B2B blogging has evolved into a formidable tool that businesses use to connect with their audience, boost brand awareness, and drive growth. However, the art of blogging isn’t solely about curating compelling B2B content. It’s a nuanced skill, especially in the realm of B2B interactions where the stakes are higher and the audience, often more discerning.
Sure, everyone can write, but can they write well enough to turn your readers into customers? Of course, there’s also ChatGPT, but AI hasn’t reached the level of being able to tug at our heartstrings (yet) — so how can you expect it to engage your potential clients?
Understanding this, we’ve developed this comprehensive guide to help you navigate the intricate world of B2B blogging. This guide isn’t just about how to blog; instead, we offer an exploration into how to blog the right way for maximum impact in a B2B environment.
We’ll break down the steps needed to create a powerful B2B blogging strategy, from defining your audience to crafting an SEO-friendly blog layout and from content execution to effective blog promotion. By the end of this guide, you’ll have a roadmap to transform your B2B blogging efforts into a driving force for your business growth. Let’s jump right into it!
Reasons Why Blogging Is Important for Your B2B Business
Blogging has been an exciting and unique way for people to share their ideas, opinions and interests since the 1990s. However, blogging has become much more than just a pastime. In fact, it has become an integral part of B2B businesses that want to scale in the digital world.
There are different ways blogs can help businesses grow online. With over 4 billion people with access to the internet, it’s an excellent time for companies to leverage blogging strategies to enhance their marketing.
With that said, let’s take a look at different ways blogging can help businesses succeed:
1. Blogging drives targeted organic traffic to your website.
Who doesn’t want more visitors to their website? Everyone does. Not only do you get more eyes on your brand and its content, but you increase your website’s potential to convert.
There are several ways you can attract visitors to your website:
- Branded search queries:They could specifically search for you on Google. They’re already familiar with your brand, what you do, and more. However, this also means that they’re already your customers, so this doesn’t technically add to the customers you already have.
- Buying leads:You can purchase leads (like email lists) and blast emails in bulk to them all, hoping at least some of them would bite. Not only is this expensive, but it’s also not quite legal because these people haven’t given explicit permission for you to send them marketing emails. But with the way marketing has been moving these days, it isn’t unusual to see an email in your inbox from someone you haven’t subscribed to. But again, best not to do this!
- Paid Ads:Paid advertising, also known as PPC, is one of the most common ways to generate traffic. Brands advertise their products and services left, right and centre to attract people to their websites. While this is quite an effective way to gain visitors, it is very, very (very) expensive, and you only achieve good results if you do it right. You constantly have to keep spending money to see results. Once you stop spending money, you also stop seeing results.
Now, if these options are out, how exactly are you to attract new visitors to your website? You guessed it — SEO. And what’s a crucial aspect of SEO? Blogging.
Blogging is one of the best SEO growth strategies that can help drive high-quality traffic to your website, increase the demand in the market for your products and services, and generate leads for your business.
According to a study by Hubspot, businesses that have a blog generate 55% more website visitors than companies that don’t have a blog.
Here’s the thing:
Every time you publish a new blog post, it adds another web page that Google can index. It’s one more chance for you to rank on SERPs and drive organic traffic to your B2B business.
Think of these pages as fishing hooks. It’s always better to keep throwing more fishing hooks into the ocean (let’s be honest, Google is a vast ocean).
An increased number of indexed web pages increases your chances of ranking on Google and showing up in front of your target audience when they look for search terms related to your brand and industry.
Other than simply increasing the number of web pages, Demand Metric shares that blogs can boost the number of indexed pages by 434% and the number of indexed links by 97%.
This is because blogging keeps your website active and acts as a cue to search engines like Google to frequently check on your site to see the latest content you’ve shared.
Here’s the deal:
Organic search engine traffic is the lifeblood of any business looking to generate leads and sustain its business in the digital era.
The more people you get to visit your website, the potential for inquiries, demos, bookings, and, the most crucial part, sales, can skyrocket.
2. Content marketing helps convert traffic into leads.
We’ve discussed how blogging increases the organic traffic coming through to your website. Now, this is an excellent opportunity to subtly convert this traffic into leads. Every new blog you publish equates to an additional indexed webpage, and every blog post is a unique opportunity for your business to generate fresh leads.
The subtle marketing technique we’re talking about here is to naturally include a no-brainer CTA within the blog post. Essentially, you provide something to them for free, like an ebook, checklist, webinar, or any other valuable resource, in exchange for their contact information — typically their name and email address.
