We here at the Bright Ideas Blog obviously love blogging. It’s what we do! But many companies struggle with coming up with ideas and taking the time necessary to create meaningful content.
According to Anne Markowitz Recht of AMR Care Group, sometimes you have to let a good idea find you. Anne blogs for her company regularly, and finds inspiration in her own life as well as her interaction with clients. She shared a story about an inspiration for an article on falling she found in the get well section of the card store when an elderly woman who was buying cards said to her, “All of my friends are falling.”
A constantly updated blog is becoming more and more of a necessity in today’s online, plugged-in world. As we mentioned in this post, one of the first and most important reasons a blog is important is that it drives more traffic to your website. Search engines love fresh content, so adding a blog that is continually maintained will increase your search engine optimization (SEO) and put you higher in the listings when someone is searching for your product or service.
The key, of course, is to ensure you’re adding new content on a regular basis and that the content you’re sharing is relevant to your audience. By creating content that is timely and meaningful, you’ll have people sharing your information with others in the industry. This serves two important purposes: it establishes you as an expert in your field and it creates wonderful word-of-mouth advertising. According to Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising Report, a recommendation from someone we know is the most trusted resource for information when it’s time to make a purchasing decision. Print and broadcast advertising and brand sponsorships (such as Brand X Ballpark) are the least-trusted sources. If you become a trusted source of valuable information, people will naturally be inclined to seek you out when they’re looking for your product or service.
Blogging has other advantages. It can serve as the foundation for your social media plan. Whether you’re on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn or anywhere else, the information you post on your blog can be shared with the social media universe. This not only strengthens your social media effort, it helps drive traffic to your website, increases your SEO, and positions you as an industry leader, worthy of trust. It also gives you a reason to send an email to your audience, highlighting all of the stories on your blog, strengthening your email marketing program. Our client, AMR Care Group, enjoyed a 100% increase in website traffic and online referrals one year after committing to an online communication program. They also enjoyed an increase in brand recognition.
One often-overlooked benefit to having a blog is improving customer relationships. Consumers appreciate interesting and relevant information and if you’re the one providing it, they’ll be more appreciative of everything you have to offer.
If you understand the importance of adding a blog to your website, but still don’t know where to start, give us call. We can help you establish and maintain a blog and provide ways to support it and help engage customers so you’ll remain top of mind when it’s time to act. If you struggle with finding relevant content to publish, we provide “content to go” for blogs, newsletter articles and social media.