Who Needs the BBB?
Most people associate BBB with the Better Business Bureau, but BBB can also stand for business blogging benefits and may not be top of mind for some marketers.
Why?
Done well, blogging can deliver and increase traffic to a brand’s website. It can also help to convert that traffic into leads, demonstrate expertise, drive long-term results, and enhance customer relationships. Like social media, emails, and direct mail, it’s another important marketing channel that supports the growth of a brand and shouldn’t be dismissed or overlooked.
Increasing Traffic
Every blog that’s written affords the brand another opportunity to be discovered in search engines. It’s also content that can and should be shared to potential new audiences on social media platforms. And since blogs are generally written more frequently than websites are updated, it’s more SEO and a signal to Google and other search engines that there’s new content available.
Converting Traffic into Leads
By adding lead-generating calls to action for freebies like eBooks, case studies, white papers, free webinars, and videos, the blog creates invaluable leads. These leads, of course, can lead to sales.
Demonstrating Expertise
The best way to demonstrate expertise with consumers is to answer questions that are top-of-mind with them. Consumers recognize brands that are willing to share content to educate and resolve their issues as authorities. Home improvement and arts and crafts stores that show videos, put on demonstrations, and publish blogs are examples of the expertise they attempt to share with their audiences.
What consumer wouldn’t patronize that merchant after such a display of proficiency? If the blogs become extremely popular, others may also perceive the brand as an industry leader. Wouldn’t that be a plus?
A secondary benefit of blogs is that they can also be a resource for the brand’s sales staff. Salespeople encountering a question demanding a difficult or in-depth answer might find the answers in some of the same blogs.
Long-Term Results
Blog posts are like the continually rising tide. As long as the content is relevant and not outdated, they will continue to rise in search engine rankings. According to HubSpot, about 70% of traffic comes from previously published blogs, which, in turn, continue to generate leads. HubSpot calls these “compounding blog posts” and disclosed that 90% of their leads come from these blogs published weeks and, sometimes, years ago.
Customer Relationships
The common link with all the reasons listed is that blogging also builds and enhances relationships with customers. All these displays of knowledge and expertise reinforce the brand’s position as an expert in its field, and help to build consumer loyalty and trust.
Maintenance
As blogs begin to accumulate on a brand’s site, have someone knowledgeable on staff periodically check to see that the content is still relevant and useful. Those that aren’t should either be deleted or updated to avoid the possibility that some consumers will take the advice, only to discover that it’s no longer valid. Those are the kind of comments no marketer wishes to see and can result in the loss or decline of trust and confidence by consumers.
Other Benefits
For some brands, blogs may be a way of testing or surveying their market on a new product, event, or idea. And while this shouldn’t be the primary reason for blogging, it could be an alternative to A/B testing.
