its full potential.

For a company blog to be a profitable investment, leaders and experts from across the organization need to take ownership and participate. Prospects and customers don’t want to read boring blogs that anyone could write by doing a little research online. They want to hear real stories, experiences, and ideas from experts in the field.

Blogging is a long-game strategy that takes practice, dedication, and patience, so it can be easy to put off. But the longer you wait to get started, the longer it will take to get results. (And the more time your competitors have to steal your thunder!)

Here are a few ideas to get over the hump and start blogging now.

The thought of sitting down, hashing out ideas and forming them into a blog post for your business blog is daunting. It’s so hard to find the time and make it a priority! I even struggle myself: do I do client work or my own blog?

For example, as I’m writing this, I feel a lot of pressure because I have a meeting tomorrow that I HAVE to prepare for. Technically, I should be doing that right now. Instead, I’m writing this blog because I know it is a critical part of my business growth strategy.

So that begs the question: how do you find time to blog in an already over-worked schedule? Here are 3 ways you can ease the burden and make blogging easier.

I evaluate a lot of company websites and their online presence. The first few things I look for are whether or not they have a blog, if the articles lean more company-centric or customer-centric, and who the authors are.

The Internet is flooded with content. Not every article is going to be a hit, but posts that are interesting and compelling to the right audience can drive website traffic and leads for years. The best articles usually come from people in the trenches: business leaders and industry experts who are actively working in the field. They bring unique insights, advanced learning, and fresh perspectives that drive the conversation forward.

In the following articles, I explored some of the important benefits businesses realize when leaders engage in the blogging process. When you read the titles, you may think they contain the same information. But each blog has a slightly different take. Check them out! Comment below and share what you think about blogging.

One of the first priorities of your company’s marketing strategy should be to develop a process for blogging. From a technical perspective, blogging helps you get found online. It increases the number of web pages on your website (the more web pages, you have the more chances you have to get found) and increases SEO mojo. That’s definitely important stuff, but buyers don’t really care about that. The main reason to blog is to provide your prospects with the information they need as they travel through the decision making process.

Blogging is a profitable marketing tactic that companies from all industries can use to attract and engage target buyers. The two biggest questions marketing executives have to answer when planning their blog strategy are 1) what will they write about, and 2) who will write the articles.

The best blog articles come from people within your organization that have deep industry expertise. Unfortunately, most internal experts or other potential blog contributors don’t have time to write, don’t like to write, or don’t know what to write about. It’s not part of the corporate culture, and they’ve never done anything like that before.

The good news is that there are processes you can implement to simplify the content creation process and make blogging the norm within your organization. Business leaders will be able to quickly create quality blogs that build a following, generate leads, and help salespeople sell.

Here are four ways to create blog articles without having to agonize over the writing process:

Good, consistent blogging takes a lot of time, resources, and money to produce articles that your prospects will want to read. But even more importantly, it requires strong leadership to create a culture shift to get key employees to commit to sharing their expertise and experiences in a blog format. (Side note: I'm not suggesting they have to write articles, but good blogging requires their participation.)

Is blogging really worth the investment? Well, let's see...

One of the main concerns I hear about hiring a blog writer is that people are afraid they’ll lose their voice – that the articles won’t accurately reflect their own thoughts, opinions, and expertise. Truthfully, that could potentially happen, but it doesn’t have to! Read more to find out two approaches you can take to hiring a writer.