Out of the 1.9 billion websites across the globe, over 600 million are blogs. An astounding 2.5 billion blog posts are published annually – that's 6 million blogging ideas coming to life every single day!
Given these impressive statistics, it's no wonder that blogging is still relevant in 2022 and beyond. But with such saturation, should one consider launching a new blog in 2023? How has the landscape of business blogging evolved over time? What sets a YouTuber or Instagrammer apart from a blogger? And what can a marketer anticipate from a blogger-brand collaboration?
We explore these questions and more with Richa Singh, the co-founder and CEO of Blogchatter – India's largest and most engaged blogging community. As we delve into blogging 101, we'll uncover valuable insights for both new and experienced bloggers alike.
Show us love!
Know more: thriftytitans.co
Share your thoughts: team@thriftytitans.co
Are you on Insta?: https://www.instagram.com/thrifty.titans/
Maybe LinkedIn?: https://linkedin.com/company/thriftytitans
YouTube? Come on!: https://www.youtube.com/@thrifty.titans
Share your feedback: https://forms.gle/4eSnbyMXQeWXAgc68
00:00:05
Saikat Pyne: Hi, I'm Sekar Marketer, creative and media nerd. Welcome to
00:00:10
Saikat Pyne: the you incorporated podcast On this show, I catch up
00:00:15
Saikat Pyne: with some of the most bad ass founders, business leaders
00:00:19
Saikat Pyne: and content creators in the whole wide world. Whether you're
00:00:23
Saikat Pyne: a marketer, creative or a budding founder, if you want
00:00:27
Saikat Pyne: to build your brand your voice your way, you are
00:00:31
Saikat Pyne: in the right place.
00:00:32
Saikat Pyne: Join me on the you incorporated podcast and start building
00:00:36
Saikat Pyne: your empire. Here we go.
00:00:49
Saikat Pyne: Please join me in welcoming Richa Singh, the Co-founder and
00:00:53
Saikat Pyne: CEO of blog chatter. India's largest and most active blogging community.
00:00:59
Saikat Pyne: Richa is a blogger herself with over a decade of experience.
00:01:04
Saikat Pyne: Welcome to the show, Richa.
00:01:06
Richa Singh: Thank you so much for having me here. And I
00:01:10
Richa Singh: cannot wait to dive into what would be a very
00:01:12
Richa Singh: interesting conversation.
00:01:14
Saikat Pyne: Really Looking forward to this one, Raja Raja, tell me
00:01:18
Saikat Pyne: with over 4.5 million new blog posts being written, every
00:01:23
Saikat Pyne: how much sense does it make to launch a new
00:01:27
Saikat Pyne: blog in today's day and age? Given the sheer number
00:01:31
Saikat Pyne: of blogs that already exist on the Internet, the
00:01:34
Richa Singh: kind of Internet boom especially that India is seeing at
00:01:38
Richa Singh: this moment,
00:01:39
Richa Singh: any content platform, whether it's blogging, instagram YouTube Right now,
00:01:43
Richa Singh: the scheme is actually taped in the favour of demand.
00:01:47
Richa Singh: The supply is less and the demand is more so
00:01:50
Richa Singh: as a. I feel that if there is a cotton
00:01:54
Richa Singh: traded out there, not just for a if you have
00:01:57
Richa Singh: something to say, if you want to create something new,
00:01:59
Richa Singh: don't shy away.
00:02:00
Richa Singh: Jump right into it because I genuinely believe that there
00:02:05
Richa Singh: is not enough content to cater to the wide variety
00:02:09
Richa Singh: of Internet users that we have. And obviously, given the
00:02:11
Richa Singh: fact that we are, it's a largely populated country that
00:02:15
Richa Singh: won't even more strong. They're never going to be enough blog.
00:02:18
Richa Singh: They're never gonna be enough, instagrammers. They're never gonna be enough.
00:02:20
Richa Singh: YouTube chat.
00:02:21
Saikat Pyne: Let's just shift gears. Just a moment here. Return. Speak
00:02:25
Saikat Pyne: about business. Blogging. How has the role of business blogging
00:02:28
Saikat Pyne: evolved over time?
