With the rise of video and podcasting, one may assume that running a blog is useless as an efficient advertising and marketing channel.
In any case, it appears we’ve got an obsession with killing issues off. Within the new millennium, we had the Y2K pc scare. When know-how took a extra necessary function in our lives, we assumed all print publications would go bankrupt. Now that video content material is having its time within the solar, some speculate that running a blog may quickly meet the identical destiny because the dinosaurs.
I reached out to entrepreneurs with backgrounds in product advertising and marketing, search engine optimisation, YouTube, podcasting, and extra and requested them, “Are blogs useless? ” Here is what they stated.
Are blogs useless?
In accordance with entrepreneurs, not even shut. Blogs proceed to be extraordinarily beneficial for lead technology, model consciousness, and search engine optimisation. They usually’re nonetheless fashionable amongst customers. A HubSpot research discovered that 60% of individuals learn a weblog at the very least as soon as every week. So, blogs will not be out of entrepreneurs’ toolbox anytime quickly.
In all equity, this query surrounding blogs just isn’t with out motive. Google Traits reveals that within the final 5 years, the curiosity in blogs has steadily declined worldwide.
Within the U.S. inside the identical five-year span, video has risen in reputation and surpassed blogs in searches.
Nonetheless, blogs are nonetheless viable advertising and marketing channels with WebTribunal reporting there are greater than 600 million blogs out of 1.9 billion web sites worldwide. Collectively these blogs generate 6 million posts every day with WordPress and Tumblr being the preferred platforms.
Entrepreneurs nonetheless think about running a blog a high advertising and marketing channel. Ross Simmonds, a B2B advertising and marketing knowledgeable and the founding father of the content material advertising and marketing company Basis, says running a blog has helped his shoppers triple their site visitors and speed up their gross sales shut charges.
“At Basis, running a blog with intent has helped us generate thousands and thousands of {dollars} within the pipeline for each us and our shoppers,” says Simmonds. “It is also armed us with the flexibility to raise our model’s place available in the market and, most significantly, really assist others in our trade be taught and unlock new alternatives.”
With that stated, the running a blog panorama has modified through the years. Lisa Toner, director of content material at HubSpot, says it is not sufficient to simply have a weblog these days.
“It’s essential persistently create content material that’s extra beneficial than your competitors’s content material. It’s essential be an search engine optimisation knowledgeable to get your articles rating on web page considered one of Google, and also you want a distribution technique to advertise your content material throughout all of the channels your viewers likes to eat content material on,” says Toner.
“It is much more advanced to win at running a blog now, however when you can grasp it, it is definitely worth the funding.”
Transparency is a much bigger duty, particularly as customers are paying nearer consideration to a model’s values and its stance on social points.
“It’s essential take into consideration how individuals see your model in comparison with your competitors. Everybody has their very own distinctive promoting place (USP) and what they wish to put ahead, however what customers do is evaluate,” says Sandra Mpouma, head of digital advertising and marketing at RationalFX.
“So, by way of enterprise technique, create loyalty, belief, [and] be clear and aggressive, which is essential these days.”
Blogs vs. Different Advertising and marketing Channels
Now that different content material advertising and marketing channels – specifically video and podcasting – have surpassed blogs, will blogs quickly turn into redundant?
Nicely, all of it is determined by the consumer personas you are focusing on. However whilst different platforms develop, blogs nonetheless supply many benefits.
“Podcasting just isn’t with out its personal set of limitations. There are many discoverability and viewers development challenges. At this level, blogs have a reasonably well-dusted playbook for scaling. That is not true for podcasts,” says Matthew Brown, senior podcast producer at HubSpot.
“An organization can use its probably restricted assets to spend money on a weblog that can principally give constant, simply measurable, and dependable efficiency. Blogs even have a direct line to the corporate’s backside greenback, podcasts don’t.”
Nelson Chacon, the principal content material strategist for YouTube at HubSpot, highlights that there isn’t any motive to decide on between two platforms in case your workforce has the bandwidth to sort out each.
If it aligns together with your consumer personas, you’ll be able to have interaction your viewers from a number of angles.
“Making a weblog constructed of articles round the advantages of your product shall be useful. Having a video showcasing its use or the best way to set up it might be helpful to your viewers,” says Chacon.
He continues, “Residence Depot has achieved a unbelievable job of doing this. Whereas they inform and educate their clients on their merchandise, in addition they add a fast ‘how-to’ for the extra educated one that simply wants a brief reply defined in a video.”
As for social media, Annabelle Nyst, a senior content material strategist who focuses on social media initiatives at HubSpot, says it is laborious to match it to blogs as every platform serves totally different functions.
“Social content material would not all the time have the shelf life or the discoverability of weblog posts,” says Nyst. “It is extra about persistently assembly your viewers the place they’re, in the correct moments, partaking with them one-on-one, and establishing belief through neighborhood constructing.”
She provides that social media will be a good way to amplify your weblog posts. And vice versa, weblog posts can function inspiration for social content material.
If utilizing each, Nyst recommends pulling essentially the most compelling factors out of your weblog posts, creating social-first content material, and utilizing it to drive site visitors again to your weblog.
With all that stated, blogs do not come with out their disadvantages. AJ Beltis, a senior content material and acquisition supervisor at HubSpot, mentions the excessive drop-off charges typically seen in weblog posts.
“Blogs lack the interactivity that many crave because of its nature as written content material,” says Beltis. “This challenges weblog writers to hook their readers in just a few quick sentences with out having the advantage of particular results or audio engineers obtainable to their video and podcast creating counterparts.”
