It's unfortunate that we continue to see common misconceptions about the merits of blogging. Blogging may have gotten a bad reputation over the years, with (it seems) everyone who has an opinion having a blog, sharing their educated (and sometimes uneducated) opinions to the “blogosphere.”
Although that particular kind of blogging can be unprofessional and (many times) unimportant clutter, company blogs are actually a great way to upload fresh, relevant content to your website.
Confession: I am obsessed with research. I will spend hours poring over information to ensure that I have all the facts and angles figured out.
I also happen to be very skeptical when doing research, wondering: Who’s credible? Is what I’m reading just a ploy to convince me of something or are there others who agree?
That said, I am a huge believer in reading reviews, Googling additional information, and… checking the comments section.
If your company has been blogging for years, you have likely had many campaigns that have inspired blogs posts. But now that those campaigns have ended, you may be wondering: “What purpose do these posts serve now that my campaigns are over?”
Besides the obvious SEO benefit of blog posts, there is another benefit to keeping them in your repertoire: You can recycle them.
Here are a few ways to repurpose your old content to drive user engagement and traffic to new campaigns.
Safe content sucks. It certainly isn’t a revolutionary statement. It’s actually a pretty obvious statement. However, the concept becomes extremely daunting when you think about applying it to your veterinary practice’s marketing plan. You’re probably thinking: “Damn it, Jim, I’m a Doctor, not a risk taker.” (if you got that reference, I like you already).
Imagine this scenario: You publish a blog on your prestigious and professional site about….
Dog crap.
In college, I had a class that really helped me develop a greater understanding of content. We studied how content affects individuals differently and evaluated how and why people engage more with varying types of content. One area of focus was interactive content.
"What can you do for me?"
Site visitors will be looking at many types of content on your website to try to uncover this information, but one effective way to help answer that question for them is to include a section for testimonials that showcase customer delight. When a site visitor reads success stories and learns how your business's products or services solved problems for your existing customers, it can help the new prospect move through the buyer's journey by showing them how they can benefit from working with you.
Creating relevant and compelling content isn't as simple as randomly choosing a topic. There are very specific steps to take to successfully create content that reaches your target audience. I happened to learn these through experience. I like to call it:
After working in marketing for a little while, you start to think differently. The other night I was scrolling through my Facebook feed and saw an interesting article. Pause. Interesting article. What made it interesting? I had to stop and think about it, because I am my own audience, and if I know what interests my own brain, I can understand what interests my audience.
The internet continues to shake up the world of copyright law. Most people don't know exactly what copyright infringement entails, and it's constantly getting them into BIG trouble.
One of the more popular cases over the years that ended up favorably was Lenz versus Universal Music Corp. In 2007, a very proud mother posted a video of her daughter lip syncing to a Prince song, then posted it on Youtube for all the world to enjoy. Universal Music Corp was not amused and forced Youtube to take the video down because they felt the mother's video violated their copyright of the song.
