IN THIS CHAPTER
Blogging for Business
Fostering a blog that can positively impact the bottom line Working with outside writers Writing headlines that engage your audience Auditing your blog in ten steps
The topic of blogging deserves in-depth discussion . Blogging is one of the most powerful and versatile digital marketing tools at your disposal . You can think of your blog as a home for content of every type , including text , graphics , audio , and video . Functionally , though , a blog is just a tool that helps you manage certain pages of your website .
The power of a well-executed business blog lies in its capability to generate awareness for your company , brands , customer-facing employees , products , and services . When done right , the business blog becomes a critical part of your marketing mix . If done improperly , however , a business blog can become a frustrating , time-consuming chore that gives you zero return for your effort .
Although you should always keep the customer journey in mind , the main purpose of your business blog is to create aware and engaged prospects who eventually convert into leads and sales . Although in other content areas , building ungated , gated , and deep discount offers ( discussed in Chapter 3 ) into your content is critical , the goal of your blog is not the immediate conversion of a prospect into a lead or customer .
Marketing is about the sequence of the offers you make to prospects , leads , and customers . Your blog content is one of the entry point offers ( EPOs ) that you make to cold prospects who know nothing about you or your company . But content is also something you can distribute via email , social media , and paid traffic to even your best customers to keep your business at the forefront of people ’ s minds and provide additional value .
In this chapter , we give you strategies for successful business blogging . We point you toward effective tools to use for blogging ideas , tell you how to find and work with content creators to keep your blog diverse and interesting , and help you brainstorm effective headlines for your blog articles . The final part of this chapter provides a list of the elements by which you can “ audit ” your blog to make sure it ’ s as effective as you can make it .