Everyone says it. These days prospects are more educated and further along in the buying cycle by the time they talk to you. You need to get your name out there, and show your expertise, where those prospects are doing their research. One of the best ways to do that is with blog posts.
Good blog posts are not easy to produce. So when you and your team spend the time to write that content, you want it to be seen by as many people as possible.
You could put the blog post on your own website. Or you can put it out on the larger group blog site where it can be seen by more people.
Plus, if prospects see posts from your competitors on the group blog site, of course you want to be sure they see your content too so they know that they have options.
That all makes sense but how can you actually prove the value of your group blog membership?
1) Referral Clicks to Your Website
When you check the analytics for your website, you can see which sites are sending traffic to your site. These are called “referral sources”. Everyone loves referrals. Those are people that read a blog post, liked something they read, and wanted to know more about us. If we had paid for those clicks it would have been thousands of dollars.
One thing I love about blogging is that I can still get referral clicks from blog posts I wrote years ago. Those blog posts are still working for me. Every click to my website is proof that blogging is worth it.
Do posts on group blogs really get more traffic? To answer this question for myself I did a little experiment. I posted an article on the company blog of a Dynamics ERP VAR. In one year it got 260 views. Then I posted a rewritten version of the article, on exactly the same topic, on the ERP Software Blog on that VARs account. In one year the article got 6,539 views. That is over 2000% more traffic to the article posted on the group blog site.
2) Getting Found in Directories
I realize that not every company can publish so many blog posts. But even if you haven’t posted in a while, you are still listed in all the directories. Prospects can find you based on location and industry expertise. We promote those directory pages and they get a ton of traffic. You want your company to be listed there. You want your company listed in as many places as possible. For example, check out the ERP Software Blog Directories.
Here is one example: The Partner directory pages on the ERP Software Blog are ranking #1 and #2 on Google's organic search results for the keyword "Top Dynamics ERP Partners."
3) Third Party Credibility
It is one thing if you post an article on your own website and say how smart you are. But doesn’t it seem more credible when someone reads about how smart you are in an educational post, on a site that allows multiple experts to share their content? Think about it, when you are researching a purchase, where do you do your research? Likely, not just on the seller’s website.
Did you know that our sites are constantly promoting your posts on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook too? That is pushing your brand name out to more people.
4) Prospect Feedback
I’ve met more than one blog member that told me they had prospects call them and specifically tell them they had read their blog post and picked up the phone. Of course, this is the ideal scenario. These blog members have no question in their minds at all that blogging is worth it. But this type of value is harder to track. When a prospect contacts you, remember to ask them how they found out about you. Their answer may surprise you.
“I got a new client because of your site. They told me they saw the list of Partners in the directory, found one located near them and called us. Thank you for giving us the Arizona spot.” - Dexpro Dynamics
Next Steps….
Membership to the ERP Software Blog, ERP Cloud Blog and CRM Software Blog is simple. We want to make it easy for ERP/CRM VAR and ISV Partners to be able to prove the value of blogging.
By Anya Ciecierski, Co-Founder, ERP Blog LLC
Join a group blog at www.groupbloggers.com