Ever since primary school, we’ve learned about ‘the purpose of writing’. We never write for no reason. Even if it’s something for our eyes only—like a journal or a shopping list—our purpose of writing is to ensure we’ll remember something (which is true for both examples). When we write, we’re putting something out there for a particular audience, even if that audience is only ourselves. When we write in a business-to-business (B2B) context, we’re writing to engage, inform, and ultimately to boost sales. We also achieve this via search engine optimization (SEO) strategies, which you can weave into your writing.
When writing a B2B blog, you’re going for a smart tessellation of quality writing and seamlessly incorporated keywords. Ideally, the writing will be top-notch, but the real power lies in the keywords. You’ll want to choose your words wisely. And if you can grasp this concept, you’re already thinking like a B2B blog strategist.
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Information or transactions?
For the purpose of online purchasing, keywords come in two different variants: informational and transactional. It can be tempting to spam your blog post with as many keywords as is possible. However, a B2B blog strategist knows that the strategy is in the selection. In essence, these are the differences between the two different keywords:
Transactional keywords are for people making an immediate purchase. Don’t use them in your blog, but rather on the landing pages of your website.
Informational keywords are the ones you use in your blog. They’re for people who are researching or contemplating a purchase. They’re ‘just (Internet) browsing’.
How do you tell the difference between the two types? Let’s say someone wants to hire a marketing agency. The keyword ‘best marketing agency Melbourne’ tells us that the user is looking for a top recommendation to hire sooner rather than later. Ergo, this is a transactional keyword.
The keyword ‘how much do marketing agencies charge’ is informational because, well, it’s seeking further information. This tells you the user is still considering the idea of hiring a marketing agency but is still nutting out the details. Telltale signs of an informational keyword are words like ‘how’, ‘when’, or ‘what’.
Keywords are your base
Once you’ve selected your informational keywords, use these to form the basis of your blog post. If people are searching these particular keywords in Google (or search engine of choice), then they want answers relating to these queries. The best way to spark reader interest and generate sales is to answer their questions in language they understand. Keep it simple, engaging, and remember the importance of writing to a particular audience.
A few things to bear in mind:
- Don’t select a topic and then find top-ranking keywords to awkwardly wedge in. Let keywords inform your topic and you’ll generate far more leads.
- So long as you’ve included the critical keyword(s), you won’t need to alter your copy. Don’t tailor your copy for search engines. Users will respond better to more authentic-sounding copy.
- Keep it digestible. Break up your blog post into subheadings and bullet points (case in point).
Review and refine
After you’ve thrown your bait out there a few times, you’ll want to check if you got some nibbles. Corporate blog metrics are a complex kettle of fish, but to top and tail it, look out for:
- Organic traffic, aka users who visit your website without financial incentive
- Search Engine Ranking Positions (SERPs), or where your web pages fall in Google search results
- Conversation rates, aka the amount of users who perform a valuable interaction with your business (e.g. making a phone call or providing their contact information via a form).
Once you have observed your results, you’ll have a better picture of what’s working, what’s not, and what (if anything) you’ll need to modify to improve your results for next time. Sometimes it’s a matter of including better-ranking keywords. Other times, it can help to employ further resources in the name of creating deeper, more insightful copy that provides a more thorough response to the users’ enquiries. The issue might be something as simple as formatting, where the content is not presented in an engaging way, or there is a lack of high-quality graphics. Your insights will help inform what to change moving forward. Constant monitoring is key to a successful B2B marketing strategy.
Any further takeaways?
Consider this blog an introduction to B2B blog strategy. We have touched on the main points, but there is a whole ocean of further information out there. To learn more about B2B blog strategy, do a quick Google search. You’ll know the first few listings would have used every strategy in the book to land themselves on top! There are also so many B2B marketing agencies out there with thorough insights into the tricks of this trade. Give one of them a call.
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