The importance of Corporate blogging is known to all, but few companies are able to use this medium as a lead generation tool.
Yes, corporate blogs are an excellent resource for Lead generation. The advantages of Corporate blogging are far too many to be ignored by any b2b company which is trying to build visibility for its brand and its offerings or trying to attract prospects.
Talk of any online brand building exercise and Corporate blogs will emerge as the cheapest, most effective and easily manageable solution. Blogs help with Public Relations and SEO; Blogs are great when it comes to building thought leadership or as medium to inform your prospects about your offerings. Corporate Blogs if used by Company Heads can also become the voice of the company in many cases, with the blog content getting quoted in other forms of media.
Now isn’t that worth the effort of sharing your views on your industry, factors affecting it, technological advancements influencing it and your experiences functioning in this niche space?
However, before you implement this suggestion and decide to start your company blog – consider these tips, to ensure, your blog is not just a company mouthpiece but also a lead generation resource.
Name your blog
Having a distinct name for your blog is a good idea. It gives the blog a distinct identity. However, before you zero in on a name think through, the name will become a part of your company’s branding exercise, it cannot and should not be changed. Also the name should indicate the kind of content the blog will offer its readers, it helps in remaining focussed and getting across to your target audience.
Have a Blog Strategy
Like any other marketing initiative even blogs need a strategic approach. At the start itself you should be very clear on your blog’s end objective. If you function in a niche space it could be about educating your readers about your industry and the value it brings to its customers. Or it could be targeted at putting across how your offerings are different from similar products/services available in the industry. Having an objective helps in streamlining the content that goes on the blog. Revisiting the objective and revising it can be part of the plan, but having one at the start is essential.
Decide on who blogs
A blog needs regularly updated and original content, it needs to be fed. Ensure you have multiple writers to keep it updated if managing it single handedly on a regular basis is a problem. Also, it would be good to have some of your senior management contribute to the Company blog. Apart from the varied experience and expertise they bring on board, they also convert your blog into a place for media to pick up your company views and quotes on industry relevant issues.
SEO Optimize
Ensure you use keywords relevant to your space in your blog content and then link back these keywords to SEO optimized pages on your website. Search Engines give blog content more priority in search results, this could be because blogs usually have original content and are informative in nature.
Syndicate with other blog sites
Building a following for Blogs takes time, so to ensure, your content reaches a larger audience from the start – get your blogs on sites that syndicate content, like CustomerThink and Utilizer. This will ensure your content reaches a wider reader base who regularly follow content on these sites. These content syndications also help in improving you SEO rankings resulting in better search results
Popularize your content
Use social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin to promote your blog content. In a recent B2B social media report by LeadForce1 it was found that blogs topped the pages of interest for enterprise visitors who came in from social media sites Facebook and Twitter. However if you want other people to further share your content with their followers, ensure, it is not too promotional in nature and also there is a net-takeaway for the reader.
Respond to comments
If you have people leaving genuine comment on your blog, acknowledge and respond. It not only helps you connect with your readers and potential leads, but is also a great way to get feedback on the content you post and its usefulness to your target audience.
Now that you know how useful and easy it is to have a corporate blog, start soon and add one more Lead generation resource to your company’s marketing arsenal.
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