This is a guest post by Maddy Osman
You’ve probably heard that keeping a blog is an excellent way to help build and reinforce your own personal brand, or your company’s brand and I’m here to tell you… that’s 150% true.
I can see you rolling your eyes. There’s hardly enough time to get your basic responsibilities done on any giving day, why would you add in one more large project that needs some level of consistency and a lot of promotion to be successful?
Here are 5 main reason you should be blogging to build your brand:
A BLOG IS AN IMPORTANT SIGNAL OF EXPERTISE
Most clients who land on your website, or are referred to you need to be sold on the fact that you have the expertise they need to solve their specific problem.
A better medium for communicating expertise is by starting a blog for your brand and regularly creating blog content, that you host on your website.
A few types of blog content that will help you convey your expertise are:
1. Client case studies (with permission of course)
2. Commentary on hot topics
3. How-to guides (like this!)
4. General company updates
Think creatively and take a look at your competition for more ideas. Use them for inspiration – but DON’T copy them outright!
USE A BLOG TO ATTRACT YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
Another extremely useful way to utilize a blog is to answer customer questions and show them that you’re a great resource for other related topics. I explore this topic in depth on Nick Westergaard’s Brand Driven Digital Podcast.
Find your community/target customers in groups on platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn and Q&A forums like Quora. You’ll start noticing patterns in terms of questions asked, which you can turn into valuable free blog content.
The sooner you define your audience, the better off you’ll be. But there’s a light at the end of the tunnel as Brent proves. He’s been able to repurpose a lot of his content (one post at a time) to suit his newly defined audience, which he breaks down in this post as well.
Besides sharing your answers with potential customers, these posts will also help you with SEO on your website. Having a blog that you’re regularly posting on means that Google will visit your page more often and recommend your website in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) more often than someone who doesn’t update as consistently.
Take it a step farther and make sure that you’re researching specific topics and keywords that attract the right kind of clients or readers. Think about how your supporting keywords signal different kinds of intent – whether it’s information seeking or even someone who’s ready to buy (or subscribe).
KEYWORD RESEARCH:
Another best practice in keyword research is to not compete for the highest-competition phrases. Utilize long-tail keywords to zero in on something you actually have a chance of ranking first for. Google’s free Keyword Planner tool is a great place to start for keyword research, including comparisons of expected monthly search volume and competition for specific phrases.
USE A BLOG TO HELP YOU BUILD RELATIONSHIPS
Some bloggers take the unfortunate stance of trying to compete with each other, but top bloggers know that there’s a lot more power in sticking together and supporting each other. Having a blog is a great way to connect with other industry experts, feature them on your platform, and potentially receive an invitation to be featured on their own channels.
A win-win situation for a lot of people is guest posting. Either you can opt to accept guest posts on your website, or someone may opt to feature your content on their website {hint, hint, like I’m doing on Dre’s piece of blog real estate}. This is certainly another layer of work and time, but think of it as a chance to take advantage of each other’s existing readers. As such, make sure you know exactly what value you can add. Nobody will want your content if it sucks, or if you can’t pitch it to them in a way that makes sense for their audience.
So do your research before attempting to guest post for someone else. Likewise, the promise of free content from someone else may be a trojan horse. Create some brand standards and blog guidelines and only accept the highest quality of content. By putting it on your blog, you’re in essence endorsing whatever it is, so guest post with caution.
There are many different ways to go about this, but the best advice I can give you is to be proactive in trying to make connections and be open to different kinds of partnerships. Trust me, this technique works when done right, in fact, it’s been the secret to my brand growth and success!
ADDITIONAL GUEST POSTING RESOURCE:
An additional resource for guest posting best practices is blogger Jon Morrow. He offers a popular Guest Blogging certification program that combines lessons with valuable feedback.
USE A BLOG TO DIRECTLY CREATE CONVERSIONS
Ask yourself…
1. What’s the goal of my post? Every post should have ONE!
2. Are you trying to educate people on a specific topic?
3. Are you trying to get people to sign up for your email list?
4. Do you want to direct them to a contact form or to purchase a product?
The important thing to note is that a well-written blog post with a clear goal and call to action can actually create direct conversions and help you accomplish your goal.
The Nectar Collective is an often-referenced concept of a brand (solopreneur Melyssa Griffin) who gives away a lot of free content that results in tens of thousands of dollars worth of conversions.
You’ll also notice on Dre’s blog that she frequently offers content upgrades that lead back to her email list – which is a savvy way to ensure that visitors continue to hear from her!
USE A BLOG TO INCREASE YOUR SOCIAL REACH
As great as a blog has the potential to be for your brand, it’s just an island without proper promotion. Make sure that for every new post you write, you implement a consistent promotional strategy that puts your post in front of your potential clients, and those that can help you share your post to potential clients.
Here are a few ideas to help you do just that:
1. Add each new post to your email signature {Wisestamp is great for automatically doing this}
2. Share on each of your social channels, and pin it to your profile on Twitter and Facebook
3. Share in groups you’re a part of {Keeping the group’s self-promotion rules in mind}. Dre’s Facebook group, The Badass Solopreneur Society, offers a Wednesday ‘Promo Propel’ thread that’s perfect for this! Just make sure to give just as much as you take and help others on the thread.
After a while, you’ll develop your own understanding of what works and what doesn’t for your brand, so don’t be afraid to test things out. Make sure to check your Google Analytics periodically to help you determine what’s working and what’s not.
WRAP UP
A blog is what you make of it. If you put the minimal effort into content creation and consistent posting, you’re wasting your efforts.
Here are a few guidelines and ideas to help you stand out and communicate the RIGHT things to potential customers:
Post a minimum of twice a month from a consistency standpoint. Even better is once a week. If you can post more often without sacrificing other important work activities, it doesn’t hurt. Use your extra posts to post on another blog (like this one!) as a guest blogger.
Write a minimum of 500 words per post. 1,000 is much better. 1,500 means you’re not messing around and put a lot of time and effort into making sure it’s HIGH quality. Anything less than 500 words is not worth it, unless you’re trying to respond to something in the news on an especially timely matter.
Don’t blog about a topic that’s been done to death. Find a unique perspective and use a unique voice in everything you write. There’s enough content on the internet – what can you do to add value to what’s already been said again and again?
Use proper formatting. In general, lots of white space and bullet points make a post easily scannable for the reader who finds it hard to pay attention (aka, everyone). Use separate sub topics and separate ideas with different headings.
If you don’t have a blog yet, you have a lot to think about. If you have a blog but aren’t consistent, hopefully this is the kick in the ass you need to get into gear. And if you’re already a badass blogger, hats off to you!
What will you do in the next week to use your blog to build your brand?
Maddy Osman is a digital marketer who has a passion for blogging. If you’re interested in learning how to be more effective with your own blog, check out her website. Signing up for her email newsletter will get you instant access to “The Essential Blog Post SEO Checklist!”