00:02:31
Richa Singh: When you look at social media, it's not in competition
00:02:35
Richa Singh: with blogging. That is something that I've been repeating to
00:02:38
Richa Singh: quite some time. They are best friends. Actually, social media compliment,
00:02:42
Richa Singh: logging and logging compliment social media so that one thing
00:02:46
Richa Singh: I don't think it's either or both of them, and
00:02:49
Richa Singh: they serve their own purpose. But when you look at
00:02:53
Richa Singh: social media, it
00:02:55
Richa Singh: pure marketing. It's that instant connection that you want with
00:02:59
Richa Singh: your words. It could also be simply getting the word out.
00:03:02
Richa Singh: For example, I have launched a new brand, and I
00:03:05
Richa Singh: just want to inform someone real quick with one copy
00:03:08
Richa Singh: of Social Media for that purpose. Very well.
00:03:10
Richa Singh: But today the consumer is no longer getting influenced by
00:03:15
Richa Singh: just one line by just a few words. They need more,
00:03:20
Richa Singh: and they and their requirements are very different today. They
00:03:24
Richa Singh: want to be a part of the conversation. They want
00:03:26
Richa Singh: to be well educated about what they're signing up for,
00:03:29
Richa Singh: which is where I think blogging plays a very important role.
00:03:33
Richa Singh: Thought leadership. Blogging is not exactly marketing. It's thought leadership.
00:03:38
Richa Singh: You talking about your product with a certain amount of
00:03:42
Richa Singh: authority of the industry. You can't do that on social media.
00:03:45
Richa Singh: You cannot talk about the latest sad product that has
00:03:50
Richa Singh: come out from your company on social media. 200 words.
00:03:54
Richa Singh: You can inform your user, but you can't talk about
00:03:56
Richa Singh: it in detail,
00:03:57
Richa Singh: which is build your own blog and buy your own
00:04:01
Richa Singh: the business blog country with the picture, and you can
00:04:04
Richa Singh: talk about it in detail.
00:04:07
Richa Singh: You can lend a lot of credibility knowledge background to it,
00:04:12
Richa Singh: and at the same time you have to understand that
00:04:15
Richa Singh: brands also have this big challenge of how do they
00:04:19
Richa Singh: build their human personality If you want my honest opinion,
00:04:24
Richa Singh: I think the leverage that the belonging brings to the
00:04:26
Richa Singh: table is that it's the most convenient form of content
00:04:31
Richa Singh: that can be generated and there is nothing to lose.
00:04:35
Richa Singh: At the same time, you're actually building a relationship which
00:04:38
Richa Singh: is more credible, authentic
00:04:40
Richa Singh: and more human like.
00:04:41
Saikat Pyne: But Richard, when you are limiting your content outreach to
00:04:45
Saikat Pyne: social media, you don't have to take that extra effort
00:04:49
Saikat Pyne: of reaching your audience. In some ways, you are where
00:04:53
Saikat Pyne: the audience is.
00:04:55
Saikat Pyne: What's your take on that on blogging stability over time
00:05:00
Saikat Pyne: to bring business to the brand. So
00:05:02
Richa Singh: first I lead with numbers right? 54% of the Fortune
00:05:06
Richa Singh: 500 companies today have a business stock, right? So there's
00:05:10
Richa Singh: evidence in that that
00:05:12
Richa Singh: share practise and some of the best in the world
00:05:15
Richa Singh: are following it in terms of impact 67% more leads
00:05:21
Richa Singh: come in through business plan, right? You actually have a
00:05:25
Richa Singh: better conversion because you have a business log. And today,
00:05:29
Richa Singh: as you know, I I'm searching for something, right. It's
00:05:32
Richa Singh: very important for me that brand has a good S
00:05:35
Richa Singh: e O that they automatically reach out to me, which
00:05:37
Richa Singh: happened to a lot of paid, uh, Google ads at
00:05:40
Richa Singh: this moment.
00:05:41
Richa Singh: But if you weren't losing that, there's 400% better search
00:05:47
Richa Singh: for a brand when they have a business dog. And
00:05:49
Richa Singh: these are not my stats. Of course I'm not that smart.
00:05:52
Richa Singh: But these are stats that have come in from a
00:05:54
Richa Singh: lot of surveys that have been done by the technology
00:05:56
Richa Singh: companies who have been analysing consumer behaviour. And they have
00:05:59
Richa Singh: come out with that. So
00:06:01
Richa Singh: drifting down some numbers
00:06:04
Richa Singh: in the debate is that, like, I don't even think
00:06:06
Richa Singh: that we are numbers we should be talking about anything.
