Research from Hubspot
has shown that businesses that blog get 67% more leads, and are 13x
more likely to enjoy positive ROI, than businesses that don’t blog.
It’s 2015, and it’s been established beyond disputation that
blogging, effectively, will always yield positive ROI for businesses.
However, does that mean starting a blog will automatically fix your content strategy and yield a positive ROI? No.
Without the right strategy, your blogging efforts is just a time sink and another waste of time and/or money.
The type of content you publish on your blog is a core part of your
blogging strategy, and a solid blogging strategy can’t do without the
following three content types; each content type is accompanies with
personal examples to demonstrate their effectiveness.
- The “Resource” Article
The resource article is perhaps the best type of content for driving traffic and boosting your
conversions.
In my experience, every instance of a resource article I’ve published
on my blog has resulted in at least 10,000% more views, sometimes
30,000% more views, than the average article (that’s not an error).
On my new blog where the average article barely gets 100 views, a
resource article I published went on to get over 20,000 views in its
first year.
On another blog, a series of resource articles I published went on to
average 100,000 views, with the first article getting as much as
200,000 views in a span of 3 years.
I wrote a full case study about this on the Digital Current blog, and you can read the case study through the link below:
Why do “resource” articles work?
Resource articles work because blogs are oversaturated with the same recycled content; opinions, tips and lists.
There are at least 300 million blogs today according to Wikipedia,
and when it comes to getting tips, lists and opinion, there’s an
abundance of that. However, very few blogs give people practical
resources that they can use right away.
Instead of just giving tips, resource articles offer actual
resources; so instead of saying “here’s what you have to do to get X
results”, you’ll say “use X to achieve certain result”; with X listed in
your article so readers can make use of it.
As a result, people will bookmark your content, tell their friends,
link to it on their blogs, share it on their favorite forums and come
back to it regularly.
- Ultimate Guides
Data has proven time and again that long, comprehensive content will always outperform shorter content.
This was proven by research by serpIQ, carefully analyzed by Neil Patel on his blog;
the data revealed that, on average, the top 10 results in Google have
at least 2,000 words, with the longer content usually ranking higher.
A similar analysis by Moz in 2012
revealed similar findings, showing from an analysis of 500 articles on
their blog that longer content indeed gets more links, traffic and
social shares.
This instantly shows why ultimate guides are very good for traffic and conversions.
On my writing blog, the most profitable article I’ve ever written is an ultimate guide to guest blogging,
an article that has been viewed over 20,000 times to date and that has
been responsible for mid-five figures in freelance writing income for
me.
Ultimate guides are authoritative by nature, and the fact that they
usually include visuals, lots of examples, sometimes multimedia, and
lots of details ensure people bookmark, share and link to them.
If your aim is to get leads, traffic or authoritative links to your blog, ultimate guides are one sure way to do that.
- Case Studies
Data from Content Marketing Institute
(in a partnership with MarketingProfs) has shown that content marketers
report a 70% effectiveness rate for case studies as a part of their
content marketing strategy; case studies was reported to be the second
most effective content marketing strategy, second only to in-person
events (at 78%), and tying with webinars/webcasts (also at 70%) in
effectiveness. In other words, case studies is the only form of written
content that can achieve similar impact to what is obtainable only
through live interaction; and that’s saying a lot!
Unlike resource articles and ultimate guides, case studies might not
necessarily generate extraordinary traffic compared to the average
article, but they serve an entirely different purpose; increasing positive perception in the mind of your readers about your ability to deliver.
At the end of the day, the purpose of your blog is to generate more
leads for your business and ultimately increase your revenue; traffic
alone won’t do this.
It’s easy to track traffic and conversions, but it can be difficult
to track positive perception in the mind of your readers; besides
directly leading to increased conversions, case studies are also
powerful for increasing your perception in the mind of your users and
letting them value your brand more.
I’ve noticed case studies to be most effective in closing client
deals for me, and helping overcome objections potential clients may
have; if they are having doubts about my services, I just point them to a
case study.
Which of The Three Content Types is Your Blog Missing?
The above are three powerful content types every business that blog
should be implementing; ensure they are included as a core part of your
content marketing strategy, and you’d be surprised to see how powerful
they can be.
Bamidele Onibalusi is an content marketer and successful blogger. He blogs at Effective Business Ideas,
and he’s been featured in Forbes, Huffington Post and Digital Journal
amongst others. He’s also a freelance writer who helps brands take
charge of their content strategy.
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