With the rise of video and podcasting, one may assume that running a blog is lifeless as an efficient advertising channel.
In spite of everything, it appears we’ve got an obsession with killing issues off. Within the new millennium, we had the Y2K laptop scare. When expertise 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, search engine optimisation, YouTube, podcasting, and extra and requested them, “Are blogs lifeless? ” This is what they stated.
Are blogs lifeless?
Based on entrepreneurs, not even shut. Blogs proceed to be extraordinarily beneficial for lead technology, model consciousness, and search engine optimisation. They usually’re nonetheless widespread amongst customers. A HubSpot examine discovered that 60% of individuals learn a weblog at the least as soon as per week. So, blogs will not be out of entrepreneurs’ toolbox anytime quickly.
In all equity, this query surrounding blogs shouldn’t be with out cause. Google Tendencies exhibits that within the final 5 years, the curiosity in blogs has steadily declined worldwide.
Within the U.S. throughout the identical five-year span, video has risen in recognition and surpassed blogs in searches.
Nonetheless, blogs are nonetheless viable advertising 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 day by day with WordPress and Tumblr being the most well-liked platforms.
Entrepreneurs nonetheless take into account running a blog a prime advertising channel. Ross Simmonds, a B2B advertising knowledgeable and the founding father of the content material advertising 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 hundreds of 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 isn’t sufficient to simply have a weblog these days.
“It’s essential to persistently create content material that’s extra beneficial than your competitors’s content material. It’s essential to be an search engine optimisation knowledgeable to get your articles rating on web page one in every of Google, and also you want a distribution technique to advertise your content material throughout all of the channels your viewers likes to devour content material on,” says Toner.
“It is much more complicated to win at running a blog now, however if you happen to can grasp it, it is definitely worth the funding.”
Transparency is an even bigger accountability, particularly as customers are paying nearer consideration to a model’s values and its stance on social points.
“It’s essential to take into consideration how folks 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 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 Channels
Now that different content material advertising channels – specifically video and podcasting – have surpassed blogs, will blogs quickly grow to be redundant?
Nicely, all of it is dependent upon the person personas you are focusing on. However at the same time as different platforms develop, blogs nonetheless supply many benefits.
“Podcasting shouldn’t be with out its personal set of limitations. There are many discoverability and viewers development challenges. At this level, blogs have a fairly well-dusted playbook for scaling. That is not true for podcasts,” says Matthew Brown, senior podcast producer at HubSpot.
“An organization can use its doubtless restricted sources to put money into 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 cause to decide on between two platforms in case your group has the bandwidth to deal with each.
If it aligns together with your person personas, you may interact your viewers from a number of angles.
“Making a weblog constructed of articles round the advantages of your product will probably be useful. Having a video showcasing its use or the right way to set up it might be helpful on your viewers,” says Chacon.
He continues, “Dwelling Depot has carried out a incredible job of doing this. Whereas they inform and educate their prospects on their merchandise, in addition they add a fast ‘how-to’ for the extra educated one who 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 arduous to match it to blogs as every platform serves totally different functions.
“Social content material would not at all times 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, participating with them one-on-one, and establishing belief by way of neighborhood constructing.”
She provides that social media may 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 usually 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 a number of brief sentences with out having the advantage of particular results or audio engineers out there to their video and podcast creating counterparts.”
What it usually comes all the way down to is your model targets and which channels will allow you to 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 collection of weblog posts on their model uplift skill, identical to you would not measure a podcast present’s lead technology. That’s except 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 price optimization (CRO) specialist to work on my weblog. By combining these ability 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 yr 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 movement.”
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 printed. Aja Frost, who leads the English search engine optimisation group at HubSpot, echoes this sentiment.
“Natural site visitors is extra necessary than ever. In contrast to paid site visitors, which stops coming within the second your price range runs out, natural site visitors is usually self-sustaining after you’ve got put within the effort and time to create a weblog put up,” she says.
She provides that the majority content material administration techniques (CMS) have search engine optimisation instruments built-in into their platforms, which makes it simpler to optimize your posts.
Running a blog may also be beneficial in shaping a model’s product positioning.
“Blogs are nonetheless among the best channels we’ve got to create narratives round our product,” says HubSpot Product Advertising Supervisor Alex Girard. “They provide us the chance to handle tendencies we see available in the market, how these tendencies affect the reader, and the way our product would possibly be capable to assist them meet that development 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 should be promotional. If you set up your self as a thought chief and achieve the belief of your viewers, they may organically look into your services.
With that stated, it is going to take greater than good content material to have a profitable weblog.
“Progress and not using a aim is not going to assist what you are promoting – if 10,000 individuals are studying your weblog, however none of them suit your persona, that is not going to do something on your firm,” says HubSpot’s Senior Weblog Supervisor Karla Heseterberg. “Give attention to one thing attainable, like producing new contacts, and ensure each put up 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 folks 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 provides.
Study extra about that by means of HubSpot’s enterprise running a blog course.
From an search engine optimisation perspective, manufacturers may battle with producing site visitors as a result of they’re pondering weblog first, hyperlink constructing second.
“What I usually 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 right way to earn backlinks to them,” says Irina Nica, a senior product advertising supervisor at HubSpot who works on product consciousness by means of outreach initiatives.
“As an alternative, they need to embrace linkable property into their common content material calendar, alongside different sorts of articles which can be possibly designed for producing natural or social media site visitors.”
Regardless of the various advantages we have gone over, running a blog is not at all times the perfect technique for each model. Why? Nicely, what in case your splendid person persona would not learn blogs? What if they like emails as an alternative?
“Some manufacturers have nice e-mail communication and workflows the place they supply folks with downloadable provides the place they do not should go some other place to get the knowledge, it is simply of their inbox immediately,” says Mpouma.
“You do not essentially want a weblog so long as you are providing one thing in change. I believe the weblog has at all times been that: Supply one thing totally free in change for that person interplay.”
So, in that case, blogs would not precisely be lifeless, extra so irrelevant.
Why Advertising Is not Useless
issues from a broader perspective, blogs are simply an extension of promoting. Some have advised that advertising is lifeless, which makes entrepreneurs like me marvel if there’s one thing we do not know.
Based mostly on latest information, advertising remains to be influential. And that applies to each conventional methods and digital initiatives. Statista reported that in 2022, content material advertising generated over $63 billion in income worldwide.
“There is a cause why Nike and Mcdonald’s proceed to take a position hundreds of thousands each month in advertising although they’re already family names. There is a cause why the highest musicians and artists nonetheless do promotion previous to their newest album launch,” says Simmonds.
“Advertising is not to be seen as simply an expense. It is an funding. And if you happen to 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 Useless
The important thing takeaway is that whereas not all advertising 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 may relaxation and step off the chopping block.
Editor’s observe: This text was initially printed in February 2021 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness. 