What it typically comes all the way down to is your model targets and which channels will assist you meet them. Podcasts, for instance, are higher for branding whereas blogs serve higher for top-of-the-funnel engagement.
“Weblog posts are an acquisition juggernaut. There is a clear path that any seasoned marketer can comply with. Podcasts, nevertheless, greatest function a model alternative,” says Brown.
“You would not measure a sequence of weblog posts on their model uplift capacity, similar to you would not measure a podcast present’s lead technology. That’s until you want grey hairs and a severe lack of sleep.”
Why Blogs are Nonetheless Impactful
From an funding perspective, blogs could also be a greater long-term funding for lead technology.
“I may spend $200K to rent a full-time author, search engine optimisation knowledgeable, and conversion fee optimization (CRO) specialist to work on my weblog. By combining these talent units, I am going to have the ability to create a weblog that drives natural site visitors to my web site and converts it into leads for my enterprise all 12 months lengthy,” says Toner.
She continues, “Or, I may put the identical $200K into an promoting marketing campaign and possibly get a few thousand leads over the course of the advert marketing campaign. However as soon as the marketing campaign ends, so does my lead circulation.”
Toner provides that almost all of HubSpot’s blog-generated leads come from older weblog posts. Which means running a blog could be a nice lead supply lengthy after posts are revealed. Aja Frost, who leads the English search engine optimisation workforce at HubSpot, echoes this sentiment.
“Natural site visitors is extra necessary than ever. Not like paid site visitors, which stops coming within the second your finances runs out, natural site visitors is usually self-sustaining after you have put within the effort and time to create a weblog submit,” she says.
She provides that the majority content material administration programs (CMS) have search engine optimisation instruments built-in into their platforms, which makes it simpler to optimize your posts.
Running a blog will also be beneficial in shaping a model’s product positioning.
“Blogs are nonetheless probably the greatest channels we’ve got to create narratives round our product,” says HubSpot Product Advertising and marketing Supervisor Alex Girard. “They provide us the chance to handle developments we see available in the market, how these developments impression the reader, and the way our product may be capable to assist them meet that pattern efficiently. They’re additionally nice for telling buyer success tales.”
He provides that when utilizing your weblog to market your product, the content material would not must be promotional. Whenever you set up your self as a thought chief and achieve the belief of your viewers, they are going to organically look into your services and products.
With that stated, it’ll take greater than good content material to have a profitable weblog.
“Development with out a aim is not going to assist your online business – if 10,000 persons are studying your weblog, however none of them suit your persona, that is not going to do something to your firm,” says HubSpot’s Senior Weblog Supervisor Karla Heseterberg. “Concentrate on one thing attainable, like producing new contacts, and ensure each submit you are placing out has that aim in thoughts.”
She provides that one of many greatest errors manufacturers make is creating content material just for individuals on the decision-making stage.
With so many phases between studying a weblog and making a purchase order, entrepreneurs ought to have posts geared at customers in each stage with corresponding presents.
Be taught extra about that via HubSpot’s enterprise running a blog course.
From an search engine optimisation perspective, manufacturers may additionally battle with producing site visitors as a result of they’re pondering weblog first, hyperlink constructing second.
“What I typically discover is that entrepreneurs see ‘running a blog’ and ‘hyperlink constructing’ as two totally different disciplines. First, they write the weblog posts, then they give thought to the best way to earn backlinks to them,” says Irina Nica, a senior product advertising and marketing supervisor at HubSpot who works on product consciousness via outreach initiatives.
“As an alternative, they need to embrace linkable property into their common content material calendar, alongside different forms of articles which might be possibly designed for producing natural or social media site visitors.”
Regardless of the numerous advantages we have gone over, running a blog is not all the time the perfect technique for each model. Why? Nicely, what in case your best consumer persona would not learn blogs? What if they like emails as an alternative?
“Some manufacturers have nice electronic mail communication and workflows the place they supply individuals with downloadable presents the place they do not must go elsewhere to get the knowledge, it is simply of their inbox right away,” says Mpouma.
“You do not essentially want a weblog so long as you are providing one thing in change. I believe the weblog has all the time been that: Supply one thing without spending a dime in change for that consumer interplay.”
So, in that case, blogs would not precisely be useless, extra so irrelevant.
Why Advertising and marketing Is not Lifeless
issues from a broader perspective, blogs are simply an extension of selling. Some have prompt that advertising and marketing is useless, which makes entrepreneurs like me marvel if there’s one thing we do not know.
Based mostly on latest information, advertising and marketing remains to be influential. And that applies to each conventional methods and digital initiatives. Statista reported that in 2022, content material advertising and marketing generated over $63 billion in income worldwide.
“There is a motive why Nike and Mcdonald’s proceed to speculate thousands and thousands each month in advertising and marketing regardless that they’re already family names. There is a motive why the highest musicians and artists nonetheless do promotion previous to their newest album launch,” says Simmonds.
“Advertising and marketing is not to be seen as simply an expense. It is an funding. And when you make an funding that’s rooted in a strategic plan — that funding ought to return dividends for years (possibly a long time) to return.”
Running a blog Is Far From Lifeless
The important thing takeaway is that whereas not all advertising and marketing ways work for each model, it is unlikely that blogs will cease being beneficial to manufacturers within the foreseeable future. S
o for now, blogs, you’ll be able to relaxation and step off the chopping block.
Editor’s be aware: This text was initially revealed in February 2021 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness. 
