4 Best Practices for Associations Looking to Start a Blog

Content creation is an essential part of every company’s content marketing effort.

According to DemandMetric, 91% of B2B marketers create content for their marketing plan. On top of that, 37% of marketers believe content-led web sites are the best way to engage customers. And they may be right- 80% of people appreciate learning about a company through its own content.

‍With all this buzz about content, it’s important your association stays on top of all forms of content. If you don’t branch out to various content types, you run the risk of oversaturating one form and missing out on another. So, has your association ever thought about starting its own blog?

Chances are, you’ve read an amazing blog post before. You’ve left the post feeling informed, content, and maybe even ready to read more. A good blog post can spark a lot of engagement with the right audience. If you find your association struggling to find a new outlet for content creation, it might be time to give blogging a chance. In fact, your association might be missing out on an opportunity to attract and engage a new audience through a great blog. Here are 4 reasons your association should have a blog as a source of content.

1. Blogging is the present and the future of content marketing.

Although it sounds cliche, blogging is becoming one of the most popular ways to share information on the internet. According to this infographic by ArcStone, there are over 1.5 billion blogs on the internet. If you’re thinking all of these blogs are for personal use only, think again. 50% of the top 200 Fortune 500 companies report having a company blog for corporate use. So we know that businesses are staking their claim in the blog community. But, what kind of results are these blogs actually seeing? Orbit Media studied past, present, and future trends for blogging as a business. According to their results, paid content promotion for blogs has increased almost 5x since 2014. In addition, 53.9% of bloggers report results from their blog content in 2017. This number is up 20% from the year before. Blog content continues to grow in popularity and effectiveness as time goes on.

‍With that information in mind, you don’t want your association to miss out on the blog trend. If a content platform is growing, you want your association to grow with it. Now that we know the growth of blogs, let’s talk about how a blog can specifically help your association.

2. Higher search engine rankings.

Looking for a way to boost your website on search engines like Google? Having blog content on your site can actually increase your chances of being found by audiences.

‍Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is what helps websites rank higher on search engines. Having an SEO- friendly web site is crucial for associations looking to be found organically by their audience. While there are many strategies to creating an SEO-friendly website, having an active blog on your association’s site can help more than you’d think. An infographic from TechClient states that featuring a blog as a feature on a web site allows for a 434% better chance of being highly ranked on search engines.

Yes, you read that number right - 434%. That’s over 4x more effective! Google has always been in favor of content when it comes to search rankings. Google-bots, the technology that figures out how to rank websites, seek out active content from websites. What better way to have active content than to create a weekly blog?On top of that, your website will look like a hub for important knowledge. Think about it- when you search for help on Google, how often do you make it to the second page of search results? Or even the third page? Typically, most of our information is found on the first page of search results. If your association can show up on that page, it has a better chance of gaining attraction. Audiences will view your association’s website as an authority in its respective field. If your association stays on top of publishing new blog posts- it can see a return in effective SEO.

3. A way to repurpose old content.

Your association puts a lot of effort into it’s content. You can spend hours, days, or even weeks creating a piece of content for your audience. However, there’s only so much time content can be impressionable for. Yes, even content has a lifespan. According to Skyword, a content’s shelf-life is not long at all. Twitter content weighs in at 2.8 hours, Facebook posts at 5 hours, and so on. It doesn’t look good for the social media content world. But, did you know that a long-form blog post lasts for 37 days?

‍Yes, blog content has one of the longest lifespans when it comes to content platforms. That leaves over a month of interaction from new and current audiences alike. While it doesn’t seem like a lot, that’s equivalent to 16,000 Facebook likes and 2,000 Tweets. If you want a way to repurpose content that had passed its prime, a blog post is a great way.

‍Take old content from social media posts, webinars, or even ebooks and repurpose it into a useful blog post. Keep in mind, your blog post should not exactly mirror old content. The idea is to present old content’s information in a different way that still provides value. A blog is an effective way to make sure your content stays both relevant and valuable long after your association’s other content is past its prime.

4. Increase your ROI.

What association doesn’t want to see positive feedback from their marketing efforts? Return of Interest, or ROI, is one of the most accurate ways to see how your content performs when it comes to member recruitment and engagement. For associations, a high ROI is one of the best things to see after a marketing campaign.

‍According to Hubspot’s State of Inbound report, 82% of marketers who use a blog for content creation get positive ROI from their marketing efforts. That’s well over half of all marketers who create blog content for their content marketing strategy.

If you’re worried about picking up traffic when starting a new blog, you’re not alone. Starting a new marketing project can be intimidating. However, the more you blog, the better traffic results you’ll see. Traffic Generation Cafe states that blog content directly results in more traffic. In fact, once a blog reaches between 21-54 blog posts, web traffic to that blog can see an increase of up to 30%.In other words, keep content flowing and people will come to enjoy it.

‍Hosting a blog on your association’s website can be more than a triple threat. A good blog can lead to new members, higher engagement, even an increase in non-dues revenue. Hopefully, this information convinces your association to start up a blog of its own (and if you’re not convinced, maybe check out our own blog!)