Why Blogging Is Critical To Content Marketing
Blogging is critical to content marketing! A bold statement considering you have access to multiple social media platforms, such as Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Pinterest, reaching millions of users already in the habit of consuming content on them every day. So why then, in 2020, do businesses really need to blog?
For three reasons: relationships, search engine optimization (SEO), and list-building. I’ll dig into each of those reasons in a moment, but first, let’s look and how blogging has changed over the years, and why that’s important.
The Evolution of Blogging
I got this graph from Arrigo Lupori’s post Is Blogging Dead? Here’s All You Need to Know. Lupori does an awesome job of explaining how blogging has evolved over the last decade. I’ll summarize here and add my takeaways, but check out his post if you’d like more details.
This graph shows you the popularity of search terms over time. As you can see the term “blogging” used to be searched much more prevalently than other related terms. It’s now dropping as other terms gain popularity. The graph suggests that in the early 2000s, blogging was the most well-known way to freely publish content. Now, two decades later, there are hundreds of ways to publish content, and marketers are searching broader terms, such as content marketing. Blogging critics argue that because there are so many other, perhaps more efficient, ways to get content in front of an audience, blogging is out or at least on its way out in the near future. I couldn’t disagree more. Blogging is certainly evolving, requiring marketers to take a more strategic, integrated approach to creating and publishing content, but it is still critical to your content marketing strategy. Here’s why.
Your Blog Builds Relationships
You can have millions of followers on dozens of social media platforms, but if you don’t get them to leave the app and spend some one-on-one time with your brand, it’s unlikely you’re ever going to convert them from follower to customer. A blog is the best way to make that transition. You can attempt to build relationships strictly through social media, but your conversion rates are going to suffer. A blog gives you the critical opportunity to build followers’ trust in your brand on a platform that you own and control. It also gives you the ability to see what content and topics resonate best with your audiences so you can tailor your content more effectively. The graph below from Digivizer shows where blogging falls in the sales funnel and how you can use it to measure engagement. When you can move a follower off of their social media platform and into your domain, you’ve taken your relationship to the next level. The best way to do that is to offer free, valuable content that doesn’t yet require a commitment. Your blog is your relationship builder.
Blogging Helps SEO (alot)
When you search a specific topic, blog posts top the list of Google’s organic search results. Google wants to be the best search engine for retrieving the most relevant, valuable results for users. Blog posts fit that bill. In the old days, businesses could keyword stuff pages to show up in search results, but now, Google analyzes the behavior of readers who land on a page to determine how valuable it is and decide where it should rank on their site. Google also likes websites that publish alot of content on the same subject — that’s why consistently blogging is so effective for SEO. When your blog posts consistently draw and keep traffic on their pages, the other pages on your site will gain credibility as well. Traffic to your website jumps significantly when you have more than 300 pages indexed on your site (see graph below). The best way to generate indexed pages quickly is to consistently post to your blog.
Blogging Leads to List-Building
The point of your blog should be to leave readers wanting more. It’s a stepping stone to more valuable content, for which you want something in exchange. This is your opt-in, a gated piece of content that requires readers to give you their name and email address in exchange for the content. This content is going to build your email list. Your opt-in email list matters more than any other top-of-funnel metric. Email marketing outperforms social media, paid ads, and search by far in terms of conversions (see graphic below). The more readers trust you to provide valuable content, the more likely they are to give you their information and open your emails. Your blog builds that trust and is the catalyst for building your opt-in list.
Source: Quicksprout
If writing and publishing blog posts sounds daunting, remember:
- You don’t need to post every day. A quality blog post twice a month is a much better use of your time than posting less valuable content every day.
- You don’t always need to write! Videos make great blog posts as well.
- You can get a lot of mileage out of one post. Reuse and repurpose your content until it’s no longer relevant.
- Creating a blog calendar enables you to write posts much faster and more consistently.
Final takeaway: Blogging isn’t the only piece of the content marketing puzzle, but it’s a critical one! Your blog is an entry point for deeper relationships with buyers, and it’s most effective when you have a solid opt-in and email marketing strategy following it. But your strategy doesn’t need to be perfect to start publishing posts, so get started today!