00:06:09
Richa Singh: But we should, in terms of just the quantitative net
00:06:12
Richa Singh: of it,
00:06:13
Richa Singh: uh, social media and blogging are not in competition with
00:06:16
Richa Singh: each other. It's something I firmly believe they each have
00:06:19
Richa Singh: a role to play. So if you are going to
00:06:23
Richa Singh: as a market, you say that an ex X number
00:06:25
Richa Singh: of hours I am placing in a blog, I should
00:06:29
Richa Singh: quickly shift them to social media. Then you're very short
00:06:31
Richa Singh: cycled because that you are simply looking at completing an
00:06:36
Richa Singh: Excel sheet or just showcasing or vis a B X
00:06:39
Richa Singh: amount of line items that I did each month
00:06:42
Saikat Pyne: got it. The objective of the business blog is primarily
00:06:46
Saikat Pyne: to inform and not to sell. Or do you think
00:06:49
Saikat Pyne: business blogs can still help sell products at the point
00:06:52
Saikat Pyne: of impact? In some ways, through a blog, do you
00:06:55
Saikat Pyne: think companies can sell products through blogs?
00:06:58
Richa Singh: I definitely believe that's the business that I'm in. But
00:07:02
Richa Singh: I think how much evolved is that
00:07:05
Richa Singh: that blogging has, definitely, especially from business blogging. It has
00:07:09
Richa Singh: definitely made a way from being a direct to consumer
00:07:13
Richa Singh: conversion and more about building a long term conversation for
00:07:16
Richa Singh: your product or building equity in the minds of the consumer.
00:07:20
Richa Singh: And that equity is
00:07:22
Richa Singh: not restricted to just your product. It's just restricted to
00:07:26
Richa Singh: your that restricted to what kind of a culture you're
00:07:29
Richa Singh: building also dealing with stuff like how you're building the
00:07:32
Richa Singh: society or how you are a part of a movement,
00:07:34
Richa Singh: a conversation. So I think the challenge is very wide
00:07:38
Richa Singh: or when you think about a business now, and we
00:07:42
Richa Singh: cannot restrict the company's objective just to the fact that
00:07:45
Richa Singh: one we sell production that finishes by end goal because
00:07:50
Richa Singh: we are not
00:07:52
Richa Singh: as humans thinking about our lives very leniently. So when
00:07:56
Richa Singh: you look at some of the big companies who have
00:07:59
Richa Singh: trust and credibility, I think a lot of the purchases
00:08:02
Richa Singh: that happened today are very emotional. Or you think about
00:08:05
Richa Singh: the company doing good overall, and hence you trust that
00:08:07
Richa Singh: the products will come as great quantity. How do you
00:08:10
Richa Singh: put that message out? How do you build brand love? Right?
00:08:15
Richa Singh: And by brand love. How do you build that idea
00:08:18
Richa Singh: in company's mind that this company is larger than life,
00:08:21
Richa Singh: so product selling or performance marketing? I understand, and I
00:08:26
Richa Singh: respect it. Actually, I have a very different thought process
00:08:29
Richa Singh: in performance marketing. I think the performance marketing without a
00:08:33
Richa Singh: dedicated content marketing plan can never succeed
00:08:36
Richa Singh: because you can't just show a person an ad and
00:08:39
Richa Singh: expect that person will blindly click and get converted. What
00:08:44
Richa Singh: you are doing is that you've bombarded that person with
00:08:46
Richa Singh: a lot of conversation outside that performance marketing campaign, so
00:08:51
Richa Singh: that when that person feels that particular ad be like Listen,
00:08:54
Richa Singh: I'd be worrying about it that every word is reached
00:08:57
Richa Singh: by drawing room conversation. This looks like a convenient way
00:09:00
Richa Singh: to purchase. If so, I'm going to do it. A
00:09:02
Richa Singh: lot of performance marketers will tell you that we will
00:09:05
Richa Singh: not function
00:09:06
Richa Singh: until the UN The brand has created the approach,
00:09:10
Richa Singh: so that's of course, when the performance marketing. But how
00:09:14
Richa Singh: has business logging evolved over the years? I think now
00:09:18
Richa Singh: people with a long term vision he want to showcase
00:09:22
Richa Singh: that they are here to stay.
