Occasionally, our clients will ask for our take on blogging, and whether it’s worth the investment of time (or money, if they have to pay a copywriter). Our answer is an emphatic YES! Here are the top three reasons why blogging is worth the effort:

1. Blogging can help you build your brand
2. It will improve your search engine optimization (SEO)
3. It’s an opportunity to selectively target your audiences and have a conversation with them 

Build Your Brand

Like it or not, banking products are parity products. That is to say, the bank accounts at your bank are, more than likely, functionally equivalent to your competitors’ accounts. Sure you might have a flashy name, some interesting features, or a valuable incentive or bonus, but, given the nature of banking products, it can be hard to stand out from the crowd.

Enter: your blog. Look at it as a dedicated space for your marketing team to develop and refine your unique voice. If a key hallmark of your brand is empowering financial independence, then why not launch a blog series on just that topic? You can even invite different members of your team or outside experts to contribute to building a diversity of opinions.

What’s more, align your blogging with your marketing objectives and campaigns. For instance, if you’re launching a campaign promoting your home loans, be sure to build in a blog (or several) related to the campaign.

Increase Your SEO

It’s no secret that blogs go a long way towards increasing your SEO. This is especially true when you blog frequently enough to keep your blog up to date. Fresh content is key to beating out the competition in terms of organic search.

A few basic ground rules: categorize your blogs by topic and be sure to weave in plenty of keywords that you want associated with your brand. Additionally, don’t forget to include a healthy portion of internal links (i.e. links within your blog that link to other pages on your website). An added “plus” of having an informative and useful blog is that others may link to your website. Robust linking is one thing that Google, in particular, looks at when ranking websites.

Lastly, interactive, engaging, and longform blogs are proven to increase visitors’ time on page, which, in turn, increases SEO scoring. So, don’t hesitate to include videos, images, infographics and really do a deep-dive (according to one study, the average word count of a Google first page result is 1,890 words. Yet another claims that blogs with greater than three visuals yields three times the average time on page).

Target Audiences and Have a Conversation

Speaking of “deep dives,” another excellent opportunity that blogging presents is the chance to really segment your content by target audience. Perhaps even within the realm of consumer banking, you have several different “personas” you’re targeting: say, a college-educated millennial audience and a recently retired baby boomer audience. Your blog is the ideal place to provide a unique perspective to both audiences and to start a conversation with current and prospective customers. The simple act of writing the blogs, categorizing them by topic, and lacing them with keywords will provide visitors the means to self-select the content that appeals to them. Moreover, elsewhere on your website, like on related product pages. you can cross-link or tout your blog content. Having thought-provoking, educational, or supportive material deepens your credibility and can shorten the sales cycle.

Even if opening up commenting directly on your blog is not an option, you can always share your content on social media. Inviting your customers and followers into a conversation and engaging with them directly is a tried and true way of strengthening customer relationships and building trust.

So, what are you waiting for? Ready, set, blog!

MKP communications inc. is a New York City-based communications company that delivers spot-on strategy, smart, fresh creative, and flawless execution, exclusively for financial services clients.