Pen & Purpose
‘Lucky Girl Syndrome’ is one of the viral trends on TikTok sweeping the nation. I’m not a TikToker and heard about it much later on a medium more targeted to my (cough - older - cough) demographic - Hoda & Jenna . But it caught my attention because it probably works but for reasons that have nothing to do with luck. What is 'Lucky Girl Syndrome'? The Lucky Girl Syndrome is characterized by an individual's ability to attract seemingly fortuitous outcomes consistently. It’s manifestation in a cuter outfit, complete with pretty TikTokers sharing their amazing results and swearing it will change your life. From winning contests to stumbling upon unexpected opportunities, these women appear to attract luck and claim you can too! How Does It Work? Explanations of how it works center on the power of positive thinking - if you believe you’re lucky, you will be. But is there more to it? It reminds me an exercise I did earlier this year, in which I wrote my own obituary– Donald Miller’s more morbid approach to getting your desired outcomes. ‘Lucky Girl Syndrome’ and writing your own obituary both challenge you to think about and declare what you want. ‘Lucky Girl Syndrome’ focuses on believing you’ll get what you want. Donald Miller’s exercise (as part of his 2022 book Hero on a Mission) challenges you to take it a step further and figure out what you want your life to mean- what do you want and why? With his approach, you create 10-year, 5-year, and 1-year goals to ultimately work towards what’s written in your obituary. For both, you need to answer to the question: what do you want? So, is knowing what you want and believing it will happen all you need to get it? Lucky Girl Syndrome says yes because of two psychological factors: 1. Cognitive Biases: Human cognition is susceptible to biases that influence perception and decision-making. Your brain looks for confirmation of what you already believe. But it doesn’t just influence your belief, it influences your actions. If you believe you’re lucky, you seek out opportunities to confirm it. This is often subconscious, so you feel lucky when you get what you want, but it’s really, at least partially, the result of your actions. 2. Reward System Activation: Neurologically, experiences perceived as positive or rewarding trigger the brain's reward system, primarily involving the release of neurotransmitters like dopamine. My friend @mashalyons posted a Jamie Varon quote on Instagram stories, which embodies this “syndrome”: "Find a way to love your life so much that you feel lucky to be you. Like its a privilege just to wake up as yourself. Like you are utterly charmed by your own life. What a beautiful home you've built. What incredible friends you get to text all day. How you spend your time and your life- genius. What fun! What a strong mind you have. What a way you care for yourself and listen to your needs. What great kids or dogs or cats or plants you've raised. Wow, you've got this whole life thing figured out. Or, if not, look at you, trying to figure it out and fight for your joy. How lucky you are that you get to be you." - Jamie Varon Your luck is subjective. If you feel lucky, you are. The Role of Gratitude Believing you are lucky requires gratitude for what you have as much as it requires thinking you’ll get what you want. Gratitude is essential because, it enables: A Positive Mindset: Gratitude shifts your focus from what you lack to what you have. This positive mindset can fuel your motivation, resilience, and satisfaction. Resilience: Gratitude reframes setbacks as opportunities. When you're grateful, you're better equipped to find silver linings in difficult situations and learn from setbacks. Improved Relationships: Gratitude strengthens relationships by fostering a sense of connection and appreciation for others. Being genuinely appreciated helps others feel more connected to you, which increases their desire to help you. Enhanced Mental Health: Gratitude is linked to numerous mental health benefits, including reduced stress, anxiety, and depression - all of which get in the way of feeling lucky. Increased Productivity and Performance: Studies have shown that gratitude correlates with success. When you're grateful for the opportunities, resources, and abilities you have, you're more likely to make the most of them. Grateful individuals tend to be more proactive, creative, and goal-oriented. Better Opportunities: The laws of attraction suggests that like attracts like. When you radiate gratitude, you attract more positive experiences and opportunities into your life. Others are drawn to those who exude positivity and appreciation. Physical Health Benefits: Gratitude has been linked to numerous physical health benefits, including better sleep, stronger immune function, and lower blood pressure. The Role of Knowing What You Want When 'Lucky Girl Syndrome' asserts that if you believe good things will happen to you, they do, it forces you to define “good things”, which does the following: Sets Goals: When you know where you’re going, getting there is much easier. Improves Self-Awareness: Knowing what you want requires self-awareness—understanding your strengths, values, and passions. This adds meaning to your life and helps you understand why you want the things you do. Empowers You: A clear sense of what you want empowers you to take control of getting it. Donald Miller’s obituary exercise encourages you to look at not just what you want, but how you’re going to get there. His approach is ideal for planners, Enneagram 3s , and people with very specific goals. But if that approach doesn’t appeal to you, knowing what you want and believing you will get it enables your subconscious to work towards it. Maybe that's enough. I'm not saying that knowing what you want and believing you'll get it eliminates obstacles, failures, and disappointments. Nor am I arguing that luck has nothing to do with success or good outcomes, a number of studies and books confirm that it does. But how much of a person’s luck is fueled by gratitude, self awareness, and faith?
