Blog Marketing
Blog Marketing: Brief Summary
Blog marketing is considered to be the key to success in online marketing. The term refers to the monetisation of a blog – for example, through SEO and the placement of advertising. Since informative, advisory and entertaining blog content inspires users and wins their trust, blog marketing is an important channel and effective tool for content marketing. Posting about products and brands on your own or other people’s blogs can help you to gain a breakthrough and become better known. A well-presented blog helps a company to increase its brand value.
Blog Marketing: Detailed Explanation
Bloggers use Google AdSense and other affiliate programmes to earn money with ads. Systems like Google AdSense use targeting: the ads are tailored specifically to the interests of the users. Therefore, bloggers who use them rarely worry about the content, focusing only on the size and positioning of the ads, but they do think about SEO so that as many visitors as possible come to the blog and click on the ads, but in this context, it has been shown that “overloading” a blog has a negative effect on readers who value relevant content – even if the content itself is of high quality. The principle of “less is more” applies here. The success of ads depends more on clever placement than on quantity.
The use of affiliate programmes such as Google AdSense and the possibility of earning money online is not limited to blogs, so the term blog marketing is usually used for advertising through blog posts.
Using Blogs for Marketing Campaigns
Blog marketing uses the specific features of a blog for advertising, SEO, PR and strengthening an online reputation. This can be done on your own blogs, specifically by commissioning other bloggers.
Example: Company U launches a new toy to the market. Blogger B runs a well-known blog about toys. U (or an agency) commissions B to write a post about the new product. The article is published and receives a lot of attention and is commented on, linked to and recommended via social media portals.
Blog articles are becoming increasingly important in the overall information landscape. Blog posts are launched through social media and have a positive impact on your SEO. A big advantage of blog marketing is that this tool has a long-term effect compared to conventional advertising. Because once an article is published, it and the links to it persist for a long time.
Major blog marketing campaigns involve individually created content on well-known blogs that are relevant to the topic. The bloggers are usually well-trusted by their readers. Authentic posts that deal with a specific product or brand are read, shared, commented on and redistributed. The high credibility of influencers is an effective lever for attention in the online world. After all, this is how brands and products become known. Many agencies already use blogs specifically for corporate PR or provide established blogs with attractive content.
Blog Marketing and Social Media
Blog marketing is a specific form of viral marketing used for advertising and PR. Viral marketing relies on the spread of content, mainly on social media, and this content is ultimately a vehicle for advertising messages. Example: A recognised influencer on the topic of design posts a story online that deals with a certain brand. The content spreads very quickly on the web, for example, via Facebook and Twitter. Above all, the desired result is attention: people talk about the brand.
A successful blog has good links to social media such as Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. This doesn’t just mean Like or Share buttons on the website. The blogger themselves has a presence on social networks and forms networks with other bloggers. As a result, there is a high synergy effect.
Blog Marketing with High-quality Content
Successful blog marketing relies on posts that encourage you to read them. Professional texts that meet the goals of blog marketing are catchy, imaginative, interesting and thought-provoking. At the same time, they never lose focus – that is, they stick to the topic around which the post revolves. Here’s what good content for a blog looks like:
- The topic of the post is immediately identifiable;
- The article supplies content that is relevant to the target audience; and
- The content is unique.
A blog does not use the promotional language that is widespread in online marketing. Blog marketing relies on indirect promotion with a focus on exclusive information. If you gain expert status in a certain field with a high-quality blog, you will be in a good position in the long term.
The effort required to create online content is often underestimated. This is why professional writers are hired to write texts of journalistic quality that are optimised for SEO. It is an open secret that some bloggers only provide the initial content, topics and objectives. The texts themselves are often written externally. If you want to have content created for your blog, you should first and foremost precisely define the goals of the particular post and write a clear, unambiguous brief.
Blog Marketing and SEO
SEO is also important when it comes to blog marketing. Here, the focus is Onpage SEO. On-page SEO refers to search engine optimisation measures on the page itself. In addition to good content, bloggers should pay attention to design, well-thought-out navigation and high-quality images. Visual appearance also contributes to the content. For example, many visitors arrive at a blog via Google image search. Your own unique images have a clear advantage over stock photos.
Professional SEO ensures good findability via search engines to attract more visitors who search specifically for relevant keywords. Therefore, for successful SEO in blog marketing, it is important to identify the most frequent keywords that the target group searches for. Tools such as Google Trends or ahrefs are helpful for this. Additional attention is achieved via social media distribution (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter). However, it is important not to post identical content here, as there is a risk that Google will evaluate a post as duplicate content.
Good content also matters for Google and SEO. Google measures the time users spend on a blog. If a visitor immediately returns to the SERP, the list of results, Google considers this as a negative signal. The user has not found the content they were looking for. This is an indication that the blog post is not relevant to the keyword. If the user stays online longer, this demonstrates the quality of the content in relation to the search term.
Corporate Blogs
Companies use corporate blogs for internal purposes but also as an instrument in online marketing. The focus here is also on high-quality content that offers customers added value. Corporate blogs publish content that interests the company’s target group. Due to their flexibility and continuous updates, they are more topical than static business pages. Content in high demand increases the reach by addressing influencers and sharers who spread the content further. Ideally, the blog itself becomes a brand. Consequently, a blog is ideal if a company wants to outsource certain areas, such as:
- The online presentation of events or products;
- Customer magazines;
- Internal communication channels for trainees (beyond Facebook) or those interested in new jobs; and
- FAQs.
In addition to a corporate blog, a company website and social media channels on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn usually exist. These need to be coordinated.
Conclusion
In the age of Web 2.0 and social media, blog marketing requires a willingness to open up – both in the B2B and B2C sectors. This is also evident on social media platforms used by companies for their PR. Today, no company can afford to close itself off with its content. Customers expect a high degree of transparency. Openness is, therefore, a decisive factor for successful blog marketing.
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