Marketing with blog posts is a highly effective contact vehicle that costs little and obtains results that last a lifetime. However, it must be consistent.
What do blog posts achieve?
First of all, a blog may be part of a website or a stand-alone document.
In fact, I have one on my business site and a separate one for marketing.
I think a blog is really like a long newsletter. It is written for a target market in a narrow product set with consistent contact.
Maybe like an extended Facebook post that delivers readers to your website and allows them to make buying decisions.
The blog is on a single subject, it may be a cornerstone product or an ancillary link but it is narrow in its delivery.
A blog should produce a desire that will convert into action and complete the cycle.
Marketing in a blog
Imagine you are a car dealer selling a common model to a mid-range market.
Your website will be full of material and you will have brochures and handouts expanding all the car features.
So what could you possibly blog about?
- How you entered a car raffle at a local rally and won.
- Constructive ways to get things in the boot
- Why you get a seven-year warranty
- Snow tyres that saved your life
I could go on for a long time but what we are doing is creating a list of benefits. People buy benefits, we sell features. Nice colour, great design, sunroof, style, offers.
So when someone reads about the best way to fit a seven-foot basketballer in the back seat, you solve a problem.
Marketing is not selling
Traditional marketing is gathering interest and leading a customer to a buying situation.
The online world has turned that a bit topsy by including the checkout at the end of the script. However, the script must be heavy on marketing to lead to the buying line.
A good blog is marketing in stealth. You write knowledgeably and extensively about a single subject that will create further action.
Your car blog will talk about how the manufacturer will apply three undercoats before they run a topcoat. The benefit is to save future rust problems and devaluing the car. This provides readers with a strong buying signal when comparing your offer to others.
Content marketing is not blogging in disguise.
In fact, Content marketing takes blogging to another level.
Content Marketing will answer specific questions people have and provide them with something they can’t get elsewhere. It’s the best way to turn your product, no matter how common, into something that is not like all others.
Content Marketing Institute
CM may use articles, videos, webinars and even newsletters to spread the information thus building a trust position with the readers.
Therefore a blog could be part of the content marketing of any business as they build trust in the buyer.
Your blog can be a marketing dream
When you build a following of loyal supporters and interested readers using great Keyword choice you will create a contact with your selling site.
The subtle use of information links in your writing can direct readers to gain more information. Furthermore, they will be one extra step down the sales path.
It is true that a buyer needs to be touched at least seven times before they will buy their first product from you. A blog is a vital cog in that chain.
Your blog will answer the questions that people want to know about and that is the job of your keyword selection.
It will then discuss a benefit by highlighting all the problems, discuss how others feel about the problem and a logical conclusion that bonds them to you.
Marketing with blogs will deliver results.
How long should a blog be?
My typical response to this question is that it is as long as it takes to answer the question. 300 words through to 5000 words is acceptable. However, a common belief is around 1500 words as the accepted norm.
Personally I average 1500 words with many either side of this. If you are reading to here we are at about 700 words so far, six headings and twenty-four paragraphs. About halfway.
Marketing is about pictures
People read pictures 10,000 times more than they read words. That's why comic books work so well – it's not rocket science, it is just fact.
Our attention span is reportedly about 8 seconds so if you don't have them by the vitals, give the attention somewhere pretty to travel to. On your page.
Your blog posts create a picture
The art of storytelling starts with a question or what is in it for the reader.
This then flows into your journey of discovery and how you found your way through the wilderness.
Those with whom I share the journey
These thoughts are common threads with some of the internet's best writers. I have just finished a period with Anik Singal who thrashes the brilliance of the 5 steps to complete the sale, the same 5 steps we use here.
The other is Neil Patel who has a similar direction to huge results and finally our own Wealthy Affiliate training where a range of members discuss the best ways to blog for money or results.
All will come back to stepped storytelling that follows a common theme.
I first discovered this as the AIDA principle, a procedure I have followed for decades and one that has served me well.
| Attention | Solve a problem |
| Interest | How you did it |
| Desire | Where others have benefited |
| Action or close | The closing run |
These words may change and there may be an addition of an extra unit however the theory remains the same.
Marketing with blog posts follows a structure.
Ten times the return
As you close out the story, your readers want to see themselves getting a far greater return on their investment than where they are now. They are hard to move for a similar result but give them 10X the result and the final close is a gimme.
This is really marketing with a blog post. A simple strategy for your long time success.
Other blogging ideas
As a daily blogger and affiliate marketer, I write on different ways to achieve a result using the same method as laid out here. Blogging is a long term subject but not nearly as long as marketing that dates back to the beginning of time.
Your reasons for writing a blog will be many and varied but the one common answer will be to get rewarded for your effort.
The reward may be fame or financial but the need is the same.
Where to begin the blogging journey?
Like any business or career, blogging comes with rules. If you don't understand the basics your chances of being read are very small. Keywords and SEO dominate the background of knowledge and without a thorough understanding, you will remain behind the eight ball.
Wealthy Affiliate is the leading provider of web-based hosting and WordPress training for both new and experienced writers.
In conclusion, blogging is a serious art with great rewards however it does take time and patience to reach a pinnacle.
Every business should have a blog and everyone wanting to try out their skills it's a great escape from reality.
About
Marketing with blog posts by Peter Hanley
P.S.About 1300 words and 13 paragraphs