Two years ago, I tried the marketing and copywriting AI tool Jasper (at the time branded as Jarvis). I concluded it and similar AI tools weren't worth my time or investment because the output was generic, repetitive and sometimes nonsensical. Then in November 2022, ChatGPT launched and quickly went viral on social media as users shared examples of the impressive ways they were using it. For content creation and copywriting, it was more advanced than any other AI tool I’d seen and free! The AI Copywriting Revolution 🚀 Fast forward to today, AI ( thanks to ChatGPT ) has evolved. It's now the hottest trend in town, with many media outlets predicting AI-tools will revolutionize business practices across every major industry. So, what's behind this meteoric rise in popularity? Let's break it down: Efficiency & Speed: AI tools like GPT-4 have turbocharged the writing process. A first draft that once took a writer 1-2 hours can now be done in minutes. Consistency: AI tools maintain a consistent tone and style regardless of who is inputting the information. Scalability: Not only do AI-tools enable you to create content in a fraction of the time you could do it manually, they allow you to outsource creating it to anyone that can input information. At least in theory. Top AI Tools for Business & Marketing 🛠️ While I don’t believe copywriting AI tools are a good replacement for a human writer of any skill level, they have drastically improved since 2021, and today’s AI tools are absolutely worth investing in. When coupled with a human, these are my favorite AI writing tools: GPT-4: I used it to generate this post. While I did a lot of editing, it gave me a first draft, which likely would’ve taken me close to an hour to write without assistance. Feed it a prompt, and it'll churn out a draft in minutes. The better and more detailed your input, the better output it delivers. And you can give your tool feedback to keep editing the draft. Grammarly: The free version spots grammatical errors and helps you enhance readability. Grammarly Premium does everything the free version does, plus checks for plagiarism, offers recommendations based on over 400+ writing styles, and has an AI writing assistant (although not as sophisticated as GPT-4). SurferSEO: Using AI to analyze top-performing content in your industry, SurferSEO helps you craft SEO-optimized copy based on keyword searches and queries. There are hundreds of AI tools available and dozens specifically for copywriting. Pick a few that work for you. Trying to use too many tools can easily derail your efficiency and productivity. AI needs you to function, not the other way around. Maximizing the AI Advantage 🚀 Now that you have your favorite AI tools in hand, how do you squeeze every last drop of potential from them? Here's the playbook: Customize, Don't Compromise: Don’t expect perfection. AI is not a mind-reader. It’s an interpreter of the knowledge and experiences you give it. It also pulls from other sources around the web to complete your request. The content you publish becomes your digital portfolio, so don't let AI tools diminish the quality of it. Quality Control: Always have a human check the output and edit as needed. I've never published an AI-generated piece that didn’t require edits. Feedback Loop: Get feedback from your marketing tools, audience, customers, or team on AI-generated content. If they report a decrease in quality, relevance or effectiveness, try changing your input or editing processes. What AI Can't Replace 🧠 AI can’t replace you. Because while it can put words on paper for you, it lacks: Creativity: The AI may paint by numbers, but the canvas is still your domain. Innovative ideas, storytelling, wisdom, and expertise gained from experience are firmly in your human court. Empathy: AI doesn't have a heart. It can't truly understand your audience's emotions and respond with the compassion and empathy that only a human can provide. Strategy: Crafting a content strategy that aligns with your business goals requires human finesse. AI can execute, but the roadmap is your creation. There's no question that AI has drastically impacted the marketing and copywriting industries. But like any other technology, it doesn’t function on its own. AI can’t replace a skilled human writer, but it can improve their productivity and efficiency in unprecedented ways. The new era of copywriting and content marketing is not driven by AI, it’s driven by humans leveraging the power of AI.
