Is it really necessary to blog and post on social media every week to achieve good quality B2B marketing impact? It’s a question many of us think, but few give voice to.
In a world of FOMO (fear of missing out), it’s easy to get caught in the trap of trying to out-post your competitors, or at least stay as active as others in your field. But it’s worth giving pause for thought – what are you trying to achieve with weekly blog posts and daily social media activity?
There’s no question that content creation, such as an informative blog, can help raise a company’s profile right up to #1 Google search result for a relevant topic. Case in point, one of our longest-standing clients, Netsend, now sits at the number 1 spot for highly relevant searches such as ‘Electronic Document Distribution’. This has taken years of carefully written blog content, website content, shared content and social media engagement to achieve.
But too often businesses launch into relentless ‘content creation’ without a clear plan. That’s like trying to become an authority on a topic by babbling about all and everything, endlessly, to everyone. Not smart.
Plan first, then blog and post
Blog writing and, by extension, social media engagement, should be driven by an overarching marketing plan. What is it that your business excels at? What can you legitimately aim to become an authority in? How does this tie back into business objectives? Will time writing blog posts and engaging socially result in tangible growth, and demonstrable ROI?
If you’re not sure, you really need to step back and look at your brand’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats – build a classic SWOT analysis. Then overlay this against your messaging framework (or talk to us about creating one) and establish a solid communication and engagement plan to build authority and raise awareness in the most effective way.
Blogging doesn’t need to be a full-time job
Most brands we work with in the B2B technology space can’t justify an ongoing full-time role for content creation and social media engagement. Things often need a hearty push to get going, but then it’s a case of being smart about how you listen to social media, influencers and competitors (think ‘alerts’ and ‘filtered aggregation’) and then creating and sharing content that engages your desired audience well over time.
The science of blogging for marketing impact
It really is a science. Take time out to re-evaluate your blogging strategy, content creation and social media plans. Ensure everything ties back into the overarching marketing strategy. Track how insight flows back up from touchpoints with your audience, as well as internal metrics from sales and lead-scoring processes. What is working best, what is not working so well, and what can we do without?
Maybe some of your current efforts could be better applied to other aspects of the marketing mix? Maybe you don’t need to blog and post on social media quite as much as you thought, or maybe working smarter will result in far higher results from the same level of effort.