Content sits upon the throne as the undisputed monarch of modern marketing. There are few more trustworthy avenues for generating exposure and building a customer base than through the process of setting up a digital space for a dedicated blog or quality content.
The potential benefits of investing in blogging and content are no more pronounced than with European startups, where the prospect of placing engaging material under the noses of audiences across the EU can drive interest from areas of the continent and beyond that would’ve otherwise remained oblivious to your endeavor.
But how necessary is the act of investing in a blog? And how can it help in growing a startup into a company with a multinational following? Here are five irrefutable reasons why all European startups should consider creating quality content.
1. Strategic expansion
The best way to build traffic and leads for your website hinges on its ability to feature highly enough in the results pages of Google. However, given that there’s little room for yourself and all like-minded endeavors to attain a position of prominence at the top of search engine results pages, it’s down to you to make your website visible for your prospective audience.
A direct search for your company name should be an easy way of appearing on the first page of Google. But unfortunately, people don’t generally look for company names on search engines — they look for answers to problems.
The names of startups won’t be near the first page for queries based on their products, so it’s vital that you work on gaining exposure.
Here, content is key. If you’re creating quality content that’s filled with the right blend of keywords that are likely to be included as search engine queries, you’ll be placing yourself in a strategically advantageous position in offering an answer to your audience’s questions — and in doing so, attracting them to your pages.
The key here is research. Keyword research to be more specific. As a startup, your website may not have the weight to rank for high-volume, high competition phrases. Hence, it’s vital to tap into low-hanging fruits.
To do that, tools such as Ahrefs or Moz can help.
Start by identifying high-volume yet low competition keywords.
Let’s assume you’re running an email marketing startup. Although it might be challenging to tackle keywords such as “email marketing” right off the bat, by digging deeper into research, you’ll be sure to identify some decent keywords as shown below.
As a European startup, gaining search engine prominence through effective contenthas the potential to transform your business from a local entity into one that has a continental reach. At a time when you’re wholly dependent on raising awareness of your company and encouraging a healthy level of sales, this extra exposure could pay dividends in ensuring your expansion into a comfortable business.
2. Foreseeable futureproofing
You may or may not be aware of the term evergreen content, but it refers to the creation of content that’s structured to stand the test of time and encourage traffic to your site from search engines.
By creating a blog that engages with an audience while answering frequently asked questions they may have regarding your industry, you’re able to guarantee a long-term flow of traffic to your pages as well as establishing yourself as a leading knowledge base on the topics that interest your customers.
To create effective evergreen content, be sure to avoid including time-specific references or focal points in your articles. To base a blog post on a news story is a great way of getting short-term traffic, but to find a recurring theme within a news piece and draw on that instead could make a big difference when it comes to winning customers a few months down the line.
Another useful way of sounding out the potential for an evergreen post is to monitor websites such as Quora and forum-based question-and-answer platforms. If you can identify relevant trending topics that are yet to be touched on by your competitors, there’s nothing stopping you from creating an engaging post that appeals directly to the users that are asking such questions online.
This tactic is arguably the most effective way of futureproofing your website and ensuring that you’ll always have a healthy stream of traffic entering your pages.
3. Opportunities for feedback
By investing in blogging and quality content, you’re creating a fresh and engaging avenue of communication between your brand and your audience. This is vital in developing a trustworthy reputation for your prospective customers.
The comments section of your company blog makes for an excellent space for you to communicate directly to customers and visitors alike. This engagement opportunity is highly valuable because everybody you’re interacting with has already displayed enough interest in your brand by visiting your pages — whereas interactions on social media may be valuable, but will likely not result in as many sales.
The level of engagement you can bring through the medium of a dedicated blog and quality content is scalable, too. Some websites offer a free giveaway of a product or service within their blog posts as a way of encouraging more comments and user interaction. Cloudways points out that this method has the potential to produce lots of valuable user-created content that you could ultimately leverage to build a stronger customer base.
4. Reputation building
Blogs have the power to become the perfect representative of your brand. Today, it’s never been easier for customers to make purchases from anywhere in Europe, so startups have a huge market in which to craft their reputation.
Although traffic may be initially slow, through the right use of keyword research and regularly published content you’ll be able to build a recurring audience for your posts who will likely trust your brand ahead of your competitors.
In fact, according to HubSpot, companies that publish more than 16 blog posts per months get 3.5 times more traffic than those businesses that publish up to four blog posts.
Given the interconnectivity that Europe enjoys today, developing a positive reputation is vital — a collection of poor reviews that are visible to people searching for your startup could severely hinder its progress. By building a blog that showcases quality content, you can ensure that prospective customers have as positive and engaging experience as possible.
5. The pied piper of subscriptions and value
There are few things more alluring to prospective customers than content. Sure, newsletters are great for building a customer base, but the problem with this approach alone is that you can never be confident that you’ve gathered the right audience. Blogging, however, ensures that your output is popular with the right people.
It’s no stretch to say that high-quality content is a draw for audiences, and the best blogs will motivate visitors toward subscriptions. By utilizing your blog to encourage users to subscribe to a mailing list, you can leverage your pages to include call-to-actions and detail-free gifts and offers to award visitors in return for their email addresses.