Should My Agency Have A Blog and What Should I Write About?
Today I’m blogging about blogging.
With the internet so full of blogs, it’s easy to think that the market is too saturated for your agency’s blog.
However, blogs still grow business, and I don’t want you to miss out on the potential. It’s all about blogging the right way. While yes, there are a lot of blogs, a lot of them aren’t doing it right.
In this guide, we will go over everything you need to know about creating a blog for your agency, including ideas for posts to get you started.
Making the Case That Agencies Need a Blog
The reality is that you only need to publish one blog post per week. The content should come naturally because you know all about the target audience for your agency. When writing a blog post about something you know, it shouldn’t take you more than 3 hours. So it’s not a huge time commitment. Not to mention, a blog provides the following benefits:
Demonstrates industry knowledge and thought leadership
Keeps audiences coming back to your website
Blogs are great for SEO
Creates brand awareness
Blogs help with lead gen
Drives engagement
Blog posts make for great content to fuel your email marketing
Identifying the Voices On Your Blog: The 4 “Ifs”
Depending on your bandwidth, there are a few routes you can go when it comes to the voice on your blog and who writes the content.
If you feel comfortable writing, great! You can be the face and voice of your blog and maintain consistency.
If you don’t feel comfortable writing but someone on your team does, you can provide them with the posts you’d like to have them write.
If you and no one on your team can write the blog posts, you can hire a freelance writer or multiple freelance writers to create the content. Again, provide them with strategic topics.
If you want someone to come up with topics that will rank well for SEO and appeal to your target audience, you can hire The Campfire Circle to run your blog. We have some fabulous writers.
How to Identify Topics That Resonate With Your Target Audience
You can blog all day, but if your posts aren’t hitting your target audience, you’re wasting your time.
Tap into what you know about your current and target customers to come up with a healthy list of blog posts that you’re going to publish for your agency. Here are a few questions to ask yourself, as they will help you come up with strategic blog post topics.
What pain points do the brands you target experience that your agency solves?
What questions are brands asking that your agency can answer?
What are some blog posts you like that other agencies are writing about?
What topics can you write about that demonstrates your expertise in the different services you offer?
Are there things about your agency culture that you can blog about?
Do you have some good examples of work you’ve done that you can curate?
10 Blogging Best Practices
If you’re ready to start a blog for your agency, be sure to follow the best practices. If you’re contracting help, be sure they adhere to these best practices.
Embrace your niche so that your posts are catered to your target audience
Do your research and back up your points with current data
Publish 1 blog post per week on your blog
Highlight your services with dedicated blog posts for each service your agency offers
Use Grammarly to ensure grammar and spelling are correct
Don’t get hung up on industry jargon; write conversationally like a human
SEO optimize your posts with an SEO plugin and keyword research
Create blog posts with headings and information that is easy to digest
End each blog post with a CTA to get your readers to take action
In each blog post, link to your agency’s other blog posts to keep readers engaged
5 Types of Blog Posts to Get Started
Your agency’s blog should not launch until you have 5 blog posts created and published on your site so it doesn’t look too brand new. So here are 5 blog post ideas to get you started.
Interview an expert: This can be someone from your company or a thought leader in your industry. These posts are pretty easy to create because you pretty much just write an intro, write the body of your post in Q&A form and write a conclusion with key takeaways. Here is an example I did of an interview blog post for an agency I worked with.
Curate industry data: Your target audience is likely interested in data within their industry, and you will gain credibility if you write a post with industry data from the past year. Pair each data point with key takeaways to make it relatable to your readers. Here is an example of a data-driven blog post I wrote.
Identify current marketing trends: You're an agency, so you’re already on top of marketing trends. Your audience and potential customers look to you to keep them up to date. Do a little research and tap into what you see working well and create a blog post about current marketing trends. You don’t want to be too self-promotional, but mentioning how your agency caters to these trends within your post is totally fine. Here is an example of a post about marketing trends I wrote.
Write a blog post about the strongest strategy your agency offers: This type of blog post should be specific about your strongest strategy, and it should provide thought leadership. Offer data about how that strategy is growing brands, share any case studies you have about implementing your strategy for your clients, and provide actionable information. Here is a post I wrote about one of my strongest strategies.
Write a round-up of unique marketing campaigns: Aim to identify and write about 5 marketing campaigns you admire. 4 should be from outside your agency, and 1 can be an example from your own agency. Provide links to the case study or media pertaining to the campaigns that you are referencing. Here is an example of a blog post I wrote about a campaign that I wanted to draw attention to.
Promoting Your Blog
If you follow everything I’ve outlined thus far, you’re going to have a stellar blog. But you need people to read it. A good rule of thumb is that you spend 3 hours creating each blog post and 2 hours promoting it.
Here are some ways to increase traffic to your blog:
Guest post on publications your target audience follows and link back to relevant blog posts on your agency’s blog
Email each blog post out to all of your contacts
Share all of your blog posts on all of your agency’s social channels
Reach out to colleagues and ask them to share your blog posts with their audience and that you will return the favor
Join LinkedIn groups that your target audience is part of and share your blog posts in those groups
Examples of Agency Blogs to Inspire
Reading blogs that other agencies publish is a great way to get inspired for topics. It also helps you understand the quality of the content you need to produce.
Here are some of my personal favorite agency blogs that you should follow.
Final Thoughts: I Want a Blog!
In every agency I’ve helped grow, one of the first things I do is either build them a blog or improve their current blog.
Whether you want me to run your blog or you’re going to do it yourself, blogs are crucial. Follow the best practices that I outlined, utilize the topics I offered, and promote all of your blog posts.
If you want help with your blog, even if it’s just to strategize, contact The Campfire Circle today for a free consultation.
Do you have an agency blog that you admire? I’d love to read it so please link to it in the comments below!
