How Blog Articles Help You Get More Customers

Blog articles have evolved from personal online writing to strategic, revenue-producing marketing tools. An effective blog is a long-term, relationship-building tool that focuses on consistently delivering value to the reader, building trust, and improving search rankings. That’s how blog articles help you get more customers.

Here are four reasons why blog articles support your company’s growth, followed by a basic framework for sound blog strategy.

1) Blog Articles Are Helpful

Decades ago, motivational speaker and sales trainer Zig Ziglar said, “Stop selling. Start helping.” He was way ahead of his time.

Rather than selling, blog articles should be used to educate your audience. Share knowledge. Provide insights with takeaways that they can apply to their businesses or lives. Offer real-world examples that help people understand complex or unfamiliar subject matter.

When you publish and share blog articles that focus on helping people, they’ll be much more receptive to what you have to say – and you’ll end up closing more sales.

2) Blog Articles Validate Your Knowledge of Relevant Topics

Blog articles allow you to dig into specific topics in a way you can’t on a static page of your company website. This allows you to position your company and members of your team as experts on issues that are important to your audience.

Answer common customer questions. Share new, relevant research and data. Tell customer success stories. Overcome obstacles to the sale. Debunk myths and misconceptions.

This will give your audience more confidence in your company’s ability to solve their problems and make their lives better or easier.

3) Blog Articles Speak the Language of Your Audience

There is probably a gap between what you know and what your customers know about your company’s solutions and the value you deliver. Blog articles can bridge that gap by explaining relevant topics and issues in terms your audience can understand.

Rather than getting caught up in industry jargon and sounding like a lecture or a company manual, blog articles should have a natural, relatable tone that reflects what a friendly conversation sounds like.

4) Blog Articles Get Google’s Attention

Always write for your audience first, but make sure you optimize for Google search. Search engine optimization (SEO) involves choosing and repeating a main keyword or phrase in your article title, subtitles, and content. Image titles, meta descriptions, alt tags, and other “behind the scenes” components that your audience won’t see can be optimized for Google as well.

Keys to an Effective Blog Strategy

“Strategy” is the most important word here. Companies with a sound blog strategy are much more likely to gain more customers than those that wing it.

Brainstorm topics and create an editorial calendar that tells you what to write about and when to publish. Implement a process and timeline for writing, publishing, and sharing your blog articles via email and social media. Be consistent to create expectations and anticipation with your audience. Track engagement to determine what types of topics and approaches are most effective. Consider outsourcing some of these tasks to a professional to maximize ROI.