Do I Really Need a Blog in 2023?
Hello! And Welcome to 20 Mile Marketing, or as we like to call it, Veinte Millas Marketing. We talk about a lot of marketing-related things. But today, we are specifically focussing on blogs.
Blogs? What is this, 2004?
No, it’s 2023, but man, that was a good year! Let’s dive in with the basics.
What is a blog?
A blog is a piece of written content written for and published on the web. Blogs can follow a variety of formats, such as essay style or listicle. Blogs can also be written for various reasons: to inform, to entertain, and of course, to express oneself. (Get it, gurl/boy.)
At 20 Mile Marketing, we write blogs to help get our clients’ messages in front of their audience. It’s our fundamental belief that companies and brands have more to offer than their product and service. They have a story that, when positioned properly, can resonate with their audience in a way that produces feelings of connection, identification, humor, and curiosity, to name a few.
Why does it matter how you make your clients feel?
It’s obvious that you want clients to feel positive during personal interactions, but outside of a face-to-face conversation, how does this apply?
If you grew up around a parent or grandparents who liked to rattle off sayings, you may have heard, “people will not remember what you say, but they’ll always remember how you make them feel.” As a small business agency, we know this sentiment to be true – especially since we’re incredibly forgetful. (Joke! This is an example of using humor in a blog.)
Our clients are genuinely fun to talk to and- get this – they’re kind and intelligent. We want to help their audience see them the same way that we do. We want to position our clients as “experts of something” with a distinct personality that resonates with their audience. A blog is a key component in achieving that. Organic and paid social and email marketing are also critical opportunities to let your audience know who you are, why they matter to you, and therefore, why they should care what you have to say.
At 20 Mile, we think it’s particularly empowering to write a blog with personality, because – let’s face it – there are So. Many. Blogs. 4.4 Million blogs are posted online each day. Each day. To make an impact, your content needs to be refreshing, familiar (yet distinct), and valuable.
Blogs put you on the map
While some members of your audience will see your blogs through social media, a newsletter, or by directly visiting your website, there are people out there who would love your company, if only they knew about it. They’re out there right now, being inundated with content that simply doesn’t get them, and is so much noise. When you create blog content around your product or services, it puts you on the search engine map. Yes, we’re talking about SEO.
When we first engaged with one of our clients, they ranked for 21 keywords, many of which were personal names and not particularly in line with their services. After three months of blog services, they now rank for 45 on brand keywords. And we’re watching those numbers and positions increase every single month. Another client who we’ve worked with for several years, ranked for hundreds of keywords at the start of engagement. Now they maintain dozens of top positions for quality keywords that relate to their product.
How do you determine blog topics?
To pick quality blog topics, put yourself in the eyes of your audience. What are they thinking about right now? What’s going on in their lives that you can help them with in some measure today? Another way to approach your blog topics is to narrow in on the words that your potential audience searches for when looking for a product and service exactly like yours. SEO and market research will be a critical part of uncovering those words and phrases.
For example, you may sell rare hybrid bouquets and feel inclined to talk about them any chance you get, but when an individual is in need of a bouquet, what do they actually search for? What moves your clients to order a bouquet? People buy flowers to commemorate romance, sympathy and special occasions. And so, when looking for flowers, they may search: “beautiful bouquet”, “bouquet for loved one”, “sympathy bouquet”.
As a seasoned florist, you love and appreciate the fact that your flowers are rare hybrids, but if that’s the first thing your audience reads about your flowers, they won’t be able to connect. Instead of leading with your favorite feature, meet your audience where they are. Let them find your product in their words. And then, after they’ve read the initial copy and have fallen in love with the pictures of your bouquets, you can throw in the little nugget that, by the way, these flowers are exceptionally rare, one of a kind, and perfect for your loved one. The right time for such comments may be right before the sale, or after the sale in the confirmation message.
Other things to consider
Before writing your blog, you’ll want to consider format, rich media, word count, internal and external links. There are tons of best practices about this on the web. We’ll share ours in our next – you guessed it – blog!
A blog about blogs. Wow, how meta. Not that Meta. You get what we mean.
Want to learn more about marketing solutions and best practices for growing businesses? Let’s talk!
