In earlier posts, we have established the case for content based marketing and have outlined some key principles behind creating effective content.
Here are some guidelines to help establish one of the most successful content tools you will encounter; business blogging.
Blogging is in the top two or three most successful tools for marketers. Business blogging has gone mainstream. It is no longer the preserve of tech geeks and loony conspiracy theorists peddling their views on exactly how the world is going to end, or how Big Brother is watching your every move!
Blogging is particularly powerful in the early stages of the buyer's journey, in unsettling prospects from the status quo, troubling them about their business, demonstrating that there is a better, more effective or efficient way to deal with a particular issue facing their industry sector. Blogging is a great way to put a human face on your company. It is interactive, people comment on your thoughts and opinions, a dialogue ensues and you are creating a community of individuals and (hopefully) prospects that you are influencing. That is an exchange that is creating real value to your prospect and indeed to your own organisation. It is an excellent way to gauge the pulse of the market.
However many organisations fear committing to a blog and in some cases with good reason. There are challenges that need to be recognised and dealt with.
- Capacity: Organisations need to task a number of people with the job of regularly blogging. It needs to be a genuine commitment by the company and by those people. Don't make this just one person's task it will soon become too onerous. 20 people blogging once per month is much more pragmatic that one person trying to blog every day, yet the same result, one blog per day sent by your firm out into the blogosphere. Research has shown the vast majority of Blogs fail at the 3-5 month time period. Once the initial flush of enthusiasm has subsided and you have written about the 6 topics you had on your list, it gets too hard to put time aside and too hard to generate new and exciting content and the blog lapses into disuse. Ensure you have a realistic amount of resource allocated to the task of writing blogs and a clear publishing schedule and editorial discipline is in place.
- Consistency: Brainstorm key buyer orientated themes you wish to introduce to the Blogosphere (and I don't mean how great your latest product release is!). Ensure those involved in blogging for your organisation understand what those themes are and why they have been selected. Consider how these themes can be replicated across other content mediums you have such as LinkedIn groups, Twitter or eDM articles.
- Alignment: Ensure your blog is playing its part in driving traffic and the right sort of traffic to your site. Your blog needs to be an integral part of your SEO strategy and posts must include those keywords you are ranking for and should include links to websites and other bloggers who rank highly and will lift your own Google page ranking. Your blog should integrate simply with your other social media channels such as Twitter and LinkedIn.
- Metrics: Measure the results of your blogging effort and investment. Figure out what topics and keywords are resulting in the most traffic to your website, what blogs converted into real leads.
This may all sound too hard and too daunting, yet if you do nothing else in your content strategy, you should commit to a business blog. There are many firms like g2m Solutions who provide content services to establish and get your blog going. For larger organisations in more complex environments we recommend and work with sophisticated integrated blogging solutions such as InnoBlog from US based Innogage http://www.innogage.com/products.html#innoblogs.
Consider Business Blogging as a core component of your content strategy, which in turn is vital to your ability to attract buyers to your organisation and its offerings. Keep your content focused on the single most important constituent: The Buyer.