00:09:24
Richa Singh: A lot of the companies that are publicly listed, for
00:09:26
Richa Singh: that matter, they the long, very important because that is
00:09:30
Richa Singh: where they can also talk with some of their investors
00:09:33
Richa Singh: or potential investors, as well as be perception in the
00:09:37
Richa Singh: minds of the consumer that listen, we are a great company.
00:09:39
Richa Singh: I
00:09:40
Saikat Pyne: loved what you spoke about how
00:09:44
Saikat Pyne: the conversion is the end goal of marketing and attribution
00:09:49
Saikat Pyne: from performance. Marketing is just the tip of the iceberg
00:09:53
Saikat Pyne: because when you're measuring performance of a campaign you cannot
00:09:58
Saikat Pyne: measure whether or not this person that you are targeting
00:10:02
Saikat Pyne: has had access to any other marketing collateral or this
00:10:06
Saikat Pyne: conversion is purely based on their first impression of the brand.
00:10:11
Saikat Pyne: So I think a lot might be attributed to performance
00:10:15
Saikat Pyne: marketing that what is coming to it after a person
00:10:19
Saikat Pyne: has checked into multiple touchpoints of the brand, right? As
00:10:24
Saikat Pyne: a marketer, how is a blogger fundamentally different from a
00:10:28
Saikat Pyne: social media creator?
00:10:31
Richa Singh: My favourite line is that all bloggers are influencers, but
00:10:37
Richa Singh: all influences are all bloggers right there. When you are
00:10:41
Richa Singh: engaging a blogger, you are engaging the social media channels
00:10:44
Richa Singh: as when there's the website, and that's just because any
00:10:49
Richa Singh: smart blogger knows that they need social media to market
00:10:53
Richa Singh: their website, so they are actually working on multiple aspects.
00:10:57
Richa Singh: And when you activate a number, you are getting like
00:11:01
Richa Singh: the whole basket of platforms that he or she is
00:11:04
Richa Singh: present on. So that's the tasting difference that I've made.
00:11:08
Richa Singh: A lot of people cannot figure it out for whatever
00:11:10
Richa Singh: we've spoken from the beginning of the conversation in that
00:11:15
Richa Singh: social media is great to reach, to make somebody aware
00:11:18
Richa Singh: but the conversions are not happening by one instagram post.
00:11:21
Richa Singh: As much as you would like to believe it, it's
00:11:23
Richa Singh: not happening.
00:11:24
Richa Singh: So when you have multiple assets at disposal by one person,
00:11:28
Richa Singh: the conversions are better and there is a greater chance
00:11:31
Richa Singh: that the US believes that OK export or is involved
00:11:35
Richa Singh: with this certain product. How should a market payer
00:11:41
Richa Singh: not good?
00:11:42
Richa Singh: It's very subtle that you look at their asset. Look
00:11:45
Richa Singh: at the kind of content they've been creating. You can
00:11:47
Richa Singh: obviously analyse the following to some of the people I know.
00:11:51
Richa Singh: Marketers who over the years seasoned pretty well with the Internet,
00:11:55
Richa Singh: tend to look at BS et cetera from the website
00:11:59
Richa Singh: and see if that's good. They don't really consider social
00:12:02
Richa Singh: media as well, but we do like when we build
00:12:05
Richa Singh: brand campaign. We have a certain amount of mix in
00:12:08
Richa Singh: our head that
00:12:09
Richa Singh: we have a threshold for following and we have a threshold.
00:12:11
Richa Singh: Even on the website side. We put that together as
00:12:14
Richa Singh: we analyse the blockade.
00:12:17
Richa Singh: After you've done that right, call a blogger, bring a
00:12:21
Richa Singh: lot of content so much they have their social post.
00:12:25
Richa Singh: They have the long form content
00:12:28
Richa Singh: and which is where I feel a short sighted marketer
00:12:31
Richa Singh: often failed because they are more useful to the concept
00:12:36
Richa Singh: that OK, click a picture and you put 50 100
00:12:40
Richa Singh: words in caption or put my hashtag tell me and
00:12:44
Richa Singh: that's done.
