“There are two ways to look for someone in the dark; you either shine a light on the person and walk towards them or shine a light on yourself and let the person walk towards you.” Guess what? Performing blog marketing for business growth shines light on you so your audience can see you.
Interesting, right?
The world seems to be evolving daily, with literally everyone intending to become an entrepreneur, own a personal brand and bring in big bucks!
Owning a brand may come easy, but growing it takes a lot of intentionality and strategies. Gradually, blog marketing is becoming a breakthrough marketing strategy for every business owner in this century.
As a business owner, you must understand that businesses don’t grow accidentally, especially in their early stages. You as a business owner take intentional steps to ensure the growth of your brand.
It is safe to say that for a business to grow, deliberate growth strategies are implemented to ensure the company is moving in the right direction.
READ THIS: 9 Alarming Blogging Challenges and how to overcome them – Blogging in Africa
If you have a small business or want to scale up your startup, then this subject of business growth is relevant for you. Mind you; this post isn’t the usual craft of a story or a post on a blog piece you see on the internet; this blog post is a well-researched and thought-out piece.
You are probably at that stage where you understand that you need to count your steps and weigh your options.
This is where measuring brand growth comes into the picture. Measuring brand growth can include increased income, increased visibility, increased brand engagement, increased reach/awareness, among others. Still, the goal is to reach more people and bring in more money.
There are several growth strategies you can implement for your brand, including social media marketing, reputation management, video marketing, partnership, paid media, blog marketing, brand awareness, and so much more, but for today, we will be talking more about blog marketing and how it affects your brand growth.
What is blog marketing?
Blog marketing is simply a content marketing strategy that uses the blog channel to address potential customers’ needs directly and individually, thus achieving brand trust and customer loyalty.
Some also refer to blog marketing as business blogging, but they are two different words.
Business blogging is the use of a blog to promote a business. But, the goal of each is to market your product/service to your target audience and increase your income, brand awareness, and customer base in return.
In blog marketing, it is not about creating generic content; the goal is to create helpful content for your audience and gain their trust via blogging.
Safe to say, the contents that might work for brand A and its audience might not work for brand B and its audience.
Over the years, blogging has evolved from a pen scheme to a marketing and growth scheme, making business owners see reasons to add it to their business growth model. With blogging having grown over time, many people have made and created businesses from blogging all on their own. Examples are lifestyle bloggers, food bloggers, travel bloggers, blogging coaches, business bloggers, etc.
The more advanced a country is, the easier it becomes to earn from blogging as well. In some countries, bloggers face various limitations, as seen in our recent blog post, but some still find a way to move away from the disadvantages and focus on the advantages.
With the incorporation of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies, blogging is a powerful business marketing tool and not a waste of time as some see it.
In recent times, research shows that more brands are leaning towards the blog marketing strategy to grow.
Why is this?
Because they now understand where their audience is and how they search for what they need, aka SEO & Keyword search.
Gone are the days when brands rely on social media marketing to grow their brand; these days, blog marketing is topping the charts, especially for startups and even global brands.
However, note your brand goals and defined objectives before choosing blog marketing as your strategy.
At the initial stage of blog marketing, it is vital to draft your marketing plans before jumping straight to implementation. When you have your marketing plans; then you integrate your content into the marketing plans. By doing this, you’ve done a thorough research on what your audience needs, how to attend to their needs and you are sure to see RESULTS!
What then is a business growth model?
A business growth model is a strategic and practical action plan a company or business must develop to grow, remain profitable, or even survive.
At different stages of your business development, you need an action plan depending on the business needs.
For example, your business growth model could look like this
- YEAR 1 – Build brand awareness + trust
- YEAR 2 – Increase brand awareness + trust
- YEAR 3 – Launch products/services
- YEAR 4 – Business growth take-off
- YEAR 5 – Keep building brand trust, influence, and income
There is usually a dependence on marketing strategies in most growth model strategies because the marketing sales funnel is activated during the process. You shouldn’t begin selling if your business can’t be trusted or you aren’t sure if it’s trusted.
For every step of your business growth model, you need blog marketing, With your blog, you create content that shows your audience how much of an expert you are and how much you care about their needs hence building trust and brand awareness.
Once you’ve built trust, you can then begin to SELL.
And, if you don’t market your product or services, people won’t even know about them, and the sales channels you have put in place won’t be activated.
The goal is to boost your business’s revenue with an excellent product launch, sales, and profitability achieved by maintaining costs hence the vitality of blog marketing.
I know you might be wondering what the huge deal is about blog marketing and why I am causing such a stir.
Take a look at these five shocking reasons why blog marketing is essential in your business growth model as a brand/business owner.
Importance of blog marketing in your business growth model.
- It creates an avenue for increased revenue: With blog marketing, you can explore different avenues to generate extra revenue for your business or brand aside from your main products. This can be through promoting products from other business in your industry, affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, etc.
In addition, you also increase your brand and product by promoting your products/services through your blog posts and SEO incorporated blog marketing. Either way, your blog is gaining visibility, which increases your revenue if appropriately managed.
- It positions your business as an authority in your industry: When you incorporate blog marketing into your brand growth model, it sets your business as an authority, i.e., a thought leader in your industry. You gain client trust in the process, and soon, your business becomes the go-to brand for ideas in your industry for potential clients and existing clients. Anything you say or do becomes a model for others. Little secret: customers prefer experts who have proof of their expertise.
- It drives traffic to your website: If your website is your major sales funnel, let’s say you operate an e-commerce store, then you need a blog marketing strategy ASAP. One good thing about this is that the traffic you get on your website is also felt on your social media pages if adequately structured. According to inbound marketing experts, Hubspot businesses that blog regularly tend to attract 55% more traffic than those that don’t. Other marketing channels are also activated through blog marketing, such as email, social media, influencer, and paid advertising.
- It helps to build your brand voice: Another great thing blog marketing does for your business growth is that it enables you to discover your brand voice and develop it. Your brand voice is the defined personality your brand takes on in its communication. Simply put, it is the voice that makes your brand stand out in its unique way. It helps you stand out from the crowd and noise of social media. You discover the tone of your blog as you grow. You also identify your audience and their persona.
- Lastly, it promotes long-term results: If you recall, at the beginning of the benefits of blog marketing, I talked about being placed as an authority in your industry; that happens if you consistently create valuable and educational content for your audience. You will also receive new traffic and leads from your audience for an extended period. Also, prospective clients following your content are indirectly propelled towards the sales funnel with sufficient knowledge of your product and services. This strategy promotes long-term results because your sales channels are activated as long as you remain an authority in your field.
One of the reasons marketers refer to blogging as a long-term game is that one doesn’t see blogging results immediately, but the longer you keep at it, the higher the stability and leads.
You can implement several blog marketing strategies to help grow your brand/business: from guest blogging to email marketing to virtual events. However, each strategy has its challenges but definite results!
To determine which of these blog marketing strategies is compatible with your blog niche and brand voice, you need to consider factors such as preferences, target audience, availability, commitment, and consistency.
You can book a session with Ruth Adeyemi for a more in-depth discussion on the blog marketing strategy that best fits your brand.
You can also read our blog post covering the best blog marketing strategies that will be effective for your business in 2022 (COMING SOON)
