Seriously Easy Blogging for Associations and Chambers - GrowthZone

Guest Blog by Kyle Sexton

“Our website isn’t where we want it to be.”

I hear it all the time. Chambers and associations intuitively know their website should be doing more.

But what does a website need? Let’s ask Google (where 86.86% of searches originate*).

Home page? ✓

About page? ✓

Contact page? ✓

Blog ✘

“We don’t have time for a blog.”

I hear that all the time, and I have super-good news for you in this department. A blog post isn’t something you need to create. It’s a place to post things you’ve already created.

Every day, Google crawls websites just like yours.

Here’s how that goes:

Google: Hey! I’m Google, and I’m here to take a look at your blog.

You: Don’t you want to see our home page?

Google: We see it. Indexed it. We need to see your blog.

You: We have new information on our events pages. That’s where you can see the new stuff.

Google: Yeah, we got that. Indexed it. We just want to take a peek at your blog.

You: OK, well, we don’t have a blog. Err, I guess we have one, but there isn’t anything on it yet.

Google: We will be back in a month. Have a blog.

So, I say again: A blog post isn’t something you need to write. It’s a way to post things you’ve already written.

If it’s a common belief that you need a new website, the real problem is likely not your website design or structure. It’s your content. And the content you’re creating is being wasted on emails and Facebook.

Now, why is that a waste? Because your emails have an open rate of 30% (if you’re lucky), and Facebook keeps adjusting the news feed algorithms so your content shows up less and less and less.

Here’s a tip to easily stop wasting the content you’ve already created:

Just put it on your blog. Take the content you’re already creating and put it in the right place. Put it in the one place Google is looking for it. On your blog.

• • • Write an editorial for the paper? Put it on your blog.
    • Event announcement? Put it on the blog.
    • Public Policy update to your members? Put it on the blog.
    • Helpful marketing advice for retailers? Put it on the blog.

Say it out loud: A blog post isn’t something you need to write. A blog is a place to post the things you’ve already written.

According to Hubspot, the world’s leading inbound marketing software and knowledge base, inbound marketing is about selling products and services in a way that consumers want to buy today. The key to inbound marketing is organic traffic driven by search engine optimization. Hubspot says brands who blog 16x per month (or more) get over 3x the organic traffic.

Don’t get overwhelmed.

Let’s look around for the content you’re already creating. The average chamber posts two or three pieces of unique content per week by email or Facebook already. That’s eight to twelve a month… When it comes to Google-juice, you might be halfway there already!

The other half of the Google-juice you’ll need is not necessarily created. You can curate it. Find valuable, helpful content for your members. In return, Google will tell the world what it is that you do. Google likes chambers and associations like you because Google knows you don’t game their system. You represent real businesses, not link farms and fake directories.

Putting your best content in your best place will help to attract new members.

When members discover your useful, helpful content – something they also need to be doing for their own businesses – your organization will be perceived as more credible because they know they should be doing this, too. Now, they get to follow the leader – and you get to be that leader of good business practices.

*according to statista.com.