00:12:46
Richa Singh: So it's very easy to execute something like that. But
00:12:49
Richa Singh: when you activate a blogger, you have to be very
00:12:51
Richa Singh: mindful of the fact where they are going to create
00:12:53
Richa Singh: multiple content. That's it.
00:12:55
Richa Singh: How do you align them to the campaign? How do
00:12:58
Richa Singh: you arrange them? What platform is for what conversation? How
00:13:03
Richa Singh: are you placing your links? How are you saying your products,
00:13:06
Richa Singh: et cetera. So it's very interesting for a market who
00:13:09
Richa Singh: loves this, who loves the idea of really talking about
00:13:12
Richa Singh: the brand in a smart way. But it can get
00:13:15
Richa Singh: overwhelming for a lot of people who are new to
00:13:18
Richa Singh: it or who are like, Oh, you know what? I'm
00:13:21
Richa Singh: more involved and you just put what the and I'm
00:13:23
Richa Singh: done with it.
00:13:24
Richa Singh: So I think when you're approaching a blogger, maybe comes
00:13:28
Richa Singh: with the bandwidth that I am going to get more
00:13:30
Richa Singh: from one portion, then I'll also have to be more
00:13:34
Richa Singh: involved in that context.
00:13:38
Saikat Pyne: And if I am a marketer who has no experience
00:13:43
Saikat Pyne: working with a blogger, what can I expect out of
00:13:48
Saikat Pyne: a blogger brand partnership?
00:13:51
Saikat Pyne: Because I guess most marketers have some experience working with
00:13:54
Saikat Pyne: an instagram or or some experience working LinkedIn creator. They
00:13:59
Saikat Pyne: have some fundamental idea about what they can get out
00:14:02
Saikat Pyne: of it. What can a marketer get out of tangible
00:14:07
Saikat Pyne: return that they can get out of a blogger
00:14:10
Richa Singh: first type, of course, is that you could optimise some
00:14:13
Richa Singh: of the keywords that are relevant to you all that,
00:14:15
Richa Singh: for example, if I were to talk about your podcast
00:14:19
Richa Singh: and you want to position it as one of the
00:14:21
Richa Singh: interesting conversations and marketing so say, if somebody is searching
00:14:25
Richa Singh: for you know, the relevant keywords related to you,
00:14:29
Richa Singh: one of the blog posts from the campaign should come
00:14:32
Richa Singh: up on Google Earth page. That's how you build the breadcrumbs.
00:14:35
Richa Singh: So you are not pouring a consumer directly. You are
00:14:40
Richa Singh: leading them like it's a Pied Piper approach, that you
00:14:43
Richa Singh: are smart,
00:14:44
Richa Singh: leading them to your product. So, yes, Google search results
00:14:48
Richa Singh: become a great output from a good blogging campaign of
00:14:52
Richa Singh: you get good, bad things to your website. So if
00:14:54
Richa Singh: you're also doing the blog automatically, that s C O
00:14:57
Richa Singh: is reflected even for your own website, so that so
00:15:00
Richa Singh: S e O is definitely one of the big benefits
00:15:02
Richa Singh: that you get out. The other is that
00:15:05
Richa Singh: you get a good conversation on social media along with it.
00:15:10
Richa Singh: And
00:15:12
Richa Singh: if you should start tracking the campaign, say if you
00:15:15
Richa Singh: do it in July, start looking at what sort of
00:15:18
Richa Singh: conversations are consumers doing about your brand in August or September?
00:15:23
Richa Singh: Because no content travel or not, and at this moment,
00:15:28
Richa Singh: you'll get great track.
00:15:29
Richa Singh: I think what's interesting with blogging is that what's been
00:15:33
Richa Singh: the retention of that campaign? Did you sustain brand mentions
00:15:36
Richa Singh: outside the campaign and what what they like? That is
00:15:39
Richa Singh: something that I think marketeers often forget with campaigns that
00:15:42
Richa Singh: there's always a 15 20 day after. Check also, that
00:15:45
Richa Singh: everyone should be doing.
00:15:47
Richa Singh: And aside from that, uh, a lot of the brands
00:15:52
Richa Singh: come with one very common complain to us. K. P.
00:15:55
Richa Singh: I is a side that when we engage influential, we
00:15:59
Richa Singh: have a very blipped miss kind of a campaign.
