The Found Gen

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Why Blogging Should Be the Focal Point of Your 2022 Marketing Plan

You’ve heard the saying, “a blog a day keeps the SEO Ninjas away.” Okay, so maybe it’s not quite like that but blogging is the healthiest thing you can do for your business’s marketing strategy.  

Over ten years ago when we formed The Found Gen, it was commonplace to have to explain to businesses why a blog was an important factor in their overall marketing strategy. Most people simply thought of a blog as a daily diary for bored adults who liked to overshare. 

Today, blogs have become more widely accepted and used on most business websites across the globe. And yet… businesses are still not taking the practice seriously as a main driver of potential new clients and revenue.

In fact, many businesses will spend more money (and we mean boat loads more) on social media management and ad buys than they will in original blog content. 

The genuine misinformation campaign on behalf of social platforms as to their effectiveness for businesses, along with the immediacy of a live feed, causes businesses to mis-align their marketing budget and priorities year after year. 

The Skinny on Blogging

When it comes to the digital landscape there are only two things your business can control: your website and your email list. That’s why both are the most valuable parcels you have online. 

Every time you publish a new, original blog post you are essentially adding a new page to your website. Ideally, your blogs are rife with pertinent information that your potential customers are looking for – or better yet – Googling. Every 28 days or so, Google crawls the entire internet. All of it. In that time period, if you have added more original content and pages to your website, Google logs it. They note that you have an active site that is providing valuable information. If you continue to provide answers that people are typing into Google’s search bar – then Google will start to note that it can turn to your site as a place to provide its users with valuable information. The longer readers are on your site, the more blogs they read – Google notices. And Google rewards. 

The Real SEO

Blogging is the best SEO you can do for your website. You control it. You manage it. You own it. You are also not paying some “SEO Ninja” or company thousands of dollars to do something to your site that they can’t explain transparently – and eventually hold your site hostage. 

Editor’s Note: This is really a sad story we hear regularly. If you are paying a company to manage your SEO but they have full control of your site and aren’t being direct in answering what they are up to – give us a call today. Friends don’t let friends spend money for nothing. 

By having a robust blog strategy, you are able to cultivate a strong presence online where you (bonus!) provide great information to potential clients who are more ready to buy or hire you from the start. If you have an SEO strategy in place but aren’t blogging, you don’t have an SEO strategy. 

How to Blog in 2022 

This year, when you’re developing your marketing strategy be sure to add blogging. We always recommend starting with four blogs a month, or one a week. If you’re already blogging that much – great! – now up your game, try six or eight blogs each month.

If blogging is too time-consuming and not something you are able to handle on your own – consider outsourcing to experienced professional content writers. This is key. Don’t just hire someone on Fiver or your best friend’s cousin’s nephew. Content writing is an art form. Content writing for business is a whole different ball of wax. 

Find a team of professional writers and marketers who research your company, your industry, your tone, your audience, your information and more. And honestly, spoiler alert: you’ve just found one. Get in touch with our team today if you’re ready to start blogging for your business. 

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Social, Blogging, Email – Oh My

You have about 1,001 things to do for your business. We get it. You’ve got orders to fill, clients’ demands to meet, emails to respond to and make sure you don’t forget to eat all day.

Multitasking is just the beginning of your business juggling act.

And then you’ve got the content to create, post and coordinate in a seamless content marketing plan. How can you possibly make it all work?

Well, no one ever said running a business was easy, but we have some tips that will make your content campaign run a little smoother and more effective. And, most importantly, lighten your workload.

How’s your content marketing plan, really?

What’s your content achieving without an overarching strategy to create and disseminate your message? It’s time to take a good, hard look at your content marketing plan. Answer some of these questions about your mission and goals: Who is your target audience? What content and what platforms will you use to reach them? What problems are you solving for your target audience?

Then you need a way to measure your success. Set your key performance indicators (KPIs) to gain evaluative measurements on how your strategy is performing.

Lastly, you need to know where to place that great content to get the best results. Find out where your customers are. Think strategically and identify the channels and resources available to you to best amplify your content.

Outsource

The most important thing you can do to take some of the weight off of your shoulders is to outsource. There are literally thousands of companies and individuals that specialize in content generation and meeting your marketing needs. Of course, finding the right content marketing strategist can be easier said than done.

You need to find someone who can speak in your brand’s voice, understand your industry and write content that provides provide value. When content provides value, it doesn’t feel like a marketing ploy. It’s communicating authentically, building trust along the way. And people do business with people they trust.

Unless you have the time available to create all your business’s content (which is full-time job and then some), you should absolutely, unequivocally outsource your content creation.

