Creating a well-devised B2B content marketing strategy isn’t just as simple as posting a few blogs here and there. It requires careful consideration of your target audience, SEO optimisation, social sharing that encourages engagement and of course, the actual generation of ideas. A compounding blog post is a great method for continually driving traffic to your site well after launch, by offering insightful, valuable and original content to your readers.
In the rest of this blog, we'll be discussing more about what a compounding blog post is and how they provide value, how you can write an effective one and the best strategies you can implement to ensure you get the most out of publishing and sharing them.
Compounding blog posts are are pieces of content that solve a readers' pains and challenges, are easy to scan through and feature words such as "how", "what" and "why". These types of posts are therefore more valuable over time compared to what we call decaying posts, as they continue to help new readers by providing helpful, useful instructions. Decaying posts are those that tend to focus on "in-the-moment" information and delivers a great increase in traffic for a short time during that event - having been boosted with a flurry of social sharing - before the traffic begins to scale off when that moment has passed.
What makes a blog post compounding however, is the nature of its structure and substance. The more relevant they are, the more likely they will continue delivering organic traffic, without the need for extra marketing effort.
According to HubSpot's State of Inbound report:
"One in ten blog posts are compounding with organic search increasing traffic over time." [Source: HubSpot]
"Compounding posts create as much traffic as six decaying blog posts." [Source: HubSpot]
"Compounding blog posts make up 10% of blog posts, but generate 38% of overall traffic." [Source: HubSpot]
So how do you write and structure a blog post to continually bring in new traffic? Well, through creating original content that continually engages and resonates with a wide audience. Compounding blogs will offer ‘evergreen’ content, which means that their value and relevance aren’t restricted to a specific time frame, such as an upcoming event.
These posts will often be at least 2000 words or more and will be tactical, offering guidance that people can turn to as a reference point long into the future. Here are some other tips to keep in mind to help you write a compounding blog post:
Typically, a normal blog post covers a niche subject and is targeted towards a specific audience segment. For instance, it may focus on cloud ERP implementation for manufacturers in 2018.
In contrast, a compound post should focus on a broad topic that solves your prospects’ topline questions and problems, while resonating with a much wider audience. For instance, this could be a guide to getting started with ERP software. These posts will generally follow a step-by-step structure, helping readers successfully complete a task or solve a problem.
In the B2B space, purchasing decisions are driven by facts and statistics. It’s therefore essential to back up your B2B content marketing with hard evidence.
While it's quicker to reference statistics and quotes from trustworthy sources, initiating your own research can be considerably more beneficial in the long term. During a purchasing decision, a buyer needs to be able to have complete faith in a service provider to deliver. Supplying your own research highlights to a buyer that you thoroughly understand your sector and your audience, as well as the common problems they are facing. In fact, this is backed up by research conducted by CMI who stated that:
"74% of buyers said original research influenced their purchase decision." [Source: CMI]
Unique statistics also help to add authority to your business and your blog post. Other websites and blogs are more likely to reference you and link to your blog, increasing external traffic as a result.
Initiating your own research isn’t as time consuming as you may think. Prospects will be happy to answer research questions in exchange for access to valuable content, such as a comprehensive eBook. And don’t underestimate the willingness of your existing customers to contribute as well. Asking for direct quotes from them adds authenticity to your blog posts, helping you to resonate with prospects on a personal level. Furthermore, readers will appreciate the uniqueness of your blog post and will be more receptive to sharing it through social media.
No one wants to be enticed to click on a blog only to be met with a wall of never-ending text. You would simply click off the blog and go elsewhere rather than spending a frustrating amount of time making sense of what you're reading. That's why you should take extra care to organise your blog post in a readable manner. Here are some good ways to do this:
Using a good combination of these tips will not only help your reader quickly digest the information you're sharing, but also help Google understand what your post is about.
The internet is oversaturated with content. While your blog may be practical, factual and ‘does the job’, does it actually offer anything new? Without doubt, there are thousands of competitors out there who are offering almost identical copies of your content. So why would a prospect want to read your post and share it?
To encourage long-term traffic and snowball social shares, you need to use out-of-the-box B2B content marketing tactics. Think about it, how much real industry experience and expertise has your team gathered over the years? Prospects resonate better with content that explores real life examples of how your solution has benefited businesses, rather than the theory behind your offering.
Furthermore, content written from the perspective of an executive or managing director adds authoritative weight to your copy, and ensures that your blog will be taken more seriously.
While compounding blog posts do well organically, this does take time to achieve so you need to learn how you can boost your chances by keeping the two following elements in mind.
For a B2B business, you want to be seen as a credible authority in the market and therefore should want to aim to rank highly in the search engines. To do this successfully, you need to be publishing blogs regularly. This is something that HubSpot have always maintained:
"Companies that published 16+ blogs a month got 3.5x more traffic than companies who only published up to four blogs a month." [Source: HubSpot]
Establish a baseline of your content and try to ensure that at least 10% of the blogs you publish are compounding. This means you can take your time making sure that your compounding posts are high-quality because you'll be gaining six times the amount of traffic back to make it worthwhile.
According to HubSpot,
"83% of all marketers actively pursue social media marketing initiatives." [Source: HubSpot]
It’s worth mentioning that social media is by no means another space to pitch a sale. Regardless of whether you’re an individual or part of a business, social media is about conversation, discussion and offering your unique insight.
When sharing your blog posts through the likes of LinkedIn and Twitter, always have this in mind: "Would this make me want to click through and read the rest of the blog?"
To make social posts more ‘clickable’, clearly demonstrate the value of the promoted blog through a problem-solution structure. Starting social posts with phrases such as ‘how to’, ‘find out’ and ‘learn’ immediately informs social users that they can gain knowledge through reading your blog post. Of course, the more people that click-through, the more likely they are to share - so long as the blog delivers on its perceived value.
Since Twitter's 280-character limit was implemented, it hasn't actually led to people changing the length of the messages they send out. However, it has increased the level of engagement as a result, so you should still make the most of writing shorter, punchier messages that are designed to draw attention to your blog. LinkedIn on the other hand, should be approached differently. When sharing into groups, posing questions and debates around your blogs is the best approach to gaining traffic and encouraging engagement. Posts that present a unique viewpoint will often gain the most engagement.
While jumping onto blogs that provide a quick-burst of traffic activity might seem like a quick win, they contain less value than embracing writing compounding blog posts instead. Compound posts will continue bringing in organic traffic day-on-day, month-on-month which has more value for your B2B business over time and will see a better ROI as a result.