Benefits of Blogging in Addition to Emailers

“Is having a blog and an email newsletter redundant?” a colleague recently asked. MSLK believes absolutely not. If utilized correctly both will draw from the same content plan, but your email newsletter helps you stay top of mind with your existing database while your blog is designed to help reach a larger network of followers on social media, including introducing your brand to perfect strangers. Here’s how: A blog is the cornerstone for new, relevant, and on-going content on your website. As we’ve outlined in our article Why Should Businesses Blog?, a blog is a place to tell all of the layers of your brand story engaging your brand fans and followers across varied media, including social media platforms.. As we outlined in our article, Balancing Search Engine Optimization and Blog Content a blog is also a great tool for increasing your website’s overall organic search engine optimization. Articles and key phrases used consistently throughout your blog can help new prospects discover your brand when they are searching for content relevant to your business.

MSLK employs these techniques and each week we receive inquiries from new prospects with eminent design projects as well as future prospects would like to join our mailing and keep in touch. In this manner our blog is helping us meet new prospects who are often late in the buying cycle. These prospects know exactly what they are looking for and are doing very narrow, specific keyword searches, which makes them ultimately more qualified leads.

Our email newsletter helps us maintain relationships with potential prospects who are not quite yet ready to buy. These prospects may be colleagues we have met in person through industry events or have joined our mailing list through our blog. They find our expertise relevant, but do not yet have an appropriate project for us. Our monthly email newsletter helps us stay in front of these prospects in order to remain top-of-mind when they are ready.

For our newsletter content we feature a mixture of topics from recent blog posts, to case studies of recent projects our prospects may be interested in. It is not a duplicated effort because in today’s crowded media environment many people on our mailing list aren’t checking our blog regularly. Our email newsletter is an easy and effective tool to share with them the most helpful and relevant content they may have missed.

Because we are sharing content that is useful, MSLK is happy to report that we average a 30% engagement rate with our emailers. In addition, the articles and content we feature in our emailers receive the most repeat traffic on our blog, Often when we meet with a client or prospect in person they will mention content recently featured in a newsletter. It’s a great conversation starter and a fabulous way to engage with your existing mailing list.