“In a world gone mad with searching and sharing, the best way to find customers is to get them to find you.”
– Paul Gillin, “Social channels power content marketing craze,” March 4, 2013, BtoB magazine
 
If your ideal market includes businesses or business owners, you need to be using content marketing strategically. One of the most effective hubs of a content marketing strategy is the blog.
 
A blog is an easy way to continuously add relevant content to your website. That’s why search engines love them. The more often you post, the better your rank. However, not all businesses nor their owners need to have a daily blog. Sometimes one to three times a week is sufficient. You need to understand the needs of the market, as well as the online information competition to make a good choice of how often you should post.
 
Once you’ve developed you blog content, you need to get it shared throughout your market. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are great tools for spreading your content and getting it shared. Pinterest is good, too, if your info is visual, such as infographics and video. Therefore, you need to set up systems for automatic posting to social media, as well as making share buttons available to your readers.

According to Mike Lewis, author of Stand Out Social Marketing, “Content published on two or three channels had a 24% increase in engagement over content published to a single channel.” And when more than three channels were used, the engagement jumps to 30%. The first channel should be your blog, social sharing sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, are your secondary channels.
 
The blog’s role in content marketing is both hub and distributor. Don’t overlook this effective tool in marketing your business.