What the ‘blog’ are you talking about?
By Gregory Howell, Director of Creative Solutions, RMVI Services and CWCC Member
The old four-letter word in business storytelling is NOT dead.
Companies that blog have 55% more website visitors.
Sharing content on a blog is far superior to other publishing platforms as Facebook and Twitter as it allows you the freedom to truly share your story without restraints like character or formatting limitations. Blogging alone will not transform your business marketing efforts. You must think carefully about what you want to say and create a marketing channel of communication that is well-optimized and promoted, and full of interesting and robust content. Research shows that companies that think through this process and blog 20 or more times per month see the greatest return in traffic and ultimately leads that turn into new clients.
Below are the main reasons why you should have an industry-specific blog for your business:
Frequency Matters: Feed the Crawlers
A powerful blog is a huge asset to your company that will help you in respect to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The more posts you publish, the more indexed pages you make available for the search engine algorithm to crawl and ultimately display in their results. When people go to the internet for answers they “Google It” in hope of finding industry-specific products or services. Your blog will enable you to attract organic (vs. paid) traffic and familiarize people with your business.
Optimize Your Posts
A powerful way to attract more traffic through organic search is by threading industry keywords into your blog. Dig deep and study the words that people enter in search engines as they do research. If you have not already identified the strategic keywords in your industry, stop what you are doing right now and use one of the many free tools available to find out what words people are using to find information about products and services in your industry. One of the most powerful resources to help you identify your industry vocabulary is Google Adwords Research Tool. Once you have a list of words you can begin to tell your story and optimize your blog posts.
The Keyword Post
Now that you have a list of the major keywords used in your industry, start writing blog posts around these terms. Creating new content can often be problematic and exhausting, so this is one of my favorite ways to come up with new subjects to talk about in a blog. If you consistently use keywords, you will find that blogging is a great tool for driving organic search engine traffic.
Be a Thought Leader and Solve your Customers’ Problems with Content
A well thought out and crafted business blog can be a huge asset for your organization as it identifies you as a thought leader and expert in your respective field. Use your blog to keep people informed about trends in your area of interest and you will earn their trust and they will come to you with their questions looking for answers to their questions. This is the best way to make a clear distinction between your brand and that of your competition.
Real Estate for CTAs
Your business blog is an ideal location to place CTAs or calls-to-action to foster greater content engagement. When you start to develop trust from readers of your blog, you want to convert these leads by driving more traffic to your website. The best way to do this is through contextual calls-to-action which can be placed in the sidebar of your blog or by hyperlinking words in your content. You might ask them to download a free guide that you have or invite them to a free webinar. The bottom line is that people love free things. They are more willing to give you their email address in exchange for something that you can offer them easily at the moment and without charge.
A blog is not a one shot deal. You must think long-term if you truly want to bring traffic and leads to your business. You want to be known as a thought leader and expert in your area of specialty as this will be a sure way to earn people’s trust. Do not focus on yourself. Being an expert is not talking about yourself. Use the long form blogging platform as an opportunity to display your creative genius and show your talent and knowledge in a way that helps others answer their questions – this is the most powerful way to gain trust.
RMVI is a world-class network of medical facilities with a multidisciplinary team of professionals on the forefront of technology. Featuring minimally invasive vein disease treatments, RMVI houses a state-of-the-art, full-service and accredited vascular diagnostic lab. The RMVI team is comprised of expertly trained and board certified staff, including a medical concierge dedicated to patient satisfaction. RMVI facilities include the latest in electronic medical record keeping, immediate reports to referring physicians, a teaching site with a sought-after fellowship and modern, soothing designs in every location. Rocky Mountain Vein Institute has locations in Pueblo, Parker, Canon City, and Vail, Colo., as well as the Trinity Vein Institute in Arlington, Texas. Visit www.rmvein.com or telephone 719-966-7684 (RMVI) for further information.
To explore Gregory’s personal projects as a consultant, writer and artist visit:
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