So I guess you may think it’s a little post modern writing a blog post about blog posts, but here goes.
Blogging is now seen as an integral part of most business’s online presence, however, blogging is not so prevalent across scientific suppliers websites. So why should blogging be part of your content marketing strategy?
1. Blog posts help develop a narrative with your prospects, customers and clients. They give your brand a personality and a tone of voice. They can help communicate your brand values and your companies services and offerings in an interesting way.
2. Your blog can help establish you as a thought leader within you market place. It is a place where you can discuss important topics, introduce new products, applications or research and offer new insights to your customer base. If prospects find answers to their questions or discover an interesting piece of research via your company blog posts then they are more likely to turn into a good quality sales lead.
3. Blogging can help your business boost exposure, increasing your SEO and SERP. SERP are Search Engine Results Pages, these are pages displayed by search engines in response to a query by a user. The more pages your website has, the more chances you have to rank in search results. Every time you post a new blog post on your website you create a new webpage that could rank.
4. By producing a new blog post you keep your website updated and current. You’re probably not going to have too many reasons to constantly update the main body of your homepage on a frequent basis, so your blog acts as a practical tool for adding regular new content to your website.
Ultimately your blog can help increase traffic to your website helping you generate new leads, drive conversion and business growth.
There are many types of blog post formats that you can utilise for your website:
Newsworthy articles
As an innovative science company you will probably have lots of news you want to communicate to the market place. Your blog allows for you to construct a long-form content piece about a new product, an application note or piece of research you have conducted. Alternatively you may want to present some news from your market place, demonstrating that your organisation is keeping current with the latest science trends, showing that you are an authority in your field.
Case studies
In the science community case studies offer an excellent opportunity for prospects to learn about how your service or product may have helped a key opinion leader, or customer in a similar position to themselves. This will not only give people an opportunity to see how practically your offering can be applied, but also help build confidence in your organisation.
Expert interviews and round table discussions
Interviews and round tables can help draw prospects to your blog because you will be offering a truly unique piece of content that can’t be found anywhere else. Ultilising expert key opinion leaders will position your company as a thought leader in the market place and there’s a good chance that the interviewee will want to share the content with their networks, further extending the reach of your content and driving more visitors to your website.
Infographics
An infographic blog post can be easy to digest, informative, and an entertaining piece of content that acts as a refreshing break from typically wordy articles. Infographics really appeal to visual learners, which are estimated to make up 65% of the population. They also benefit from performing extremely well when being shared on social media compared to text posts.
How-to guides
Producing a how-to guide blog post about one of your technical products or an application will show your customers that you value them and want to support them. Not only will a how-to guide position you favourably with you customers, helping you build better long term advocacy, but it may also help out your technical department, alleviating some of the frequently asked questions they may receive on a regular basis.
List posts
Blog posts constructed from lists are a very popular format and well received by readers. They act as a great way to streamline information in an easily digestible way that readers can quickly skim through to get to the information they find most relevant.
Conference and meeting takeaways
If you have just presented a scientific paper or poster at a conference then creating a blog post about it will help deliver it to a much wider audience. You may also want to highlight some of the key takeaways and learnings from a meeting to communicate with people who were unable to attend.
Behind the scenes
A behind the scenes blog post allows you to showcase the value of your in-house services, the quality of your manufacturing process and the level of technical expertise you have on offer . Alternatively you may want to use this format of post to introduce different members of your team, giving a more human face to your company.
When creating your blog posts it is good practice to add a call to action or next step for your prospects to take after reading your content. Adding a call to action at the end of each of your blog post will give you the opportunity to further engage with your readers and give you the possibility to gain further insights into your prospects.
If you have a pay off to your customer that is of high value then consider “gating” the piece. Ask the prospect to fill in a form in order to download the full version of an application note, e-book or white paper. This will allow you to learn more about the prospect and further communicate and engage with them.
Polymorphic Marketing can help you plan out and produce content for your blog posts - contact us to arrange a free consultancy call.
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