You have a website up and running, and you are now launching your first blog. Congratulations! A website with a quality blog is an enormous strategic advantage when used properly. The internet has become the most common first-effort search for people looking for insider views, tips, and tutorials for their personal and professional pain points, and search engines are constantly on the lookout for relevant resources that can provide solutions.

There are a number of ways sharpen your blog’s competitive inbound marketing edge when it comes to attracting these visitors to your site:

A Generous Flow of New Relevant Content

If you were thirsty, would you choose to go to a drinking fountain that only offered water sitting in a puddle above the drain? Or would you choose a fountain that you knew to be gushing with fresh cold water every time you pushed the button?

Easy answer, right?

So, why would your blog be any different?

When people are searching for solutions to quench their thirst for answers to their problems, they need to feel confident that when they come to the “fountain” of knowledge that is your blog, that there will be a stream of new, fresh content available, from informative articles to helpful videos. By regularly posting insightful resources and educational articles with easy to understand text, pictures and videos, you will attract the attention and trust of visitors who build confidence in your expertise and when they have a need, they will come directly to you, expecting to find new answers. This is the motivation behind successful inbound marketing efforts.

Segment Visitors Based on Their Stage of the Buyer's Journey

Visitors who land on your blog in the process of their online research, are not always necessarily ready for you to "push" your products or services towards them to buy. If your approach is not reaching them where they are in the Buyers’ Journey, you risk losing them completely. So, it is imperative that you become aware of where your visitors are in the process:

• Awareness stage:
  By searching online, these visitors are simply expressing symptoms of a problem or opportunity. Their reason for browsing your blog is for educational research to more clearly understand their problem. In order to convert these contacts to leads, blog articles should not be “salesy” in nature, but should, instead, help educate them on the topic.
  
  
• Consideration stage:
  These prospects are committed to researching all of the available approaches to resolving their identified issue. By the time these prospects have reached this stage with you, you should be presenting them with relevant content offers that will help them to immediately improve their lives and to build trust and confidence in your expertise.
  
  
• Decision stage:
  At this point, the prospect has most likely compiled a long list of available solution options and looking to whittle down to a short list from which they will make their final purchase. They should have already been identified them as a sales qualified lead by this time, and you should be providing specific solutions and purchase options.

Engage Via Offers and Landing Pages

Once visitors have started down the Buyers’ Journey with you and your blog content reflects you as a reliable resource, they should be given the opportunity to access relevant offers of additional related content to consider that delves deeper into solving their specific problem.

Landing pages provide forms that request your visitors' contact information, like name and email address or phone number, in order for them to access that specific offer. By being able to identify who is interested in which offer, you are better able to understand who that person is and can better identify what their specific pain points are. In this way, you can more accurately tailor your approach in order to meet them where they are, to lead them one step further down the Buyers’ Journey.

See? Effective blog = Competitive Advantage!