Skip to content

Why now is the best time to start inbound blogging

3 mins read

There’s no doubt that COVID-19 is having a profound effect on our daily lives. While the virus has had devastating implications across the globe on both individuals and companies, there are ways that businesses such as yours can find opportunity amid the uncertainty. 

 

This presents the chance for you to plan ahead by enacting a cost-effective and engaging marketing strategy that can be done entirely online, with proven results for thousands of businesses worldwide. Welcome inbound blogging. 

Inbound blogging: what is it and why should I care?

Put simply, inbound blogging is the act of creating compelling written content to provide education, answer the questions potential customers have and keep your existing ones engaged. Ultimately, this type of content creation builds trust and works wonders for nurturing relationships with them. 

Inbound blogging is one of the most effective ways of converting more customers and building relationships with return and future buyers in a cost-effective way. In fact, inbound blogging is one of the few marketing tools in any business’ arsenal that can be done completely for free. 

It’s true to say that a lot of your potential customers - whether you’re a B2B or B2C company - will be less likely to buy your services or products at the moment, depending on your industry. However, that’s not to say that they won’t want to buy from you down the line. 

A new year is approaching and with it, many will enter 2021 with an attitude of reclaiming lost time, taking opportunities and fully acclimatising to their new digitally-hosted daily reality. That’s where inbound blogging comes in.

By publishing blogs on your website that cover topics a potential customer would need to know about your services or products, you can attract, engage and turn that curious reader into a sales qualified lead. It's completely free to get started by the way.

This budget efficient method that HubSpot champions helps to showcase your business as a trustworthy source of information. With a focus on customer-driven resources and good user experience, you’re bound to build stronger relationships with prospects. 

More time online equals more opportunities

Across the world internet providers are reporting increases in usage, with forecasts predicting it will only continue to rise.

We recently wrote about COVID-19’s impact on worldwide internet use, as reports show that in the UK, Vodafone and TalkTalk have seen 30% and 20% increases respectively, with the figures even higher for the rest of Europe. 

The time may not be right for your potential customers to buy, but the time is right for you to start building their awareness of you and cultivating your reputation and relationship. 

Video is one of the fastest-growing forms of content on social media. Snapchat stories, IGTV, YouTube series and the explosion of TikTok. Video - especially vertically filmed and optimised for social channels - is seeing a level of growth and popularity that even long time advocates of the benefits of video content couldn't have fully predicted. 

Make the most of your video content by embedding videos from your social media into blogs. Repurposing video content is not only a great time saver but it's cost effective.

Video helps to humanise your brand and works towards making you more trustworthy and personable too. You can check out Vidyard's own Yaniv Siegel, who did a fantastic talk all about captivating prospects with video.

Knowing what to write

Now you know what inbound blogging is and why you should do it. But how do you do it, exactly? Your aim with any content should be to support your customer through any stage of their buying journey.

One way to do this is to use your content to bring value by answering their questions clearly and upfront. Keeping them informed and up to date on things such as your business and wider industry news is another. 

In a time where many businesses have had to close their doors for good, some more sudden than others, a steady stream of content is key in establishing that you're still ready to do business and help your potential customers.

To find inspiration for your blogs: 

  1. Look into news and recent developments or success within your industry
  2. Think of some basic need-to-know topics and compile a working document of FAQs your sales and social media teams often get asked
  3. Use Google Trends to decide between potential blog topics by seeing which is most searched for. Be sure to change the settings to the correct country for your target audience
  4. Type in the start of a question based around your industry keywords and use search engine autocomplete to see the different commonly-searched options
  5. When writing a blog to answer Google, take a look at their ‘People also asked’ section, usually found on the first page of results
  6. See what your competitors are writing about, then write about those topics better, with more research and more personality 

Inbound blogging is a long-term strategy and as we're spending more time online than ever, it’s the perfect moment to get started. 

Getting started with inbound blogging may seem daunting, especially for businesses unfamiliar with social media or any type of digital marketing strategy. If you feel that you don’t have the time, know-how or team size to be able to manage your own inbound marketing strategy, don’t fret.

There are plenty of industry-leading agencies at your disposal that can offer a helping hand when it comes to thinking of and creating content for your business. But for now, these templates might do the trick. 

Getting started: your strategy for future success 

So as far as next steps go, we suggest using our free inbound marketing templates - especially our content audit. It will help you identify gaps in your content so that you can create future blogs that bridge those gaps and focus on the most impactful content you can produce. 

Significant results for an inbound blogging strategy can take around six months to be seen after first implementing the strategy.

To get started, use our free inbound marketing blog templates. You can download them today, simply click below.