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‘Lucky Girl Syndrome’ is one of the viral trends on TikTok sweeping the nation. I’m not a TikToker and heard about it much later on a medium more targeted to my (cough - older - cough) demographic - Hoda & Jenna . But it caught my attention because it probably works but for reasons that have nothing to do with luck. What is 'Lucky Girl Syndrome'? The Lucky Girl Syndrome is characterized by an individual's ability to attract seemingly fortuitous outcomes consistently. It’s manifestation in a cuter outfit, complete with pretty TikTokers sharing their amazing results and swearing it will change your life. From winning contests to stumbling upon unexpected opportunities, these women appear to attract luck and claim you can too! How Does It Work? Explanations of how it works center on the power of positive thinking - if you believe you’re lucky, you will be. But is there more to it? It reminds me an exercise I did earlier this year, in which I wrote my own obituary– Donald Miller’s more morbid approach to getting your desired outcomes. ‘Lucky Girl Syndrome’ and writing your own obituary both challenge you to think about and declare what you want. ‘Lucky Girl Syndrome’ focuses on believing you’ll get what you want. Donald Miller’s exercise (as part of his 2022 book Hero on a Mission) challenges you to take it a step further and figure out what you want your life to mean- what do you want and why? With his approach, you create 10-year, 5-year, and 1-year goals to ultimately work towards what’s written in your obituary. For both, you need to answer to the question: what do you want? So, is knowing what you want and believing it will happen all you need to get it? Lucky Girl Syndrome says yes because of two psychological factors: 1. Cognitive Biases: Human cognition is susceptible to biases that influence perception and decision-making. Your brain looks for confirmation of what you already believe. But it doesn’t just influence your belief, it influences your actions. If you believe you’re lucky, you seek out opportunities to confirm it. This is often subconscious, so you feel lucky when you get what you want, but it’s really, at least partially, the result of your actions. 2. Reward System Activation: Neurologically, experiences perceived as positive or rewarding trigger the brain's reward system, primarily involving the release of neurotransmitters like dopamine. My friend @mashalyons posted a Jamie Varon quote on Instagram stories, which embodies this “syndrome”: "Find a way to love your life so much that you feel lucky to be you. Like its a privilege just to wake up as yourself. Like you are utterly charmed by your own life. What a beautiful home you've built. What incredible friends you get to text all day. How you spend your time and your life- genius. What fun! What a strong mind you have. What a way you care for yourself and listen to your needs. What great kids or dogs or cats or plants you've raised. Wow, you've got this whole life thing figured out. Or, if not, look at you, trying to figure it out and fight for your joy. How lucky you are that you get to be you." - Jamie Varon Your luck is subjective. If you feel lucky, you are. The Role of Gratitude Believing you are lucky requires gratitude for what you have as much as it requires thinking you’ll get what you want. Gratitude is essential because, it enables: A Positive Mindset: Gratitude shifts your focus from what you lack to what you have. This positive mindset can fuel your motivation, resilience, and satisfaction. Resilience: Gratitude reframes setbacks as opportunities. When you're grateful, you're better equipped to find silver linings in difficult situations and learn from setbacks. Improved Relationships: Gratitude strengthens relationships by fostering a sense of connection and appreciation for others. Being genuinely appreciated helps others feel more connected to you, which increases their desire to help you. Enhanced Mental Health: Gratitude is linked to numerous mental health benefits, including reduced stress, anxiety, and depression - all of which get in the way of feeling lucky. Increased Productivity and Performance: Studies have shown that gratitude correlates with success. When you're grateful for the opportunities, resources, and abilities you have, you're more likely to make the most of them. Grateful individuals tend to be more proactive, creative, and goal-oriented. Better Opportunities: The laws of attraction suggests that like attracts like. When you radiate gratitude, you attract more positive experiences and opportunities into your life. Others are drawn to those who exude positivity and appreciation. Physical Health Benefits: Gratitude has been linked to numerous physical health benefits, including better sleep, stronger immune function, and lower blood pressure. The Role of Knowing What You Want When 'Lucky Girl Syndrome' asserts that if you believe good things will happen to you, they do, it forces you to define “good things”, which does the following: Sets Goals: When you know where you’re going, getting there is much easier. Improves Self-Awareness: Knowing what you want requires self-awareness—understanding your strengths, values, and passions. This adds meaning to your life and helps you understand why you want the things you do. Empowers You: A clear sense of what you want empowers you to take control of getting it. Donald Miller’s obituary exercise encourages you to look at not just what you want, but how you’re going to get there. His approach is ideal for planners, Enneagram 3s , and people with very specific goals. But if that approach doesn’t appeal to you, knowing what you want and believing you will get it enables your subconscious to work towards it. Maybe that's enough. I'm not saying that knowing what you want and believing you'll get it eliminates obstacles, failures, and disappointments. Nor am I arguing that luck has nothing to do with success or good outcomes, a number of studies and books confirm that it does. But how much of a person’s luck is fueled by gratitude, self awareness, and faith?
