Blogging has been a “thing” in recent years. Many businesses and solo entrepreneurs have consistently used blogging as a UX marketing strategy. Gone are the days when all companies had to do were to flood the internet with product and service ads. The age of cutesy commercials and product endorsers has also come to a stalemate. Although these traditional marketing methods are still effective to some degree, I can say that they definitely don’t work as brilliantly as they did before. Why is this so?
I’ve got two words for you: Consumer Awareness.
The world has now entered an era of technology, of information. It may have been easy to get people hooked to an idea of a new product or service before, but now it has become a rather challenging ordeal. People refuse to believe first impressions nowadays. They’d rather not acknowledge a product solely based on how it is marketed. The general public has become more aware of their purchasing decisions and they’ve become wiser in deciding which products they are willing to support.
Yes, gone were the days when people chose what to buy base on looks. We’re already welcoming an age of consumer awareness. And if you want to stay in the game, you really got to learn how to ride this big change. Back to blogging.
Why Did Blogging Popularize?
Do you believe that everyone has a voice? I know you do. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t even bother reading this piece of thought. This article, like many others, is a small voice existing in this big virtual world. Through this article, I hope to get in touch with like minds. Through this article, I hope to meet new minds. And finally, through this article, I would like to share a piece of my own mind.
Everyone has a voice but not everyone was allowed to be heard – that is, BEFORE. Thanks to the internet, the opportunity to be heard has become open for almost anyone in the world. Now, you don’t need to be a graduate of journalism to write about real-time events or lifestyle topics you’re interested in. You’re also not required to gather permits or certificates just to be able to publish your own content. All you need are ideas, the passion to write, and a website. When you have these three (expertise in a specific industry is a huge plus!), you’ll be able to get your message across.
Content generated by website owners, expressionists, and idealists is what we often term as “blogs.” It used to be worded as a “weblog” but people soon thought it was too inconvenient to say. Therefore, they truncated the term and it results in the word we popularly use today. Blogging had risen among business websites in response to the public’s demand for consumer awareness. Through blogging, business owners, proprietors, visionaries, and marketers are able to deliver all the information people need to know about the product in the most engaging and user-friendly way possible.
Blogs are often written in an informal manner because they aim to impart product information to people in a conversational manner. Sounding too strict or robotic defeats the entire purpose of blogging as formal writing tend to bore people out of their minds (I can personally attest to this). So when businesses do blogs, they make it warm and lighthearted; open and friendly. After all, people write blogs to connect with people and not to shoo them away.
By blogging, companies are able to hit two birds with one stone. One, they get to throw a product pitch out there. Two, they give people exactly what they want – Consumer Awareness.
The Problem With Blogging
Then again, blogging is only effective when they are made to be. As you may already know, people have this way of ruining groundbreaking methodologies because of laziness and half-heartedness. Because blogging has become a mainstream marketing strategy, to a point where almost every business is doing it, the quality of the blogs created in recent years has spiraled down considerably. It would seem like businesses are busier trying to rank Google and all the other search engines than actually making solid content. They’re too busy fattening their websites with content that they lose track of the real goal.
If you are one of the businesses who has lost track of the purpose of blogging, hear what I have to say: People value quality. They always have and they always will.
If you keep creating half-baked blogs, then you should expect your audience to slowly deplete with time. If your audience can’t find meaning and relevance in what you offer them, then you can forget about ever pitching your product. They won’t even bat an eye in your company’s direction. What you need to do is to quit giving your audience generic content and start creating meaningful ones. You should create the type of content your readers will get a ton of value from and consequently, be able to apply in real online or offline scenarios.
Blog Posts You Should Be Creating For Your Website
If you want to produce blog content that really hits the mark, here are some awesome suggestions:
1. Pros & Cons Blogs
Being able to assess your own product or service objectively becomes a huge trust signal for website users. Most businesses, after all, would try to make everything they sell look, sound, and feel like eye-candy. To be able to criticize your product for its weakness and drawbacks, now, that’s something users don’t see every day. Creating pros and cons blog posts can really help users identify with the product. If anything, it will create more impact. It encourages your audience to buy your product not because it’s perfect or flawless but because its good points outweigh its bad points. Does that make sense? Don’t be afraid to touch on the negative attributes of your products. If you’re confident enough to sell it to the public, then it only goes to show that you believe it can do more good than harm.
2. “How-To” Blogs
People love information. We got that point down several paragraphs ago. But more than just any old information, people love information they have use for the most. When a certain resource provides people with data they can apply to everyday life, that piece of information becomes valuable because it’s usable. How-to blog posts are strong examples of valuable resources. They teach people something (e.g. how to clean, organize, build, maintain, repair, use, etc.) and that alone makes an article more meaningful and relevant. When you make how-to articles about your product, people get a better picture of how they can use it for themselves so it increases their inclination to buy. It is important to be really honest and accurate about the information you include in your how-to blogs – especially when your product may cause the user harm when used incorrectly.
3. Product Review Blogs
This one is for braver souls. If you don’t mind some healthy competition, use your blog section to create reviews about your own products. To establish more trust, you can even allow users or guests to review your products for you in the form of a blog. This way, people can get a closer view of your product and hear about information coming from previous users. You can also try reviewing products or services that may go well with your product (e.g. If you’re selling laundry soap, you can try reviewing washing machines).
4. Instructional Blogs
I’m using the word “instructional” as an umbrella term here. These refer to blogs that give users specific actions to follow. You can use instructional blogs to educate users about the proper usage of certain products instead of creating a very bland and boring product guide. Blogs tend to sound more friendly and informal; it should help you convey your instructions in a more engaging manner.