Let’s talk about AI, blogging and the possibility of its potential future demise. In recent years a number of effective AI platforms have arrived, rapidly taking off in terms of user numbers and causing quite a stir regarding their accuracy, effectiveness and usefulness in content writing.
I mean, a tool that can write your blog content for you will make your life so much easier, right?
Or is AI just going to kill off blogging if it’s all just machine generated content?
While AI’s impact on blogging is certainly significant, it’s not necessarily spelling death for the content marketing industry just yet. In fact, the current tech-savvy generation, being more familiar with AI and its many uses, is becoming increasingly discerning about what they read and consume online. Their growing awareness is creating a new dynamic in the blogging world, where authenticity and the human touch are becoming even more valuable than ever before.
This is where blogging becomes a far more valuable tool for your business to continue to build trust, ensure brand loyalty and share valuable expertise with your target audience all meaning one thing:
Blogging certainly isn’t dead anytime soon!
If you are someone who thinks blogging isn’t necessary anymore, then let me explain why every business should still include blogging in their marketing strategy in this still early stage of AI.
AI Powered Google Search
Have you noticed the AI Overview appear at the top of Google’s search results when you are browsing online sometimes?
Understandably Google is prioritising it’s AI overview, over organic content and even (at times) sponsored ads. While some people may be hesitant to trust AI-generated content, I have personally found it quite useful. When I come across an AI overview on the top of Google’s results, I often click through to the linked articles because they clearly show they can provide immediate answers to my questions. This feature on Google should not be overlooked.
AI overviews must source their content from somewhere and getting your content featured in one isn’t easy—much like ranking first organically on Google for a competitive keyword. However, you can improve your chances by:
- Using your blog posts to target long-tail keyword phrases
- Answering questions (in detail) your customers are likely to ask
These strategies can benefit your content in multiple ways:
- Increasing visibility to both AI systems and human readers
- Enhancing your organic SEO strategy
- Providing value even if not directly influencing AI overviews
We’ll explore more reasons why this approach remains important in the following sections.
Changes to User Online Purchasing Behaviour
More and more customers are doing online research before purchasing a product or service. A simple product or service page isn’t likely to be enough to make someone want to buy from you unless what you offer is incredibly rare. Whilst there are many other factors which can influence purchasing behaviour, informative blog content helps to demonstrate your expertise and therefore influence people’s perception of your brand leading to more conversions for you.
Furthermore, you can leverage blog content to improve your visibility in search results, especially for competitive keyword phrases:
- Aim to appear in Google’s People Also Ask section
- Target a greater number of long-tail keyword phrases, which are typically easier to rank for
This strategy can help boost your search presence even when ranking high on Google for competitive keywords proves challenging.
Alt tag or caption the above: “Google’s “People also ask” section can help you find questions users are asking”
Effective blogging serves a multitude of purposes:
- Attracting visitors with targeted content
- Building trust by providing useful and informative articles that reflect your brand identity
- Increasing conversions by strategically including internal links to product or service pages
Demonstrating your Brand Values and Ethics
Many audiences – especially the younger generation – are more likely to purchase from businesses that closely align with their ethics and values, even more so when it comes to sustainability and corporate social responsibility practices.
While these practices are commendable, they often don’t have a natural place in standard website content. As a result, trying to cover everything can make your website feel unfocused and diluted.
So, how can you ensure that your customers and potential customers are aware of your initiatives?
This is where your blog content becomes incredibly useful. A blog allows you to easily share content about the initiatives and activities your business is involved in. It provides a dedicated space to highlight your values without overwhelming your main website pages.
Consider these points:
- A blog helps showcase your commitment to sustainability and social responsibility.
- It allows for more in-depth discussions about your initiatives without cluttering your main site.
Remember, not every blog post needs to be sales-oriented, instead you can use your blog to demonstrate your commitment to important issues, helping to build trust with ethically-minded consumers.
Increase Leads and Conversions
Blog content doesn’t just help bring leads to your website, it can be a powerful tool across your entire sales funnel.
Offering free resources on your blog and encouraging visitors to sign up for a newsletter or access more detailed content is an effective way to attract potential customers, even if they don’t make an immediate purchase.
After this your blog content can also be used within your email marketing to encourage customers to eventually make that final purchase. If you want to go the extra mile, you can also make use of marketing automation tools to drip-feed valuable content easily to your target audience, all you have to do is get that lead into a sales funnel then your automated systems do the rest, and if done well, lead to conversions.
Repurposing your Blog Content
In marketing, it often feels like you must constantly generate new ideas. However, blog content can be easily repurposed across multiple channels, such as:
- Email marketing
- Social media
- Video
- Webinars
- Podcasts
It is very much a best practice to share the content you create across other channels to maximise it’s reach.
Don’t Forget About SEO
We won’t go on about this much as we have said this for years but blogging has so many SEO benefits for your website and your business, it simply shouldn’t be overlooked.
If you aren’t sure how blogging can help your SEO then let’s have a chat, we can show you how it can drive greater levels of relevant traffic and better position you and your business as an expert.
In our estimation, blogging isn’t dead and AI can, if used responsibly, be a huge benefit to you!
Get Help with Blogging and Content Creation
If you have realised that you are missing out a trick for your business by not blogging, but simply don’t have the time or inclination to start writing blogs then come and have a chat with us about how we can help you with not only blogs but your overall content marketing strategy to maximise the effectiveness of your website and other content.
Call 01285 50 55 50, email hello@allthingsweb.co.uk or fill out the form below to get in touch.