Here’s how it works:
Let’s suppose you’re a project management platform that offers a SaaS product for businesses to efficiently manage their projects and remote teams. The best way to hook the right visitor is to publish blog posts related to your industry, like “How to run a successful virtual brainstorming session”.
Now, a manager looking for ways to effectively organise brainstorming sessions with his remote team members comes across your blog via SERPs. If you do your job
right, you will have naturally included ways your SaaS software can make the manager’s life easier with the different tools and features you offer.
At the end of the blog post, you can include a CTA — such as a free 15-day trial where the manager can try the software and see if it’s the right fit for their business.
Et voila! You have the manager’s contact that you can then add to your email list and do all kinds of things!
To understand whether blogs really do lead to conversions, Hubspot surveyed nearly 300 people, asking them whether they’ve ever made a purchase from a company after reading through a blog post. Nearly 56% of the respondents said yes!
Yes, there are a lot of marketing techniques that have become trendy these recent years. However, blogging is still one of the most effective ways to convert people into your customers.
It shows that you know the industry better and you understand their pain points, making them feel like you know exactly what they want — this goes a long way for your audience to trust your brand’s expertise.
3. Blogging is an SEO growth strategy that drives long-term results.
How great would it be if you didn’t have to spend all your money to keep your ads going? Or if you didn’t have to share something every single day for people to find and engage with your brand?
Here’s where blogging helps your B2B business:
If you’ve established a strong B2B SEO foundation for your website, it won’t make much difference if you take a break from your website for a few days — people will still engage with your content.
People typically assume that blogs only have a short-term impact on people after you publish them. But this couldn’t be further from the truth.
When you publish blogs on evergreen topics, they will have a higher potential to rank on Google with time. This is because you include highly searched keywords when you create blogs. With time, when people search for these keywords, your blog will be pushed forth. With time, Google will scrutinise how users engage with your blogs, and if it feels like your audience finds your content valuable, then Google will push your blogs to rank higher and higher on SERPs.
Therefore, a blog you write today has the potential to bring high-quality organic traffic to your website for months and years to come!
4. Blogging improves your link-building prospects
There are two types of linking: Internal and inbound links (also known as backlinks).
Internal linking is an aspect of link building that brands have complete control over, as it involves linking different parts of your website to each other. The primary reason why internal linking is crucial is that it helps your visitors find related web pages that they might be interested in. This interlinking encourages them to stay within your website domain and boost your SEO performance.
However, unlike internal linking, inbound links or backlinks have a direct and massive impact on your site’s SEO. In fact, your site’s backlink health is amongst the top ranking factors for Google’s algorithm.
When you share valuable blogs that help not just your potential customers but also other businesses that are relevant to your niche, it’s easier to gain backlinks. When authoritative websites (generally those with domain authority above 40) link back to your site with a “dofollow” tag, it signals to Google that the website vouches for your authority. Google will consider its level of authority and add to the trustworthiness and credibility of your website.
5. You can repurpose blog content for your social media channels.
When you repurpose content, you breathe new life into a piece of content you may have shared years ago. When you repurpose old blogs, you already have a good head start with the creating phase — and you don’t have to let your best blogs gather dust!
One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever come across is one by Derek Halpern, Founder of Social Triggers.
“You don’t have to produce content on a daily basis. All you have to do now is work on getting more people to see the material you currently have.”
With every blog you repurpose for social media, you’re exposing your brand and products to a whole new set of audiences who may not be familiar with your content. Even if your audience is already familiar with your content, you can put a spin on your existing content.
But other than repurposing blog content, you can also share your blog links every time you publish a new blog on your social media channels.
When a lot of people visit your blog post right after you share it, it shows Google that people are really interested in your blogs, which, again, in turn, acts as a boost to your SEO.
6. It helps develop trust with your audience and builds genuine relationships.
Have you read through an FAQ page only to find it doesn’t have enough information to answer your questions or help you fix an issue? We definitely have!
So, the next obvious step you take is to browse through in-depth informational guides and blogs to find an answer.
Through blogging, you can target these challenges and build tutorials and guides to help potential customers learn more about your products and services.
But that’s not all! Blogging is an often overlooked strategy that businesses can use to build a deeper connection with their customers.
You can build social proof by sharing your customers’ success stories, updating them about what’s happening with your business, and even sharing employee interviews so your customers can get an internal insight into your company culture.
Remember, people buy from people — with these strategies, you’re humanising your brand to your target audience. Tesla is an excellent example of how you can showcase the way your product is changing the lives of people with blogs.
7. Position your brand as a leader in your niche.
The depth and quality of your blogs will directly impact how your customers and target audience perceive your business. It doesn’t matter if you operate within a niche industry or have a massive list of competitors; you can leverage blogs to prove your expertise.
