The answer is “Yes”, with the exception of very few industries, your blog is extremely important. Contrary to popular belief, social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter are not a substitute for blogging, but a supplement. Your social media and blog oftentimes rely on each other to fulfill their potential. Social Media without a landing page is good for nothing but brand awareness and a blog without a brand will never be read.

A blog without a brand is like the guy that holds a sign and preaches to the masses on the corner outside of your office. Do you have one of those guys? We sure do. He has boatloads of information to share, but no one pays him any mind. Why? For one, he comes off as crazy. More importantly, he has no credibility! No one will ever know if what he has to share is accurate or inaccurate, so why listen? Or in this case, why read?

In order to get people to read your blog, you need to build brand awareness and social credibility. The way you do that is through social media, creating both long and short-form video content. So if you feel like you have a great blog, lots of information to share, and are an expert in your field, but lack a presence on social media, start summarizing those blogs in 30 seconds or less on social media!

So, what if you have the brand? You have a social media presence, your target demographic knows your brand, and you’re getting all of the engagement you could hope for. Great, you’re doing something right. But where do you send that traffic? Exactly, a blog! Again, with the exception of very niche industries, a blog is where you should be sending your social media audience. Why? Because you can only cover so much on social media!

In order to truly sell your audience on a product, you’ll need to provide them with more information, more testimonials, and more reasons to buy from you and not your competitors! There’s no better place to do that than in a blog. Not to mention, a well-written blog could become a source of traffic in itself as long as its SEO optimized.

Now that you’re sold on the importance, it’s important to increase the engagement on your blog. How can you do that? Read on to find out!

1. Set Clear Goals: Just like anything else in life, you need to have clear goals in order to accomplish anything. What exactly would you like your blog content to accomplish? How do you want your blog to be perceived? What type of content does your target audience prefer to consume? Some answers may be How-to content, Step-by-step Guides, witty narratives, etc. Your options are endless, and I would suggest weighing all of them. At Momentum Digital, we aim to create concise blogs about digital marketing for small businesses, organized in a how-to or step-by-step format, often paired with a detailed video.
2.  Consider Your Target Audience: Clearly, if you’ve made it this far you already have somewhat of an idea about the audience you should be targeting with your content. With that said, do you have a legitimate understanding of what’s going on inside their head? What questions are they asking themselves, what problems are they looking to solve, and why would they click on your site? If you can take some time to answer those questions accurately, you’ll have a winning blog. An easy way to ensure you have the correct answers is through a simple survey blasted out to all of your past clients or customers.
3. Don’t Recreate the Wheel: In a world where there is little to no original thought, there’s no reason to try and recreate the wheel. Chances are, there’s not a single question you could search that doesn’t have a blog to answer it, so don’t waste your time. In other words, don’t spend too much time brainstorming topics once you understand what questions your audience is struggling to answer. Simply conduct a few relevant searches, find relevant articles, and use them as a reference to write a better, more helpful blog with your own twist and in your own words.
4. Include Added Value: While this seems to be common sense, it’s often something that’s overlooked. Of course, if you’re an expert in your industry and a half-decent writer you’re going to provide value. It’s the added value that keeps visitors coming back. That added value can manifest itself in many different ways. One of the most common methods is internal and external linking. You want to create a value-filled rabbit hole on your website. You can do so by linking to your or another website’s blogs multiple times throughout your articles. Or, maybe you provide a downloadable guide or a free training video. Adding extra value is always worth the extra effort and arguably the most important box to check when trying to increase engagement on your blog.
5. Include Visual Content: I can’t emphasize the importance of visual content enough. Yes, written content is great but it’s not for everyone. Especially in the lazy world we live in today. It’s important that you sprinkle in video content and graphics to help get your message across. Your blog is a great place to include creative content that isn’t pretty enough for your social media profiles. Like infographics, charts, graphs, and long-form videos.

With the art of creating engaging blog content mastered, the next most important skill to add to your arsenal is organization and planning! Luckily for you, there are a handful of ways to keep your research, ideas, and drafts organized. At Momentum, we keep it simple with Google Spreadsheets (read this article from HubSpot about using Google Spreadsheets as a content calendar) and numerous copywriters, editors, and publishers. You might prefer something like Asana, or a different project management software.

Hopefully, you’re feeling more confident in your ability to create engaging blog content. If that’s the case, then the proof is in the pudding! So if you come to a roadblock or need our expertise, feel free to contact us today.!