The truth about blog content

Hello hello,

With another public holiday on the horizon, I’m sure many of you will be taking advantage of the 4-day weekend. If so, I hope you’ve got something nice planned. If not, a day off halfway through the week is still quite nice, isn’t it?

If you’re anything like me, any downtime is a great opportunity to read. New things, old things, things you’ve wanted to read but haven’t had the time to. Things from your favourite publishers; things from your favourite brands.

So with the prospect of a little extra reading time this week, I decided to research long-form content and its role in content marketing.

Here’s what I’ve got for you today:

Research
🔍 A fact-finding mission on blogs

Strategy
✍️ How to approach your blog when it falls down the priority list

🔍 RESEARCH

A fact-finding mission on blogs

When it comes to content marketing, the subject of blogs can be a controversial one. Long-form content is labour-intensive and when we’re told again and again that people’s attention spans are diminishing, it’s easy to prioritise snappy content to populate our many social channels.

So, is blog content really worth it?

To answer that, I’ve pulled some facts from this HubSpot article.

• Websites with active blogs have 434% more indexed pages and 97% more inbound links than those without.

• Companies that blog get 55% more website visitors than businesses that don’t.

• 70% of people would rather learn about a company through articles than advertisements.

When it comes to driving traffic to your site and gaining trust from potential customers, blogs are an effective tool. But producing that type of content does take work. Just look at these facts from the same article.

• 52% of bloggers say engaging with readers through their content is getting harder.

• 43% of people admit to skimming blog posts.

• 40% of content marketers say original visuals like infographics and videos perform best in their articles.

• 35% of content creators say they struggle with creating original content consistently.

Every brand that starts a blog does so with the best intentions. To begin with, you’re brimming with ideas, then before long, creating long-form content becomes an arduous task, slipping further and further down your ever-growing priority list.

If this sounds familiar, here’s some good news. There’s nothing wrong with irregular content IF you take the right approach.

To explore this further, here’s some advice from content marketing agency, Animalz...

✍️ STRATEGY

How to approach your blog when it falls down the priority list

According to this article, the question you need to ask yourself is this:
“Is my blog a publication or a library?”

The publication model

• Publication blogs rely on a high volume of opinion and on-trend pieces to create an abundant content hub.

• Since timeliness is key, usually these blogs will be organised chronologically (newest to oldest).

• This approach relies heavily on promoting your blog content via other channels to drive traffic. Since the content will only be relevant for a limited time, timely traffic is essential.

The library model

• Library blogs focus on SEO-optimised evergreen content which is designed to rank highly in search and drive traffic to the site on an ongoing basis.

• Content is organised by topics rather than date, ensuring site visitors can navigate the content easily.

• The topics tend to be specialist, focusing on key areas a brand can be the authority on.

• These blogs prioritise quality over quantity.

• With an SEO-first approach, keyword analysis and in-depth coverage is key. Blogs like this may take longer to write but it is not necessary to post them as often.

Which model is right for you?

For one, it depends on the size of your team. Generally, a dedicated content team is required to maintain a publication model, whereas a small team or even one person can manage a library model.

Most likely, your brand will have a mixed approach. A good place to start – especially if you’re short on manpower – is an 80:20 mix. Focus on creating a solid base, where 80% of your blog is SEO-optimised evergreen content with the other 20% made up of topical and/or experimental pieces.

Depending on your industry, you may find these ratios need to shift over time. For example, fashion brands that have seasonal releases may require more timely content.

What you don’t want to do is have inconsistent content that is primarily topical. This approach is the worst of both worlds as it the content has limited relevance with no long-term SEO benefits.

As the saying goes – work smarter, not harder.

💬 SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

Something different this week

Thanks to everyone who has voted on my polls so far. Your feedback is so valuable and helps me to improve this thing week-on-week.

I’ve mentioned the importance of reviews a few times in previous newsletters, so I’m going to take my own advice.

If you’ve enjoyed these newsletters (or if you have feedback to improve them), please leave me a review by rating it and adding a comment to your submission. You’ll be given the option when you click the stars below.

I’ll use these reviews to promote the newsletter on LinkedIn. Don’t worry, I’ll drop your last name and the company you work for to keep it anonymous!

❤️ REFER A FRIEND

Share the love

Know somebody who might like this newsletter?

Thanks for reading!

Until next time.

Alex Murton
Managing Director & Co-Founder
Studio Almond