Does Your Business Need a Blog?

As a B2B company, you may not think a blog will do your marketing efforts any good. Who has the time to read blogs when shopping for a new vendor? Well, you couldn’t be more wrong. In the 2016 B2B Content Marketing Benchmark report from Content Marketing Institute, blogging is reported as the third most used marketing tactic at 81 percent (after social media and case studies). In addition, marketers report blogs have become more effective over the past year and now give them something their customers can subscribe to.

5 Ways a Blog Benefits Your Company Website

1. Blogs increase SEO power and can help improve your website’s search ranking. Make sure you link relevant keywords and follow keyword best practices.
2. Many customers come to your website to be educated. They want informative content that offers solutions to their problems and helps them in their decision-making process.
3. Blogging about industry trends shows the B2B world (your current and potential clients) you are an expert in your field and aware of changes in the marketplace.
4. You need fodder for your social media campaigns.
5. Blogs add depth to your website. Otherwise, it may seem to be nothing more than a price list or a brochure.

Need more reasons to blog?

1. Blogging is cheap! Try having some employees blog for your business. Blogging can help them learn more about your products and services. Blogging can also help salespeople craft a better pitch for their sales meetings.
2. Blogging gets prospective clients to come to your business website more often and spend more time there. The more a prospect explores your website and what you have to offer, the more interested he or she will be in purchasing your products or services.
3. Make sure at the end of a blog, you offer clients the ability to comment, ask questions, or request more information. Encourage discussion by ending your blog with an appeal for opinions. Build a community and accumulate more leads by blogging about topics important to your business and industry.

Some B2B blogs can be dry. HubSpot shares nine helpful tips for making your blog interesting:

1. Use your industry’s jargon appropriately and knowledgably. Your buyers will know what you mean and will feel like you’re one of them.
2. Go deep and speak the geek. Don’t dumb it down! Write at their professional level.
3. Make predictions. Predictive blogs generate lots of sharing activity.
4. Get to the bottom line (which is almost always cost savings).
5. Be an expert. If you outsource your content, make sure the writer is an expert.
6. Create case studies with lots of data, information, technique processes, and tutorials.
7. Ask yourself if the content has a takeaway that will impact the readers.
8. Everyone loves data, so give them lots of it.
9. Be direct—say what you need to say. Don’t go on tangents.