Every one of our clients wants a news or blog section on their website, and so they should!
There are major advantages to these if you manage them right. For example, B2B companies enjoy 67% more leads when they use a blog than when they don’t. It gives a reason for potential customers to spend time on your website and get a feel for the type of company you are.
Also, Google rates your website on its content and how often it’s updated. In short, the more valuable content you publish, the quicker you will get to the top of Google rankings organically.
On the downside, a neglected blog can do more damage than good, making your site look out of date.
So, you must keep your blog up-to-date. But writing interesting articles requires time and a lot of effort, both of which are often in short supply.
Even at Crush we are occasionally guilty of failing to post a blog from time to time when client deadlines dampen our writing inspiration.
So whether you are unsure of what to write or a pro that is short on time here are a few tips to make the blog-writing task a little less challenging.
What do I publish?
There is a simple rule in content marketing called the rule of thirds. The rule divides content into three categories; personality, promotional and industry content.
“Personality content” is content that highlights your business’ personality. It can be stories about your employees, what the company has been up to and your corporate social responsibilities.
“Promotional content” is content that promotes your company’s products and services. Be careful – this should not be a sales pitch. A good example is a recent article we published called “5 Reasons Why You Should Hire a PPC Expert”. Crush published this because we have a Search Marketing team who specialise in PPC, and we wanted to promote this.
By “industry content” we mean industry news, facts, figures and general valuable content.
The idea is that you try and publish the same amount of content for each category.
How often should I publish?
There is no golden rule here, depends or how competitive your sector is. If possible a couple of articles a month and if you can post an article a week that’s even better. But ‘to lose one month may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.’
How long should my post be?
Again, there is no rule. Not all posts need to be the same length
Readers spend an average of 37 seconds reading a blog post or news article, yet the longer posts generate 9x more leads than the shorter ones.
Even more undecided?
If you have truly valuable content that will keep readers interested, then go long. Try and be the exception to the 37 seconds rule!
Anything else?
Yes, always include imagery if you can. Images make a post, especially a longer one, more appealing to read.
If you don’t have a photo to hand stock photography is a good option.
Click here for a list of 7 places to find free, legal images.
We can help
Are you concerned your digital marketing effort is falling short?
Crush offer an easy pick-and-mix marketing package approach to support our clients’ marketing needs.
You choose what you want;
• Blog writing
• Website updates
• SEO / PPC / Adwords / Analytics
• Email marketing
• Social Media
And leave the rest to us!
Contact us for more information.