Schedule it out

Got a content calendar? You better. Without a detailed and fully fleshed out content calendar, you’re essentially tossing your content into the void and hoping for the best. You’re running the risk of wasting all your content with haphazard scheduling. Plus, you’re making the management of your entire strategy more difficult than it needs be.

A content calendar creates organization, consistency and quality, plus it gives you a way to further improve your strategy through metrics. You can better predict the seasonality and trends of your industry and set your business up for long-term success.

Synchronize

A content calendar will help a ton with coordinating your various content marketing campaigns by fostering an underlying strategy of synchronizing your content. Blogs can build off of each other and create a system for internal links that are great for SEO and keep the customers spending time on your site. Your social campaign can be fueled by your blogs and vice versa. Newsletters and blogs can boost and add to each other’s content. All those blogs you’re writing could build up to an eBook, case studies or white papers.

Creating all this content in a vacuum is not effective. Let your content come together to create an overarching strategy. This saves time and makes for a more effective campaign.

Sometimes managing your content can feel overwhelming. Take it off your plate. You have more important things to do. You should be focusing on the things that you do best, the things that bring you joy.

Let us help you create a content marketing strategy and manage all your content. You’ll breathe easier knowing that your content is in caring and professional hands. And you’ll free up time to focus on building up other aspects of your business.

Let us show you how we can help.

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What Type of Content Is Best Suited for Your Business?

We’ve said it once, we’ll say it again (and probably 1,000 more times): Content is king.

Your business needs content like fish need water. Content in an essential component to business these days – any and all types of business.

But with all these forms of content, how do you know what’s going to work best for your business?

It’s a great question with no simple answer. But you can start answering this questioning by knowing your customers.

Who is your content for?

Start with the who. Who are your customers? Get to know them inside and out, not just the demographics and numbers, but the psychographics, the studies, the research, and, perhaps most important, the things you can only learn by speaking with an actual human being.

Then move on to the what. What are your customers searching for on Google? What are they interested in? What do they need to know more about? What are their pain points and what solutions can you offer?

Next, the where. Where are your customers going for information, to meet their needs or for entertainment? Are they on LinkedIn or Instagram? Are they looking local? Are they searching on Google or do they rely on referrals?

Now, the how. This may be the most important question to ask in order to determine what type of content will work for your audience. How are they accessing information – laptop, phone, tablet, word of mouth? How do they best consume information? How do they prefer to interact with brands?

Getting to know your customers is the majority of the work in determining the content that will best reach them. Without thorough and accurate knowledge of your clientele, your content marketing plan doesn’t have the bones to hold up your body of content (gross image, we know, but hopefully it sticks).

Types of content

Content is the art of communicating directly with your audience. Do it right and you get people to read and view your content, derive some kind of benefit from it, then eventually give you their business. That’s the big idea, but to do that you need great content and you need to make sure it’s the right type of content for your customers.

Here’s a breakdown of the top forms of content and how they might work for different types of customers and businesses.

Blogs

Blogs can improve your SEO, drive traffic to your site and provide useful information that speaks directly to your customers’ needs. They’re a great way to build authority and trust and you can use the content from blogs in other types of content marketing. If you had to pick one type of content for your business, blogging would probably be it.

Videos

Video is quickly overtaking other forms of content as consumers’ preferred way to learn about and engage with brands. Videos can be used across platforms so they’re an incredibly versatile form of marketing. To sweeten the deal, videos are easier to create than ever. Our phones come equipped with high quality cameras and software to create videos, plus there are tons of cheap or free apps to help you create great video.

Interactive content

Interactive content is one of the best ways to improve engagement. Try out interactive content to get your customers to respond to your posts and even gain valuable information about them. Use polls, quizzes, lists, interactive maps and more to create excitement and interaction.

Infographics

Who doesn’t love a good infographic? You get a whole boatload of information in a fun, engaging, visual representation. Infographics are great for trying to educate your audience, present a complicated subject or present statistics. Since the brain processes visual information faster than text and many people are visual learners, infographics are a great way to get your message across.

Webinars and online courses

If you have valuable information to offer your audience webinars and online courses are a great way to demonstrate your expertise and even create a new form to monetize your knowledge.

White papers

One of the best forms of B2B marketing, white papers are a great way to stand out as a thought leader in your industry, gain more respect and create a lead magnet. Since white papers tend to be more [information dense and data driven,] you need to know that this is something your customers are looking for before you invest.

Case studies

Case studies are one of the best forms of content for conversion. If you have a great product or service and a strong history of success and satisfied clients, case studies could be right for your business. Another great thing about case studies is that they can convert into other forms of content marketing too.

