The Content Conundrum
We don’t make our distaste for industry jargon much of a secret around here. The unfortunate reality is, some terminology just is what it is. Blogging, content, bandwidth, impact. The list goes on. We don’t have control over it. We certainly don’t have control over how people think about it.
For example, the term content has always made me uncomfortable. It feels a bit reductive. “Content” doesn’t feel like apt word for describing something carefully crafted by a professional. It’s pretty vague. Are we talking about copy? Video? Audio? Maybe. Or Maybe not!
But I’m not protesting of the evolution of language. This sort of progression is inevitable. By and large, I welcome it.
What I bristle at is the lack of precision. I want specificity, especially when I’m trying to express the value of something. This is especially true when I’m writing for businesses. Content doesn’t feel specific to me. It feels more synonymous with “stuff” or “things” than it does audio or video.
Despite my personal feelings, there probably isn’t a better term we have to describe one of the most important marketing tactics you have at your disposal. You have a million and one different ways to reach your audience, and each one needs to be filled with something. (Content, to be precise.)
Most importantly, this isn’t about me! This is where we are as a culture. We are content creators. We publish content and consume content. And we all understand what it means. We understand the impact it can have on our businesses when positioned appropriately. High-quality, relevant, useful content is what helps businesses connect with people and communicate their value.
A great content strategy is the reason your customers can find you online. And a central component of that strategy also faces a similar challenge in the terminology department: Blogging.
Why Should Anyone Care About Blogging?
You have so many opportunities to create a unified story for your business: Your website, email and newsletters, social media, paid campaigns, and of course, your blog.
But blogging. It just sounds so…unserious. More like a diary than something that creates significant business impact. The truth, however, is that blogging is an incredibly powerful marketing tool for your business, one that can be used as a cornerstone of your content strategy.
One of the valuable aspects of blogging is how a single blog can be used to create countless pieces of other content.
Content strategy and deployment can be daunting. Many businesses think, “How can we possibly incorporate blogging, social media, and email marketing into our current state of work?” It’s a fair concern. But blogging isn’t an event in and of itself. I like to look at these pieces of content as part of a greater whole.
For instance, you write a 1,200-word blog that you publish to your site. Great! But that’s really just the beginning. Now, take one of the hookiest one or two sentences from that blog, and use it as your Facebook caption that links to your blog.
Turn that 1,200-word blog into a thread of tweets. Use the intro paragraph as an excerpt in your email newsletter. It doesn’t even have to start with blogging! Record a video. Have the audio transcribed. Use the transcription to create your blog. And so on.
Here’s why blogging matters to your brand
- It’s purposely differentiated from your website content — Typically, a website’s service or product pages are designed to generate a specific action, whereas a blog gives the brand an opportunity to stretch out, share deeper information, and speak to a different side of their audience’s intent.
- It helps brands build authority — Speaking of going deep, blogs give brands a space to address an incredibly broad spectrum of topics, from the most general subjects to highly niche, longtail keyword-type queries. The more a brand can express its specialized knowledge, the greater the likelihood that its audience will regard it as an authority.
- It helps create positive brand perceptions — In addition to building authority, simply by being a trusted resource where people can access useful, free-to-access information, you’re establishing positive brand equity. This is a long-term investment. Will you create new customers today with this strategy? Sometimes! That’s why it’s important to see blogging as part of a larger strategy, where each tactic is measured according to its intent. Speaking of…
- It supports a healthier approach to SEO — Here’s why blogging supports your overall SEO strategy. Simply put, search engines scour the internet for what they deem to be useful, authoritative content, and rank websites largely based on their analysis of it. Ideally, sites with keyword-stuffed, duplicate content filled with sketchy links get pushed further down in rankings, whereas sites with relevant, useful, and regularly published content get pushed to the top. Again, ideally. The point is, it’s in any business’s best interest to keep their website filled with fresh content, and typically, the best vehicle for that content is your blog.
More Reasons To Love Blogging for Your Business
- Its data will tell you a lot about your customers — We have a number of clients on our blogging program who are shocked by what resonates with their site visitors. It’s not always what they suspect. This data tells us a few things: One, this topic is meaningful to people. Why don’t we dive even deeper into this subject with more specific content? Or, given its relevance, we could run some paid campaigns on this specific service. Another important thing to consider is how can we apply similar techniques to the blogs that haven’t performed as well? Low performance doesn’t necessarily mean it’s irrelevant. It might. But it might also mean that our approach isn’t the right one.
- It will tell your customers an awful lot about you — Businesses are collections of people, and while they’re typically driven by the mission and vision of its founders, I do think it’s fair to say that a brand’s personality isn’t just one thing. Like people, brands often contain multitudes. When we discussed how we wanted to approach blogging, we created broad categories so that we could write about all of the different things that matter to us, like our approaches to services and creating a healthy work culture, as well as showcasing client work, and even discussing relevant industry trends. There’s a lot that we care about and are thinking about, and I think it’s important to not box yourself in when it comes to how you approach your blog’s topics.
- It gets results — I’m probably burying the lede here, but regularly publishing thoughtful, useful, relevant content will help your website’s visibility online, it will help you connect with customers, and it will help you establish authority while building brand awareness.
When It Comes To Content, Blogging, And Everything Else, Your Audience Comes First
So, maybe getting hung up on a less than descriptive term like blogging doesn’t really matter all that much, especially considering how powerful a tool it’s proven to be. When something works, it works, and in the case of blogging, it indeed works.
Most importantly, my preference doesn’t matter. It’s my responsibility to deliver the right strategic recommendations, not to be pedantic about terminology. Business owners want results. They want their customers to connect with their brands on an emotional level and to choose them amongst all the other choices they could make. The terms don’t matter. The results do.
If you know your customers, what they care about, and how your brand serves them, then you know everything you need to know to get started. So just get started. You’ll be glad you did.
Or, let us help you create great content. Our approach to content creation — copy written by people for people — has helped countless businesses drive more traffic to their websites and generate more customers leads.
If you want more information on blogging and other services that will help your brand reach more customers, then you know where to find us. We’d love to help you achieve your goals!