Why do we keep a company blog? Owning a blog seems to be a must for most professional websites but what is the purpose?
How do those who run them justify their real added value related to time spent on them?
Weblogs, especially if they are run in a 'Inbound Marketing approach, are an extremely useful tool for attracting visitors and converting leads.
However, a large proportion of them are simply a waste of time and as such, prove to be a poor investment.
Here are three pitfalls to avoid so that your blog is not a waste of time :
A corporate blog must meet an objective, worked out with the marketing teams and ideally with other departments. This objective is threefold:
- highlight expertise
- strengthen the brand
- provide content to social media
These are three basic reasons to run a business blog. If the articles you publish don't meet these requirements, you need to rewrite them.
On the other hand, here are three bad reasons to blog for you
- because competitors are doing it!
- because you were told it was good for the SEO
- because having a blog flatters the ego of management
In and of themselves, these motivations are not completely absurd, including the last one!
If your competitors are blogging, it's probably because they've realized that it's a powerful tool for converting leads.
Also, a regularly updated blog serves the natural referencing of the site well, and thus can more easily attract potential customers.
Finally, it's a good thing that the blog appeals to your management. Because by proving to them that it can also bring in qualified leads, they'll be more inclined to increase your Content Marketing budgets!
Even if your blog is an exception and you know exactly why you're keeping it, it's still all too likely that it doesn't have enough link to your own brand.
The explanation lies in the fact that a majority of companies, especially smaller ones, have not yet clearly defined their own brand. Difficult in these conditions to convey it in the blog!
Because of this, there will be no recurring theme that matches the brand's strengths, so little consistency.
The blog will ultimately be a collection of disparate posts, pointing in many directions and unable to send a clear signal.
Think about including specific elements of your brand in each of your posts so that they don't look like any other (and especially not your competitors'!)
Weblogs are frequent on B2B sites, especially those offering services to professionals - law, accounting, consulting, marketing, IT, etc.
If these companies know what they're doing, they should be able to easily tell who their target audience is.
Or too often their blog posts have little to do with the interests of that audience, which can be defined through the personas.
So it's a good idea to ask yourself "Who am I really talking to when I write this?"
This should be the first question you ask yourself before you bend over your keyboard.
In summary, remember these three simple questions before you start blogging.
- What is the goal?
- Do I really understand what my brand is about?
- Will my ideal target audience be interested in what I write?
You are better equipped to launch your corporate blog now !