The Wingman Direct Marketing boutique agency was born in 2019 as a brand refresh from Daigle Direct. Since then, the Wingman crew has endeavoured to writing a regular blog with a lot of informative and entertaining content about many facets of marketing and business in general. We have published over 700 social media posts in that time and we are proud that this blog you are reading now is our 100th blog.
As our 100th blog, we felt it was the perfect opportunity to share with you why writing a regular blog for your business is as important today as it ever has been. In a previous blog, we mentioned the importance of blogs as part of your overall content mix and why we emphatically profess their inclusion in your total online presence strategy.
Writing a regular blog allows you to position your brand in a passive non-intrusive way. The information within provides value and allows you to showcase your company as a subject matter expert. Blogs offer the opportunity for your business to present the amazing work you have done and to add value to those in the decision-making process moving them from knowing you to trusting you and eventually buying from you. In addition, having a blog with content optimized for search engines is an extremely powerful way for getting qualified traffic now and well into the future. But, as an immensely important caveat, when writing a regular blog, you have to do it right. There will always be a demand for blogs that provide the information people are looking for, and that answer their questions at the moment they have them.
Writing a regular blog is a key strategy for your business to get found and to inform. Blogging in 2021 have the following 8 benefits (plus more):
1. Blogs are proven to help generate leads
Companies with SEO optimized blogs that are regularly updated get up to 67% more leads than their competitors without one. Additionally, 47% of prospective B2B buyers read between 3 and 5 pieces of your content before they decide to engage with your sales channel. Your well-positioned thought-provoking blogs can be a part of these 3 to 5.
2. Blogs are one of the most cost-effective long-term strategies
Writing a regular blog is a cost-effective strategy to develop leads now and well into the future. Just one good blog post can help you drive results (traffic and leads) for months, even years, to come as it becomes part of your ever-green strategy of content. Most of our most popular blog posts based on reads and conversions were published months ago. That’s because even after we have finished promoting the blog posts in the moment we can go back and promote old blogs again and again, Blog posts don’t disappear – they start ranking in search results and they can still get shares from random readers well after original publish date.
3. Position yourself as the subject matter expert
Your regular blog also establishes you as an expert in your field. One key blog idea for each business to consider is writing a regular blog series of ‘Ultimate Guides’. This will force you to go into more detail, which is great for SEO rankings. Readers who are genuinely interested in your field will appreciate these blogs and begin to view you as the go-to source of information on the topic.
Your in-depth quality content will fare much better in search engine rankings than those that only skim the surface of a particular topic. These longer blog posts allow you to explore a topic in depth. Use the extra space to look at the topic from different angles. This will go a long way to give your readers the assurance that you are not just pushing a particular angle, and strengthens your Google ranking for the longer blog. Guess who will they turn to when they want to switch from reader to buyer?
4. People don’t like old news
Writing a regular blog is one of the best ways to make sure your website regularly gets fresh content. It’s also a great way to keep visitors coming back next week, next month, and next year. Ask yourself this: if there are two companies that offer a particular service or product – you and company B, who would people trust more: the one whose website has last been updated in 2000 or the one that regularly posts a blog with fresh industry news?
5. Quality beats quantity every day
Blogging is about playing a long-term game. It’s about gradually building relationships between you and your current and future customers. You have to spend time talking to prospective buyers about the topics they are interested in. Writing regular blogs provides your prospects and clients useful advice. You have to establish yourself as a source of trustworthy information (and if writing isn’t your forte, let a content strategy firm like Wingman do it for you). Blogs with top quality, original content will work today, and they will most likely still work next year and the year after that.
6. Hard selling scares off potential buyers
Hard selling is becoming increasingly more unpopular. Everyone knows and hates that feeling of being pushed into a corner by a salesman. The moment you get a chance to run, you will. That is why research shows that nearly 80 percent of businesses nowadays opt for advertisements in the form of useful content. If you want to sell in today’s world, your company needs a human face. Blogging is a great way to do that. Adding a blog section to your website and sharing the blogs on blogging sites and social media will also give you a way to promote your business in a creative, user-friendly way.
What has Wingman written about in our blogs?
Over time, we have written blogs about the various elements of digital marketing including SEO, SEM, website speed, etc. We have delved deep into the creative process, importance of good branding and even a 2-part series on about the difference between RGB and Pantones. The pandemic has influenced our passions surrounding mental health, marketing during a downturn and emotional intelligence. And, even a post or two (or ten) about direct mail 😊. Our top blog over the past 20 months (by a huge margin) was April 1st, 2020, less than a month into the lockdowns surrounding COVID-19, when we provided a piece on slowing down and breathing when under stress. Our half-year seasonal content idea blogs (Part 1 and Part 2) have also been very well received.
Conclusion
As you can see (because you read this far), blogs are very important for your business. They keep people engaged and coming back to your site. If you have any questions about blog writing, need guidance on topics for your business, can’t find the time to write a regular blog post or don’t know where to begin, please feel free to reach out to us directly. Wingman Direct Marketing has written over 200 blogs for our clients plus 100 of our own in the past two years. We know the value of regular blog writing, can see the value and can show you the value. Book a Wingman today. You don’t have to fly solo.