Blogging has established itself as an essential B2B content marketing tactic. It has also proven to be one of the most inexpensive yet effective ways to build brand awareness and thought leadership. But, it can be difficult to stand out in the crowd when there are more than 4.4 million blog posts written each day. Don’t let this be discouraging. Consider these three strategies to implement that can increase website traffic and engagement through effective blogging.
Understand What Is Already Working and Resonating
Past blog performance is a great way to understand what’s resonating and find topics that can be explored more. By using analytics software, such as Google Analytics, you can see which blog posts are trending and the most popular. This tells you what blogs the majority of your visitors are coming to your website to read. With this information, you can easily brainstorm additional blog topics related to the most popular blogs to bring these visitors back again and again.
Aside from analyzing the pageviews and visits to blog pages, look at the search terms people used to find your site. This gives details on what they come to your site to consume. If you find there is one topic that is driving more people to your site, consider writing fresh content on that topic or expanding on an existing piece of content. Since your visitors are already searching this term, a supplemental piece of content on the same topic can give them something additional to read and engage with. This is key for effective blogging practices.
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Understand What is Trending in Your Industry
One way to increase the likelihood of content resonating is being one of the first to write on a topic or offering a new perspective on an already trending topic. A good starting point is checking out current trends in your industry. For example, here is an article highlighting current trends in the B2B marketing industry.
What new insights or perspectives can you add to contribute to the conversations and content surrounding the trend? Are there any expert tips to offer that can help users take their understanding and execution of this trend to the next level? Any additional commentary on a current industry trend that continues the conversation can drive traffic and engagement to your website content.
Another avenue to consider is current events. Effective blogging takes advantage of the attention that is already being paid to an event can be a successful way to generate interest in a blog post. The term newsjacking refers to the method of using a current event to place your company into the spotlight. If the timing and topic are appropriate to your product, service or solution, blogs can be a creative way to boost your company and brand into the spotlight.
Understand What is Keeps Your Audiences Engaged
As audiences consume more and more content, they often get fatigued by reading the same text-based blogs over and over. To break through this trend, adding visual content to a blog post increases the engagement of your readers. Something as simple as including one image in a blog can make all of the difference when engaging your audiences. Aside from basic images, are there any other types of images or media elements to embed or add to the blog? Including a graph, a snippet of an infographic or a short video can hold the attention of readers.
Along with images and other media elements, you should also consider how your audiences like to consume blogs. Is it in short, bulleted snippets? Is it in lengthier paragraphs? Is it a mix of both? Whatever interests your reader and keeps them engaged the most should be how you write your blogs. To increase website traffic and engagement, it is instrumental to cater to your audience’s interests as it will ensure they have a positive user experience and take your content as valuable and useful. This happens through effective blogging tactics.
Take Your Content Marketing Efforts to the Next Level
Blogging in B2B marketing has increased significantly over the last decade – 89% of B2B marketers today use blogs in their content marketing strategy. With this trend continuing to hold strong, it’s essential for all businesses to have a blog, publishing consistent, relevant content on a certain cadence. Are you looking to start your blogging efforts or take them to the next level? Check out Marketing Pro Series’ Content Marketing and Strategy Course. This course, equipped with six on-demand courses, four interactive templates and the opportunity for personal coaching sessions, guides you through everything from setting content strategy goals to identifying the right content mix and developing a content calendar. Ready to get started? Register for the course today or contact us with any questions.
