If you’re struggling to find the right method to get through the madness, start simple — create a blog.

Blogs bring big benefits

Short, high-quality blog posts on your website are a great tool to drive branding. They:

• Improve search engine optimization (SEO).
• Reach and influence your target markets through stories, keywords, and successes
• Drive traffic to your website from social media and newsletters.
• Set a strong foundation for long-form written material, video content, and speeches.

Unlike op-eds and press releases, blogs are stylistically flexible. They can be written objectively like a news article or in a personal fashion. You can provide thought leadership on a key industry, highlight employee contributions or company goings-on, or showcase client case studies.

Blog posts can even be done as videos. This is an expensive but often compelling way to reach and influence target markets.

Whatever style you choose, the most important consideration is whether a blog accomplishes your organization’s strategic goals. If it does, dedicate the time to make it a success. You may also want to consider investing in digital advertising to increase web traffic and brand recognition.

Bonus benefit: Boost your blog

One potentially effective tactic to boost your blog is to allow republishing by outside entities. This is most often done in four ways:

• At-will republishing by anyone
• Limited republishing by anyone
• At-will republishing by specific partners
• Limited republishing by specific partners

While republishing agreements can be financially profitable, this is unlikely to be successful unless you offer proprietary information, industry-leading analysis, or something else which is unique. You are likely best served by finding strategic partners who see value in republishing your work at no cost.

What’s the right blog for you?

Blogging brings great results for brands small and large. Gary Vaynerchuk famously posts videos and written content. One of our clients saw their site visits triple after we began creating five posts per week for them. Business consultant and Proven Media Solutions friend Susan Trivers’ blog creates excellent content for her weekly newsletter. And one federal contractor recently told us that it is considering basing its entire marketing program on thrice-weekly posts.

We urge everyone to consider creating a blog. If you aren’t sure how to get started, contact us today. We’ll help you determine if a blog will accomplish your goals. If it does, we’ll help you create the right content to reach and influence your target markets.