Rich Newsome
2020 has bought about significant change for all businesses, regardless of industry. One of the biggest impacts we’ve seen within the construction industry is the rise in digital.
People are starting to realise that adopting a digital approach is necessary to survive in this climate.
Whether you’ve embraced digital CPDs, adapted your sales process or spent a bit more time improving your website offering, it’s fair to say that we’ve all had to adjust.
But if you truly want to grow your online presence and increase your specifications, there’s one thing that should not be neglected… content marketing.
And one of the most crucial elements of content marketing is undoubtedly a blogging strategy.
So, if you’re thinking about blogging in 2021, here are some key mistakes to avoid.
Mistake #1: Neglecting Your Strategy
Great. You’ve decided to start blogging!
But, what are you going to write about?
How are you going to decide what topics to cover?
Deciding what to write about, I’m afraid, isn’t as simple as plucking ideas out of a hat. I’m not saying you can’t do that, but it’s unlikely that you’ll see a return if you take this approach.
Nowadays, it’s a much more strategic process – and one that begins with a keyword strategy.
Carrying out keyword research will uncover what people are searching for and how many people are searching for it. This data will form the foundations of your content marketing strategy, giving you an understanding of how popular particular keywords are.
Considerations for keyword research
- To do this effectively, you will need premium access to software such as SEMrush or Ahrefs. So, ensure you factor this into your marketing budget.
- Once you understand what keyword volume is like, it’s about finding those ‘golden’ keywords - the keywords that are achieving a decent number of searches, but not too much. Any keywords that achieve over 1K searches a month will be very difficult to rank for through blogging alone. You’ll need to supplement your blogging efforts with a PPC campaign.
Sound complex? Let the experts at Insynth take this burden away from you.
Mistake #2: Talking about yourself
“We’re proud to announce…”
“We’re thrilled to accept…”
Phrases like this should be banned in your 2021 blogs.
As we enter the new year, your blogs should be a platform to offer useful information, advice and insights…not a space for shameless self-promotion.
Leigh Simpson said something a couple of weeks back that resonated with me…
Your website is not YOUR website. Your website belongs to your audience.
How can you make your specifier’s life easier?
How can you help the specifier gain compliance?
These are all areas that could (and should) be addressed in your blogging strategy. In truth, and to be quite blunt, nobody cares about you. Most people will enter your website because they care about themselves and their own personal and professional outcomes.
Mistake #3: Inconsistency
For many of you, I imagine blogging will be a bit like a new year’s resolution: great for a couple of weeks, but the novelty will soon wear off.
It’s true – blogging requires effort and will become be time-consuming…
…much like that January gym membership…
And, sadly, if you’re not consistently publishing blog content, your efforts will go largely unnoticed.
Google will react positively to a website that is regularly producing fresh content, so consistency is crucial.
Top tips:
- Choose your in-house blogger and make it that person’s responsibility to write, edit and publish your blog content
- Plan your blog titles in advance to avoid any ‘writer’s block’ issues
Or, if you can’t afford this level of time commitment, outsourcing your blogging with an agency that specialises in your industry AND who is focused on strategy will be a great investment.
Conclusion
To recap, if you want to get the most out of your building product blogs in 2021, it’s all about:
- Strategy
- Helpfulness
- Consistency
Without these key elements, you will struggle to yield those results you need for a prosperous 2021.
Need help? Why not talk to an expert here at Insynth.
About Insynth
Insynth Marketing is a leading UK construction marketing agency based in Shifnal in the West Midlands.
They use the latest inbound marketing techniques such as construction inbound marketing, to support building product companies to grow their business by proactively driving sales lead generation activity.
As the only HubSpot certified agency to major on construction marketing, we bring together construction marketing strategy, digital strategy, website design, SEO, content marketing, email marketing, sales automation, marketing automation and HubSpot CRM implementation to produce successful campaigns and great results for our clients.