Once you’re making the right content – then you can move on to how to distribute that content (social, email, etc). Content marketing is one of the best ways to foster organic growth for your business. But before you go gung-ho on your content, make sure you’ve got a killer content marketing plan and a trusty content calendar.

Go forth and create content!

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What’s Your Year Look Like In Blogs?

Get much blogging done in 2020?

Sorry, we’re not trying to reopen old wounds. It’s a real question. Some businesses took the opportunities of last year as a time to focus on content creation. Other businesses were barely able to cope with the consequences of COVID and a year that felt like it was ushering in the apocalypse.

We know how difficult last year was, we’re not trying to downplay it all (trust us, we were in the thick of the nightmare too!). But our businesses must continue if we’re going to keep putting food on the table. The show must go on and your business must continue to create content to drive traffic.

There’s an old saying “When fishermen can’t go to sea, they mend their nets.” For many businesses those nets are blogs. Whether 2020 was a great year for your blogging and content creation or a year that you are actively trying to blot out of your memory, it’s worth taking a look at your year in blogs so that you can be your best blogging self in 2021.

Why you need blogs

If you’re still on the fence about blogging, we’re just going to be point blank with you: your business needs blogs, no question, no follow-up comments.

Here are the main reasons why.

SEO: search engines are the real power brokers in business these days. If you’re not getting found on search engines, you’re not getting found. There’s still plenty of room for referrals, word of mouth and other age-old avenues for stirring up business. But without great SEO, you will struggle to keep up in 2021 and for the foreseeable future. Blogs are one of the best ways to boost your SEO.

Giving the people what they want: Consumers aren’t interested in traditional ads anymore. They’re sick and tired of being harassed and manipulated and they’re getting savvier. Consumers want to learn about brands from content. They want solid information to answer their questions. If you provide this for them, they will be more likely to trust your brand and become loyal customers.

Capturing and converting leads: 67% more leads monthly. Interested? And when those leads read your blog and begin to trust you and look to you as the expert they inherently build loyalty to your brand. Loyal consumers are ready to become converted leads.

A shareable content creation machine: Blogs are mines of information and marketing content for all of your content strategies across all platforms. You can link to blogs in posts to drive traffic to your website and you can mine your blogs for quotes, pictures, videos and other valuable content. By creating a blog you are creating content for all of your platforms.

Blogging to-dos for 2021

So, now that you’re chomping at the bit to get your blog on, make sure you’re studying up on how to write an effective blog for your audience. On that note, make sure you know who your audience is, inside and out.

Also, don’t forget to build a content calendar to make sure your blogs are consistent and quality.

Take a look at the previous year(s) in blogging and notice what got the most hits and responses. This is a good indication of how to fashion your content to meet your audience’s needs.

Lastly, make sure you’re doing your research. You need to thoroughly research your audience to know what topics they want information on, then you need to comprehensively research those topics.

Ready to blog? You got this!

And if you have any questions or are looking for some blogging savvy, you know where to find us.

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The Best Types of Lead-Generating Content and Why You Need Them: Offer something valuable to potential customers in exchange for their contact information

Drumming up new business is both a complicated and delicate task. You don’t want to be too aggressive in your approach, but you also want to reach people in a way that leads them to engage with your products or services.

Generating leads is one of the ways that content is king. You just have to create the right type of content and use it to target potential customers.

What Is Lead-Generation Content?

A lead-generation content strategy asks people for their email address or other contact information in exchange for a valuable piece of content. While your blogs may be available online for free, lead-generation content is something special that people are willing to pay for in a sense. And, it lets you create a valuable list of potential leads.

There are many types of lead-generation content, but here’s an overview of the types that are most effective and why you should be using them:

eBooks

eBooks are one of the top ways of capturing leads. Though they take time to create, eBooks let you educate potential leads, show off your expertise, gain credibility, and capture leads in the sales funnel—i.e., you can capture email addresses and other contact information while people are searching for your product or service. Always choose topics that provide valuable information and that inspire people to contact you.

Case Studies

Case studies tell stories that focus on you and how you’ve solved a problem for your customers. They effectively showcase why you’re an asset and what you can do. Case studies are highly valuable because they turn readers into customers.

Cheat Sheets and Checklists

Cheat sheets and checklists are examples of short pieces of content that provide valuable information that people can use for future reference. People can print out or save this content as a quick guide, and they are usually extremely willing to give you contact information to get them.

White Papers

White papers work because they let you expound on a topic that you know a lot about and provide useful information surrounding the subject. You can also include a call to action so that people will get in touch with you.

Creating a lead-generation strategy takes careful planning. Let The Found Gen help you create a plan and determine the type of lead-generation content that will work best for you. Get in touch today.