What is Blog Marketing and How Do I Use It?

Are you considering becoming a blogger in marketing? We will tell you everything you need to know about what it is like to be a blogger in the marketing world. Blogging is an integral part of any marketing strategy these days. Whether you are considering a career in marketing, or starting a blog to help market your own business, we can help you. We will discuss what blog marketing is, the pros and cons of blog marketing, and how to get started with blog marketing. For help with blog marketing for your own business, contact SEO Design Chicago today!

blog marketing

What is Blog Marketing?

The term “blog” is a mix of the words “we” and “blog.” It was originally called a “weblog,” but somewhere along the way it was shortened to the term we now use, blog. Though blogs began as a way of documenting one’s personal life, marketers realized the value in blogging for businesses and blog marketing was born.

Today, blog marketing is the use of a blog on a website to market a business, brand, company, or person through text, audio, and video content. Blogs are often used to promote a business or company, though some blogs have become business in and of themselves. For example, some food bloggers who began with a simple blog now have their own lines of cookware at major stores like Target and Walmart. The possibilities when it comes to blog marketing are endless!

Definition of a Blogger

A blogger is someone who writes and creates content professionally for a journal or online website. For example, a political blogger might write about his candidacy or a political party.

The Pros of Blog Marketing

There are many pros to blog marketing. Let’s discuss each of the benefits of blog marketing:

Blogging is Relatively Inexpensive

You can start a blog for free! Compared to many other online marketing tactics, blogging is relatively inexpensive, especially if you are doing the blogging yourself. (Of course, there is also always the option of hiring a blog writing service to do the hard work for you.) You might need to pay for a platform for your blog, if you don’t already have a website. You also might have to purchase a domain name. But after that, the rest is basically free!

Easy to Use

Most blogging platforms, like WordPress for example, are easy to use, even if you don’t have any experience in coding or web design. Oftentimes, coming up with ideas for what to write about in your blog on a regular basis is more difficult than the actual posting of your blog! Many times, the only skills you will need to post on a blog is to upload, drag, drop, copy, and paste.

blogger

Blogs Attract Website Traffic

Adding content to your website in the form of a blog attracts website traffic. The more visitors you attract to your website, the better! If you can draw more people to your website, you are more likely to convert those people into customers of your products or services. Blogging is a proven effective tactic to increase your conversion rate.

Improves Your SEO

A blog that is regularly updated will go a long way towards improving your SEO, or search engine optimization. Search engines like Google love new content. The content will also help you rank highly for keywords relating to your business or industry as a whole.

Establishes You as a Trusted Authority

A blog helps you establish yourself as an expert on a subject. You can provide expert tips and information about your industry and business. It also acts as a trust signal for your potential customers who visit your website. People are more likely to buy products from or do business with a company that they trust. A blog lets them familiarize themselves with your business and help them feel good about spending their money with you.

Engages Your Target Audience

Blogs allow you to not only speak to your audience, but to engage with them, too. How? By allowing a comments section on your blog. Potential customers will love to get to ask questions or leave comments and will feel extra validated if you respond to their comments, too. It allows you to build trust and establish a connection with your target audience. You can view it as a customer service opportunity.

Creates Opportunities for Revenue

Though this may not be your initial intention, a blog also can be an additional revenue source. How? You can run ads on your blog, promote affiliate products or services, and get sponsors and run sponsored blog posts.

what is blog marketing

The Cons of Blog Marketing

Next, let’s discuss the cons of blog marketing. Though there are only a few, it’s important that you should know about them before you get started.

Blogging Takes a Lot of Time

Running a marketing blog takes a lot of work! That’s why professional blog writers exist. It is tough to constantly come up with new ideas, write the blogs themselves, optimize them for SEO, edit and post them – and then do it all over again every day, or every few days.

You Need to Post Consistently

It is important to post on a consistent basis so your audience knows when to expect a new blog. This is where it’s important to keep a list of running blog ideas so you never run out! One of the hardest parts of being a professional blogger is constantly coming up with fresh content ideas.

You Might Not See Results Right Away

Though there are many great benefits to running a marketing blog, it may take some time to build an audience and see results. It takes a lot of hard work and effort to be a professional blogger and maintain an excellent blog. It doesn’t just happen overnight. But don’t get frustrated!

You Will Need to Market Your Blog, Too

You might be using a blog for marketing, but in order for it to work, you will need to market your blog, too. If you want your blog to be successful, people need to know about it. That means you might need to spend some time getting your blog in front of the right audience. This might mean posting links to your blog on social media, or word of mouth marketing. Social media marketing and blogging go hand-in-hand. There are various ways to share it with people who might be interested.

blogger in marketing

How to Do Blog Marketing

So, are you ready to become a professional blogger? Here are some of our best tips for how to do blog marketing.

Make a Marketing Plan

The most important step is to make a plan for your blog. What are you going to write about? Start a list of possible subjects from the beginning. What kind of content are you going to have on your blog? Text, visuals, videos? And how often will you update your blog? For example, are you going to update daily, weekly, or monthly? And on which days will you post? Pro tip: consider creating an editorial calendar to plan out and track your content.

Create Your Blog

The next step is to choose a platform for your blog (we recommend WordPress) and set it up. Make sure to integrate similar branding and your logo onto your new blog. It is important to keep it consistent across your blog, website, social media channels, etc. You can play around with different templates and formats.

Start Posting!

Next, start posting and don’t stop! Before you start promoting your blog, fill up your blog with several posts. Whatever your blog content is, from case studies to vlogs, start creating content right away. No one likes to visit a blog that only has one post. We recommend that you publish at least ten posts before promoting and marketing your blog.  Be creative with your content creation!

Market Your Blog

Make sure to market your blog so that you can get readers! You can market your blog by posting about it on your social networks, including a link to it in your digital marketing materials, and anywhere else you can think of, both online and off. You can even include a link in your email signature or on your business card.

Engage with Your Readers

Don’t forget that blogs are meant to be social. Remember to interact with your readers as much as possible. Readers might ask questions, provide feedback, and share their opinions on your content. Be sure to respond to them (yes, even if they are negative!) However, always delete any spam posts or comments. Blogging is oftentimes referred to as a community, so join that community. You can even comment and share on blogs on similar topics to your own. That is a great way to network and meet new people.

Use Your Blog as a Call to Action

Whatever your blog is used to market, don’t forget to include several calls to action within your blog! That is the ultimate person of any marketing blog. Whether you want your readers to purchase a product, inquire about or book your services, subscribe to your email marketing, or anything else, make sure to write an excellent call to action and include it several times throughout your blog.

pros of blog marketing

Do You Need Help with Blogging?

If you need help with blog marketing for your business, contact us at SEO Design Chicago today. Our professional blog writing experts can help give you advice or take over your blog writing tasks for you entirely!

FAQs about Being a Blogger

  • What is a blog in marketing?
  • What is a blogger?
  • Is blogging easy?
  • Can I start a blog for free?
  • How do I start blog marketing?

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