Blogging 101: Part one
Thinking about starting a blog? There’s never been a better time to do it.
The latest research shows that blogs are read by a whopping 77% of internet users. That equates to just under 4 billion people who actively seek out blog content on a regular basis.
This puts organisations that blog at a competitive advantage.
How? For starters, they receive 55% more website visitors and 97% more links to their website. That’s an impressive amount of traffic for a tactic that costs 62% less than traditional marketing formats but generates 3x the leads.
If you consider that 70% of people would rather learn about an organisation through blog posts than ads, you’ll see why a blog is a no-brainer.
In short, if you’re not blogging, you’re missing out.
What is a blog?
For the unfamiliar, let’s kick off with a definition.
A blog (short for weblog) is a regularly updated website or web page that provides business content.
It’s a powerful marketing channel (just like social media, direct mail, email marketing, etc.,) that can be used (among other things) to publish insights, thoughts, stories, and educational content.
Why blog?
The primary purpose of blogging is to boost traffic to your website. But it also provides you with an opportunity to provide an expert voice and engage supporters.
Let’s look at these in a little more detail.
1. Boost website traffic
When you want to research something, be it a product, service, or company, where do you look? The internet.
Search engines (i.e., Google, Bing, Microsoft Edge) are our first port of call to find information. This includes donors looking for charities to support.
If you want your website to be the first one donors see, you need to be at the top of the search pages (just as RSPCA is when you type in ‘animal charities UK’).
SEO, or ‘search engine optimization’ is the process of improving your website to push it further up the search pages on the search engines.
Here are three ways blogging helps with SEO.
New Content
Search engines love fresh, high-quality content. By regularly publishing blog posts on your website, you’re signalling to search engines that your site is active, relevant, and authoritative.
The more blog content you create, the more opportunities you’ll have to show up in search engines and drive traffic to your website.
Keyword Optimisation
Blogging provides a valuable opportunity to incorporate keywords and phrases into your content. This improves your website's visibility in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Backlinks
One of the most important factors in SEO is the quality and quantity of backlinks pointing to your site. A backlink is when one website links to another with an anchor text. An example of a backlink is any article you find that links to another source or website.
Blogging can help you attract backlinks by creating valuable, shareable content that other websites will want to link to.
2. Provide an expert voice
Want people to see you as the go-to charity in your niche? A blog can help you achieve it. If you publish high-quality, original content that educates and informs your audience on a regular basis, they’ll keep coming back for more.
You can educate your audience by:
Offering practical tips and advice
Example: Supporting a partner with depressionSharing useful insights from events/research
Example: 6 take-home messages from the world’s largest haematology conferenceIncluding interviews/opinions/thought pieces from experts in your niche
Example: International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2022: Meet professor Melissa Westwood
Promoting other organisations that offer support in your niche
Example: Guest blog: Disability Law ServiceHow-to posts
Example: Testicular cancer: symptoms, tests, and treatment, and how to check your balls
3. Engage supporters
In a recent blog post, we explained that humans are hardwired to respond to stories. They activate emotional centres in our brains, evoking strong, visceral reactions such as empathy and anger. When emotions are triggered, it inspires us to act (i.e., make a donation). This makes story telling an incredibly powerful tool for fundraisers.
Okay, but what sort of stories trigger emotion? Stories about:
The issues you’re tackling
Example: Violence against women: the statistics around the worldThe people you help
Example: Sarah’s storyYour supporters
Example: Starlight Champion and Cyclist: Richard BetteridgeThe impact you have
Example: Ukraine one year on: the Red Cross Red Crescent's response
Final Word
In this post, we’ve told you why you should be blogging. In the next couple of posts, we’ll tell you how to blog, share some best practice tips in terms of format, design, content, and promotion, and look at some real-life examples for inspiration.
In the meantime, if you’re looking to launch a blog but don’t have the time or resources to get it off the ground, we can help. Give us a call on 020 3750 3111 to find out how.