Who’s Playing in the Blog Series?

Who’s Playing in the Blog Series?

Who’s playing in the blog series? Those of us that are inspired or charged to blog know it can be hard work to do it right. We also know how powerful blogging can be for business. Whether you are considering adding a blog to your business or have been blogging for sometime, we believe you will find the insights in this post valuable as you plan for 2020.

Why Blog?

We hear this question often when we recommend creating a blog series. Why blog? Here are five reasons to blog that are important to your business:

1. Blogs boost web traffic with SEO: the search algorithms favor long-form content particularly when you feature preferred keywords and phrases.
2. Blogging builds trust and reinforces the brand: writing and publishing a blog series demonstrates your thought leadership and establishes your authority through properly researched, written and edited content.
3. Blogs are just the right length for your readers: 80% of business decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement.
4. Blogs help create community: readers are searching to be part of a community that is thoughtful and authentic. Blogging is a terrific entry point to building your community.
5. Blogs are terrific lead generators: long-form blog posts generate nine times more leads than short-form posts.

Story Time

Before blog was a word (AKA 1999), I was a member of a team that was creating a custom magazine featuring insights from many different internal and external experts. The team would need to chase down and often corner these contributing writers to get the work done well and on time. We hear this same thing today. People do not have the time to invest in pursuing and acquiring the stories to be told in a blog. We have eliminated this barrier with our Blog Series, a turnkey publishing program of professional journalists interviewing, writing and editing under an editorial calendar created by our clients.

Idea Generator

Product stories remain the staple of building products manufacturers content strategy. While the products are important, there are many more stories of interest to the reader, customers and prospects that should be told. People still buy from people, so stories about the people behind the brand, products and services are interesting and unique to your company. Customers and prospects like to see and read about the success of other customers. Followers want to be a part of something familiar and bigger than them alone. If this is not enough, we have the ability to identify conversations and trends on numerous topics that we can join. Idea generation can be difficult when you are responsible for much more than publishing a blog.

Be Professional

Not everyone is a writer as we can bear witness to in many different platforms. Quality is paramount to success in gaining and retaining a strong following and readership. This is why we work with professional journalists. They have unique skills and experience at interviewing, discovering and building an inspiring story. The content you share online represents your brand for all to see and read for a long time. Quality content is a valuable investment.

Sharing

It is not enough to produce quality content for your blog. It is important to spread the word and build a strong, committed following. Interesting and meaningful content is important. Using preferred keywords and phrases definitely help to get the word out through SEO. Implementing a well-defined hashtag strategy creates connections. It is the length of the blog post that is most telling. Blog content of 1,000 words and more are 56% more likely to be shared than lesser posts. Blog posts of 3,000 words and more are shared 77.2% more than the shorter posts. Size does matter to blog readers and what they share with others.

The Secret

The big secret to a successful blog is consistency in your frequency of publishing. Having the readers know that they will receive great content from your company on a regular, reliable basis makes all the difference in the success of the blog. As a publisher, you are seeking and securing a committed following who will talk about and share with others what you have to say. Consistency in frequency and quality are the keys to your success.

Who’s playing in the blog series? If you are, congratulations! You should be reaping the benefits from your hard work. If you are not, we hope you are encouraged by what you read in our blog today and get started in the new year. Of course, we are here for you to provide our assistance.