When you successfully position yourself as a knowledge source for anything your target audience would want to know within your niche, they will be much more comfortable purchasing your products or availing of your services since they see you as an expert in your industry.
8. Blogging boosts your brand awareness.
Blogging is an excellent strategy for businesses to build brand awareness outside their niche. This is especially crucial for B2C and some B2B businesses that target a wide range of audiences.
For example, a global payroll SaaS business sells a product that can benefit nearly every industry. They could market to every company that has a remote team since they most definitely use online platforms to transfer their salaries.
Blogging allows businesses to cast a wide net and capture the attention of as many people as your keywords are capable of. By targeting topics and search terms that are popular among different demographics, niches, industries, customer personas, or other criteria, you can attract a large number of people to your website.
9. It also improves your brand identity.
In today’s world, branding doesn’t just mean creating a company logo and a tagline. It’s about building a brand where your customers and clients connect with you on an emotional and psychological level.
You can solidify your brand identity by building your language style, brand colours, and other motifs by repeatedly portraying them via your blogs and social media content.
When you constantly share new blogs with your customers, they’re more likely to remember and associate with your brand identity. For example, youth fashion brands tend to use a teenage brand voice to attract their target audience. This typically means they use slang terms that their teenage audiences tend to use within casual conversations.
10. It helps companies share news about their business.
Why use your website’s blog section to share company-related news? Don’t you have a product or service section that could do the job? Or even the homepage? The reason is simple.
With specific web pages on your website, you don’t have the flexibility to do much more than be straightforward about what you offer. But with blogs, you have a lot more flexibility.
Blogs are an excellent way for businesses to demonstrate who they are instead of simply listing what they do. Your blogs can feature different types of content like your recently hired content lead, your latest interview with an expert in your niche, newly launched features and services, how the idea came into existence, and maybe even a case study of a successful client. Showing people the humans behind the brand is an excellent way to connect with your audience — which is only possible through your blogs.
How to Blog the Right Way in 6 Simple Steps
Blogging, while simple in concept, requires a thoughtful approach to truly make a significant impact, especially in the B2B sphere. It isn’t just about publishing content;
it’s about crafting and delivering this content in a way that resonates with your audience and achieves your business goals.
In this section, we’ll outline six key steps that will guide you in creating effective, engaging, and SEO-friendly blog posts.
Step 1: Understand your audience
To blog effectively, you need to know who you’re speaking to. Understanding your audience means delving deep into their needs, interests, and challenges. It’s about empathising with their situation and offering solutions through your content. An audience-centric approach is the bedrock of any successful blogging strategy.
Step 2: Craft compelling content
Now that you know who you’re talking to, what do you say? The content you produce should resonate with your audience, offering them valuable insights, novel perspectives, and actionable solutions. Remember, great content is a mix of relevance, reliability and readability — and be sure to write as if you were telling an engaging story.
Step 3: Employ SEO strategies
There’s no point in crafting brilliant content if no one can find it. This is where Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) comes into play. By employing SEO strategies such as keyword optimisation, meta details and link building, you can ensure that your blog post reaches the right audience at the right time.
Step 4: Consistency is key
One-off efforts won’t take you far in the blogging world. It’s consistency, both in quality and frequency, that establishes your blog as a reliable resource for your audience. Develop a regular posting schedule and stick to it — this not only helps with audience engagement but also positively impacts SEO as it signals to Google that your site is active.
Step 5: Engage and respond to your audience
Your job isn’t over once the blog post is live. Engage with your readers through comments, emails and social media. Respond to their queries, acknowledge their suggestions, and use their feedback to refine your blogging strategy. It’s this two-way communication that turns readers into loyal customers.
Step 6: Analyse and adapt
The world of B2B blogging is ever-evolving. It’s essential to stay adaptable, and the key to this is data. Analyse your blog performance regularly, using metrics such as page views, bounce rate, and conversion rate. Use these insights to refine your blogging strategy and keep up with changing audience needs and industry trends.
How to Create a Powerful B2B Blogging Strategy in a Few Simple Steps
A successful blog doesn’t happen by accident; it’s the result of a well-crafted strategy. With that said, we’re going to demystify the process of creating a B2B blogging strategy that not only connects you with your target audience but also sets you up for measurable success.
Let’s dive into the details.
1. Define Your Audience and Personas
The first step in building a successful blog is identifying your target audience. Who are they? What are their needs, interests, and challenges? By creating detailed audience personas, you can tailor your blog content to resonate deeply with your readers, making them more likely to engage and convert.
