Blogs for long-term lead conversion

They establish brand authority and thought leadership, generate website traffic, help attract customers and convert leads. If your company doesn't have a blog yet, or has one that isn't performing, I've written this post especially for you.

The big challenge for us, marketers and communicators, has been understanding and circumventing the algorithms, which constantly change the insane game of the battle for customer attention. In social media feeds, brands compete with the premiere of the Barbie movie, the launch of the new iPhone, the soccer championship and so on. Not to mention tools like ChatGPT and Bard, which are increasingly used when searching for information.

The blog format emerged in 1994, well before the arrival of social networks and Artificial Intelligence. 

Around 2006, we created the Skype blog here at SmartPR, one of the first corporate blogs in Brazil. 

At the time, Skype was still run by its founders in a small office that I got to visit in London. As there was no office in Brazil, our blog became Skype's main source of information for the Brazilian public. More than 15 years later, this tool continues to generate incredible results.

According to the Optinmonster website, statistics updated in 2023 reveal:

● 77% of internet users read blogs.

● 59% of people share articles they haven't read.

● Sites with blogs have 434% more indexed pages (which makes searching easier).

● Companies with blogs have 97% more links to their websites.

● Companies that prioritize blogs achieve 13X more results than others.

● B2B companies that have blogs generate 67% more leads than those that don't.

Here at SmartPR we did an analysis of five healthcare companies, of which only two had blogs. In July 2023, the two blogs had 2,000 times more organic traffic than the others.

In addition, in general, people who read blogs are truly interested in the content and know what they want, they are a more qualified lead. That’s different from someone who keeps scrolling through Instagram or TikTok feeds to kill time and suddenly bumps into a post or ad.

It is for these and other reasons that, for your inspiration, I summarize here in two parts, mindset and step by step, our experience on how to achieve results with a blog.

MINDSET

Generosity: Sharing, the most overused verb of our age, is the behavior that best describes blogging. Writing is an act of generosity. When we write blogs, we share expertise, knowledge and useful information to improve the lives or facilitate the work of those who read.

Reciprocity: The generosity of sharing is rewarded by the opportunity to position our way of thinking to the public, without filters.

Quality: It's not just any content that works, quality is necessary. A good blog must demonstrate Experience, Expertise, Authority and Reliability – these are the four words that make up Google's search ranking rules. On the other hand, this week I read on the Hubspot blog something that leads me to believe that Google should add another fifth word: “perspective”, in the sense of personal opinions, because this is something that Artificial Intelligence is unlikely to achieve.

Patience: Blog is a long-term strategy, traffic results tend to appear from the sixth month of publication. So the recipe is consistency and patience.



THE STEP BY STEP

1. Define personas by researching and analyzing demographics and buying habits of your own customers.

2. Find out which are the terms most searched for by your personas on the internet and learn everything you can about SEO.

3. Develop an editorial calendar based on the most searched terms. For title ideas, it's worth trying Hubspot's Blog Ideas Generator tool. In a few minutes it is possible to have ideas for a week or a year.

4. Read, research, blog, take notes and write a lot whenever you can.

5. Use established formats such as lists, reviews, infographics, and thought leadership.

6. Analyze traffic results and A/B test headlines to identify opportunities to improve results.

7. Use your creativity to promote each blog, as a company asset: social media, YouTube videos, email marketing, outbound and even ads.

8. Revise old posts whenever you can. Blogs stay on the air for a long time, it is important that the information is up to date.

If your company doesn't have a blog yet, it's never too late to start.

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