Two years ago, I tried the marketing and copywriting AI tool Jasper (at the time branded as Jarvis). I concluded it and similar AI tools weren't worth my time or investment because the output was generic, repetitive and sometimes nonsensical. Then in November 2022, ChatGPT launched and quickly went viral on social media as users shared examples of the impressive ways they were using it. For content creation and copywriting, it was more advanced than any other AI tool I’d seen and free! The AI Copywriting Revolution 🚀 Fast forward to today, AI ( thanks to ChatGPT ) has evolved. It's now the hottest trend in town, with many media outlets predicting AI-tools will revolutionize business practices across every major industry. So, what's behind this meteoric rise in popularity? Let's break it down: Efficiency & Speed: AI tools like GPT-4 have turbocharged the writing process. A first draft that once took a writer 1-2 hours can now be done in minutes. Consistency: AI tools maintain a consistent tone and style regardless of who is inputting the information. Scalability: Not only do AI-tools enable you to create content in a fraction of the time you could do it manually, they allow you to outsource creating it to anyone that can input information. At least in theory. Top AI Tools for Business & Marketing 🛠️ While I don’t believe copywriting AI tools are a good replacement for a human writer of any skill level, they have drastically improved since 2021, and today’s AI tools are absolutely worth investing in. When coupled with a human, these are my favorite AI writing tools: GPT-4: I used it to generate this post. While I did a lot of editing, it gave me a first draft, which likely would’ve taken me close to an hour to write without assistance. Feed it a prompt, and it'll churn out a draft in minutes. The better and more detailed your input, the better output it delivers. And you can give your tool feedback to keep editing the draft. Grammarly: The free version spots grammatical errors and helps you enhance readability. Grammarly Premium does everything the free version does, plus checks for plagiarism, offers recommendations based on over 400+ writing styles, and has an AI writing assistant (although not as sophisticated as GPT-4). SurferSEO: Using AI to analyze top-performing content in your industry, SurferSEO helps you craft SEO-optimized copy based on keyword searches and queries. There are hundreds of AI tools available and dozens specifically for copywriting. Pick a few that work for you. Trying to use too many tools can easily derail your efficiency and productivity. AI needs you to function, not the other way around. Maximizing the AI Advantage 🚀 Now that you have your favorite AI tools in hand, how do you squeeze every last drop of potential from them? Here's the playbook: Customize, Don't Compromise: Don’t expect perfection. AI is not a mind-reader. It’s an interpreter of the knowledge and experiences you give it. It also pulls from other sources around the web to complete your request. The content you publish becomes your digital portfolio, so don't let AI tools diminish the quality of it. Quality Control: Always have a human check the output and edit as needed. I've never published an AI-generated piece that didn’t require edits. Feedback Loop: Get feedback from your marketing tools, audience, customers, or team on AI-generated content. If they report a decrease in quality, relevance or effectiveness, try changing your input or editing processes. What AI Can't Replace 🧠 AI can’t replace you. Because while it can put words on paper for you, it lacks: Creativity: The AI may paint by numbers, but the canvas is still your domain. Innovative ideas, storytelling, wisdom, and expertise gained from experience are firmly in your human court. Empathy: AI doesn't have a heart. It can't truly understand your audience's emotions and respond with the compassion and empathy that only a human can provide. Strategy: Crafting a content strategy that aligns with your business goals requires human finesse. AI can execute, but the roadmap is your creation. There's no question that AI has drastically impacted the marketing and copywriting industries. But like any other technology, it doesn’t function on its own. AI can’t replace a skilled human writer, but it can improve their productivity and efficiency in unprecedented ways. The new era of copywriting and content marketing is not driven by AI, it’s driven by humans leveraging the power of AI.
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