2. Identify your B2B blogging goals
Goals give your blogging efforts direction and purpose. Whether you’re aiming to increase brand awareness, generate leads, or establish thought leadership, having clear and measurable goals will guide your content creation process and provide a benchmark for success.
3. Develop your blogging process (and stick to it!)
A structured process is essential for consistency in your blogging efforts. This includes deciding on the frequency of posts, the creation and approval process, and deadlines. A well-structured process can reduce stress, prevent missed deadlines, and ensure a steady stream of quality content.
Don’t know where to start? We might have an idea
This is what we do at Teranga
At Teranga, we know the value and importance of an engaging yet informative blog article. And since we’re all about excellence, we make sure that we reflect that through not just our work ethic but also our processes.
Here’s the Teranga blogging process to inspire you:
Step 1: Keyword Research
At the heart of our content strategy is comprehensive keyword research. We delve into the language, queries and search intent of our clients’ respective target audiences. Using advanced keyword research tools, we identify and target high-volume, low-competition keywords that are poised to drive organic traffic to the blogs of our clients.
Step 2: Content Planning
As part of our meticulous planning phase, we brainstorm and outline topics based on keyword research and audience interests. We develop a robust content plan detailing each blog post, ensuring a consistent yet balanced mix of content. This strategy keeps your audience engaged and solidifies your reputation as a reliable resource.
Step 3: Content Research
We dive deep into every topic we tackle, sourcing relevant information, insightful data, and compelling examples. Our content research goes beyond merely collecting information on Google. We strive to discover unique angles and compelling insights that will make your content stand out from the rest.
Step 4: Content Writing
Our skilled writers, armed with comprehensive research, expertly craft blog posts. We focus on creating engaging narratives that not only communicate your message clearly but also compel your audience to act. In every piece of content that we write, we maintain an authentic and consistent voice that reflects your brand and resonates with your audience.
Step 5: Editing
At Teranga, we believe in the power of excellence. Each piece of content we create undergoes rigorous editing, ensuring clarity, coherence and top-notch grammar. In addition to this, we ensure each post is well-structured, SEO-optimised, and provides immense value to your audience.
Step 6: Publish!
The grand finale of our process is publishing your high-quality content. We ensure each blog post is flawlessly formatted, tagged appropriately, and equipped with a compelling meta description.
And then, we move on to the next piece and start the process anew — maintaining the rhythm of delivering consistent, valuable content for all our clients.
4. Research the right keywords
Keywords are the linchpin of SEO. By understanding the terms your audience uses to search for information related to your business, you can optimise your blog posts to rank higher in search engine results, increasing visibility and driving more organic traffic to your blog.
5. Create an outstanding layout following Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines
Your blog layout should be as impressive as the content it houses. Following Google’s E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) guidelines ensures your blog design enhances your content, makes it easily accessible to readers, and signals to search engines that your site is a reliable source of information.
6. Execute the content and publish it regularly
Consistency is key in blogging. Regular publishing not only keeps your audience engaged but also signals to search engines that your site is active and relevant. Aim for a balance between quality and frequency, ensuring every post offers value to your readers.
7. Make sure on-page SEO best practices are met
On-page SEO ensures search engines favour your blog — that’s how they “read” what’s on the page, after all! This includes optimising elements like title tags, meta descriptions, and URLs with relevant keywords, ensuring fast load times, and providing a mobile-friendly experience. One often overlooked factor is the power of visuals — so don’t forget to utilise images (and alt text!). These practices can significantly boost your blog’s visibility in search results.
8. Promote your blog effectively
The final step, but by no means the least important, is blog promotion. Sharing your blog posts on social media, sending them out in newsletters or using paid promotions can amplify your reach and draw in a larger audience. Remember, even the best blog post won’t make an impact if no one knows it exists!
Final Thoughts
with a clear understanding of your audience, a solid content plan, a well-defined process, and strategic SEO and promotion, you can turn your blog into a potent tool for business growth. These steps, when executed consistently, can create a blog that not only engages and informs your readers but also converts them into loyal customers.
But remember, a successful blog doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, effort and continuous refinement based on insights from your performance data. Don’t be disheartened if you don’t see immediate results. Keep refining your strategy, keep engaging with your audience and, most importantly, keep delivering value through your blog posts.
We understand that it’s a lot to take on, especially when you’re busy running a business. That’s where we come in. As a results-driven SEO agency, we specialise in creating powerful B2B blogging strategies that drive growth. We’d love to help you navigate the world of B2B blogging and transform your blog into a sales-driving machine.
Ready to amplify your B2B blogging efforts? Book a free discovery call with us today!
