5 Things to Know Before Investing in Blogs
So you want to start a blog for your cannabis business. Great idea! Blogs are a great way to support your marketing and SEO strategy by creating content that uses long-tail keywords, giving Google more pages to index, and providing value to your audience at every stage of the buyer's journey. But before you invest, there's a few things you need to know.
1. Successful blogs takes time
Blogging success does not happen overnight! Blogs help your business by giving Google more pages to crawl and index, and better understand what your business does. In turn, this helps you show up in more relevant searches which brings in more traffic to your website. It's a cycle of escalation- the more relevant searches you show up in, the more traffic comes to your site. the more traffic that comes to your site, the more Google shows your page. Good blogs can take 3 - 6 months to see an uptick in web traffic and SERP rankings. Like most things in cannabis, patience is key.
2. You get what you put in
Let's be blunt: blogging can be a strong addition to your marketing strategy, or it can be a total waste of time. If you're not using a professional to craft research-based blogs based in topics your audience is interested in, using targeted keywords, or putting out content consistently, it's going to long, slow road to nowhere. If you’re not ready to invest the time and money, that’s okay! Just know that when you want to dive into blogs, it takes time, energy, and an investment.
3. Blogging pays off long term
Unlike social media posts with a short shelf life, emails that get buried, or paper pieces that get thrown away, blogging brings you new traffic and customers for months or years to come. You own your website, so you know the content isn't going anywhere. You can update it and re-promote it as needed, and you can even repurpose the content into other marketing pieces. Good blogs pay for themselves in the long run by continually bringing in new visitors to your site and maintaining or increasing your SERP.
4. Blogs talk to more than one audience
Your blog actually has two audiences, primary and secondary. Your primary audience is the audience you're selling to. This audience wants information on your products, services, and general questions. They have three stages of the buyer's journey to go through, and they want information from you at every step of the way.
Your secondary audience may be interested in your products or services, but they're not your main target audience. Your secondary audience is composed of industry professionals, colleagues, and other companies in your space. For them, your blog is a source of education and thought leadership they can learn from and share with their audience.
5. Long form content isn't everything
No hate on long form content- it's important! But 2,000+ word blogs have a time and a place, and that shouldn't be the only thing you publish. Your blog should be a mix of content lengths and topics that are relevant to your audience. Long blogs increase time spent on page and give Google more to index, but it's not all your audience wants from you. With so many different kinds of blogs, don't be afraid to mix it up.
