The blog cocktail: layering information one blog at a time

You’ve done a press release, sent it out to everyone who would be interested and shared it on LinkedIn. Your job of getting the message out is now done and it’s time to relax. Right? Wrong!

To keep the story going and keep people talking about you and your products, you’ve got to think about layering your content, just like the cocktail Sex on the Beach.  This tropical beverage features vodka, peach schnapps, cranberry juice and either grapefruit or orange juice, but the secret is not to shake the ingredients all together like a martini, but to “build” them just like you do with content. And for me, the perfect “Sex on the Beach” media content builder is the blog.

Blogs are the base layer of content. Not only do they add supplemental information about your initiatives, product benefits and helpful tips and tricks for your customers, but they can set you apart by showing you as a thought leader or expert in your industry vertical. Best of all, they provide story ideas for the media and keep people thinking about you between the press releases. 

Mixing it up right: Putting your blogs to work

There are times when I’m conducting research on trends for our industrial technology customers, that the first information that comes up is from their competition’s blogs. There’s numerous reasons for this. First of all, it has to do with how Google works when conducting a search. News articles and blog pages tend to rank higher in the algorithm compared to static pages that aren’t updated as often. 

Secondly, a series of blogs on a topic gives you more chances of being found just because your customer might be using a different combination of words than what you use. For example: when it comes to battery encasements for electric vehicles, the customer might be looking up mobility, electric cars, autonomous driving, automation, e-mobility, automotive, etc. If your product page only has the word mobility and the customer is searching electric vehicles, they won’t find you on page one, page two or even page three of a Google search. 

To cover all your bases, a series of blogs on mobility (or whatever your industry specialty is) where these other words might appear increase your chances of being found. In addition, you will have more robust content that goes beyond a few paragraphs on a webpage that usually offer more generic content. Your blogs can tackle the issues facing your customers and provide them with your expert insights and suggestions. They can talk specifically about light-weighting or high heat or trends in new material uses. The topics are endless – and each one is of interest to your potential and current customers.   

Blogging isn’t dead. Boring blogs are.

I know what you thinking: Isn’t the blog trend dead? The answer is no. A report from Demand Gen found that 71% of B2B buyers consume blog content on their buying journey. So while blog traffic is continuing to grow, what has changed is the quality of content in the blog. 

People don’t want to read sales pitches. They don’t want to read about how your VP has been promoted (they want to read that in your company news section and on LinkedIn). They don’t want to waste their time reading fluff pieces filled with very general information. They want valuable content. They want to know which industry problems you are solving, how your products or technology fit into the solution and why this matters to them. They want you to make them smarter. And they want to know why they should trust you with their next big purchase. 

Statistics show that the average reader spends 37 seconds reading a blog. This means, you’ve got to keep them interested by creating blogs on the topics that keep your customers up at night. Don’t be afraid of breaking away from the generic blah-blah and share your knowledge. The more authentic you are, the more you will show your customer that you understand their needs and have solutions that will help them.  

Masters of the blog

The concept of educating your customer with content marketing/articles isn’t new. Nearly 120 years ago, John Deere did it with the launch of The Furrow Magazine, which is still going strong with readers. They credit the magazine’s success on articles that are customer-focused, rather than equipment centric. Today you’ll find insightful blogs in all areas of the industrial sector following that same customer-focused advice -- from additive manufacturing to plastics and packaging.  

There’s a reason Clariant, Milliken and others work with us to put together monthly blog calendars and insightful thought leadership and trend articles. When it’s done right, your blog posts, just like the Sex on the Beach cocktail, provide that added punch of information that keep you top of mind.

 

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