Many B2B marketers don’t try blogging it because it is hard.
There’re too many moving parts. When they do try it, it is sometimes with the wrong resources. Great blogs you can guide your customers along their journey. Why is this blogging activity important for you? There are three key reasons.
3 Ways B2B Blogging Works
1. Provides a Competitive Advantage
Many businesses and thought leaders do not integrate blogging into their marketing mix, which is a gap opportunity. Why wouldn’t you if, as HubSpot reports, that blogging companies get 97% more inbound links (vs. non-blogging companies)? Web pages are also indexed 434% more, so these are two ways to create a competitive advantage. For instance, when I was planning for our Phoenix vacation, I did several Google searches on “What to do in Phoenix in November” and “what to do in Phoenix if I only have 2 days”. All that I found was several old posts! Whether you are part of a B2B or B2C company, blogging can drive more visits to your web or social media site than your competition, giving you an edge.
2. Flexes to Native Buying Behavior
People are changing how they buy, relying partly on online search. A recent Fleishman-Hillard report notes that 89% of all customers turn to a search engine to find information on products, services, or businesses before making purchases. Another DAC Group report indicates that 71% of enterprise purchase decisions in the United States begin with research conducted on a search engine. Blogs are a key content destination that these search results can point to!
3. Establishes an Always-On Connection
Since there is downtime time to do buying research, a blog is a critical way to be always on. Hubspot states that more people in 2011 found blogging to be a critical part of their marketing tool kit than in 2010. Blogging enables you to have an always-on connection with your customers and prospect, providing them focused and customer-centric content instead of sales information.
5 Ways to Leverage B2B Blogging
I propose there are five ways to leverage blogging for your business.
1. Rise above the clutter. With the percentage of businesses using blogging diminishing (due to scaling and resources), it’s a great way to rise above the bombarding emails that have a decreasing clicks-through rate, non-relevant promotional tweets, and unsearchable Facebook posts that do not break through your customers’ news feeds.
2. Become a trusted resource. By focusing on single customer-focused issues with each blog post and avoiding overt selling, you can build yourself up as a trusted resource.
3. Articulate your differentiation or relevance. Blogs are a critical tool if your business needs to articulate a key point since it allows you to lay out your ideas in straightforward, graphically appealing ways (perhaps like this blog post?) Articulation does not mean spelling out why YOU are better than THEM. Rather it allows you to point out the key differences of big considerations that indirectly point to your business as a solution.
4. Access to online reviews or tribal input. Yelp! and Facebook are the big brand and small business competition equalizers. However, it appears that very few businesses encourage posting, hoping that it just happens! Businesses should be encouraging checking in, Yelping! and using blog posts to get the tribe to share. Even if it’s bad sharing, it lets you authentically engage.
5. Invite conversation. The commenting component of blogging is the key to enabling g customer conversation. When you keep your blogs simple and informative, and inviting, you can seed the conversation. For example, a blog by the Arizona Biltmore, where I stayed one time while in Phoenix, could cover a range of corporate meeting planning and romantic getaway ideas to how to get your exercise workout in a while staying on property. I can imagine many questions being asked, and the answers are … Conversation! And, this is a great source of ongoing sustainable content! I am happy to answer your questions and start a conversation with you about leveraging a blog for your business. Please contact me directly or comment below. Reach me at gerry@marketingthink.com.