00:16:03
Richa Singh: I'm an instagram today
00:16:05
Richa Singh: I posted on Instagram. I've done everything that you've expected
00:16:07
Richa Singh: me to do. I've closed my delivery and that's it.
00:16:12
Richa Singh: There is nothing that happens after that. So with a blogger,
00:16:17
Richa Singh: that sort of journey, you can totally look it because
00:16:21
Richa Singh: there are multiple assets. So you build a calendar with them, right?
00:16:25
Richa Singh: You have multiple bloggers how we do it. We have
00:16:27
Richa Singh: a copyrighted approach to blogger outreach, which is that if
00:16:31
Richa Singh: you are a blogger and I'm a blogger, we will
00:16:33
Richa Singh: post on our channel. It will give you a calendar.
00:16:35
Richa Singh: We'll give you a date, etcetera,
00:16:37
Richa Singh: and then you will also read me. I will also
00:16:39
Richa Singh: read you comment on each other or content assets and
00:16:42
Richa Singh: even share them. So blogging is a lot of community.
00:16:46
Richa Singh: It's very organic. It's not a very individualistic approach and
00:16:50
Richa Singh: has never been so use that use those community lenses
00:16:55
Richa Singh: to get more out of the same campaign, so you
00:16:58
Richa Singh: have a wider conversation
00:17:00
Richa Singh: If you have a one month campaign. Chances are that's
00:17:03
Richa Singh: something that we do at blog Chato that chances are
00:17:06
Richa Singh: that we never have a another day. We make sure
00:17:08
Richa Singh: that there's something or the other happening on the campaign
00:17:11
Richa Singh: every day. And that is something that can only come
00:17:14
Richa Singh: through a person who does not have only Instagram or
00:17:18
Richa Singh: who does not have only YouTube, who basically has more platforms,
00:17:23
Richa Singh: more content assets to give you. So you get more
00:17:26
Richa Singh: out of that.
00:17:27
Richa Singh: Apart from that, some of the K p I s
00:17:29
Richa Singh: that we obviously track our reach. Impressions and clicks also
00:17:33
Richa Singh: video views. So these are the kind of things that
00:17:35
Richa Singh: you can always track. But of course, if you are
00:17:38
Richa Singh: doing all these, then get the right kind of picture.
00:17:41
Richa Singh: For example, we run everything on hashtag analytic because multiple
00:17:45
Richa Singh: assets are involved, right? So for an influencer, it's very easy.
00:17:48
Richa Singh: They will send you the analytics of the individual code.
00:17:51
Richa Singh: How will my blog do that? Because my blog is
00:17:54
Richa Singh: doing multiple instagram posts. He's also doing tweets. He's also
00:17:57
Richa Singh: doing stories. It's also doing a blog post. How do
00:18:00
Richa Singh: you combine so many as analytics? So we use a
00:18:02
Richa Singh: tool called Keyhole, which has hashtag analytics in it. He
00:18:06
Richa Singh: plays the campaign hashtag and he lists everything. It crawl
00:18:09
Richa Singh: the entire Internet wherever the hashtag is used for the
00:18:11
Richa Singh: campaign and you get a combined report to each impression.
00:18:15
Richa Singh: And, of course, the click. The true beauty of
00:18:17
Saikat Pyne: that Got it. That was supremely useful. Thank you so
00:18:21
Saikat Pyne: much for being on the show. Richard, I really appreciate
00:18:24
Saikat Pyne: you taking time out for this one.
00:18:26
Richa Singh: Thank you, Jack. I had a great one. Guys,
00:18:28
Saikat Pyne: please tune in next week for the next episode of
00:18:31
Saikat Pyne: the U Incorporated podcast. See ya.
00:18:38
Saikat Pyne: Thank you for tuning into the U Incorporated podcast with me.
00:18:44
Saikat Pyne: Please follow trade and review us on Spotify and apple
00:18:48
Saikat Pyne: podcasts and share our episodes far and wide.
00:18:53
Saikat Pyne: You can also sign up for our free you incorporated
00:18:57
Saikat Pyne: newsletter on our website the you ink dot co and
00:19:01
Saikat Pyne: send us your suggestions at high At the rate the
00:19:05
Saikat Pyne: you ink dot com. We have all the links in
00:19:09
Saikat Pyne: our show. Loads catch you in the next episode.