A corporate blog still has an important role in corporate communications. But often the success of a corporate blog falls far short of expectations, and there are many reasons for that.
In the age of the social web, blogs are repeatedly declared dead. Yet, corporate blogs in particular can provide a critical link between the corporate website and social media communication. As a content hub and editorial center, they are an essential part of corporate communications and are an essential part of the implementation of content marketing for companies.
A corporate blog can fulfill many corporate goals. A successful corporate blog can increase a company’s reach and visibility in search engines, and strengthen its reputation. When creating online content for companies, consider implementing a corporate blog.
Corporate blogs can take many forms. Some companies use it as a newsroom, the modern form of a press center. Other companies establish it as a publication channel for technical articles, interviews, or how-to guides about their products and services. The corporate blog can be a service point and help center or a stand-alone online magazine, as it were a digital corporate publishing channel.
As the most significant function, the corporate blog should serve as content headquarters and content marketing channel for internal and external communication of the online company. Consider creating a corporate blog when creating content online.
Why are blogs important for a business?
A corporate blog can help you establish one of the online companies as a thought leader in the industry, and the blog can play an essential role in lead generation, conversion, and customer retention.
Thanks to a well-organized blog, you can:
- Position your company as an expert,
- increase your reputation with customers and cooperation partners,
- create an important resource for customer retention and dialogue,
- support lead generation and customer acquisition
- make a significant contribution to SEO and website traffic.
Here are some statistics that illustrate the importance of blogs for businesses:
- 81% of companies said their corporate blog is essential to their business.
- 71% of business bloggers report that they have increased their company’s visibility in their industry.
- 69% of companies attribute their lead generation success to blogging.
- Companies with corporate blogs average 55% more website visitors, 97% more inbound links, and 434% more indexed pages.
- 56% of business bloggers say the corporate blog plays an important role in establishing their company as a thought leader in the industry.
- Blogging companies drive 55% more website visitors than companies without a corporate blog.
Why corporate blogs fail
In social media communication, it’s the back channel that determines the success or failure of corporate communication. But many corporate blogs struggle above all with a low interaction rate. 64% of corporate blogs achieve no comments at all. Only 5% of corporate blogs get three or more comments per article. One reason for the lack of interactions is often the lack of relevance of the content. There is also a lack of content consistency, sufficient topic and target group focus, and a lack of content cross-linking with other channels and communication campaigns.
The content marketing dilemma
However, the biggest dilemma in corporate communications continues to be the discrepancy between the content communicated and what customers expect from blog content. While 75% of business decision-makers are searching for substantive ideas and inspiration, 93% of marketers continue to communicate product and service-related content.
One reason for this may stem from the fact that many companies primarily source their content from within their organization. This is though not the best strategy for content marketing for online companies.
What content are customers interested in?
Business decision-makers are primarily interested in tips, instructions, and industry trends.
- Tips and advice (90 %)
- Checklists or instructions (88%) as well as
- Industry information and trends (81%).
All companies have a great deal of industry expertise and know-how that can be used directly for the content strategy on the corporate blog and throughout the company. However, this wealth of knowledge is often hidden in individual documents, press releases, newsletters, databases, or even just in the heads of employees. For providing such useful information for the multi-layered decision-making processes in the buying process, corporate blogs are an excellent tool to support lead generation, customer retention, or even up-selling and cross-selling.
Successful “blog content” consists primarily of:
- Answers to important questions (for example, from support and sales).
- Solutions to common problems and challenges in the industry
- Insider knowledge and testimonials from other customers
The blog offers an interactive and multimedia content marketing tool for publishing up-to-date information and news, but also for providing white papers, checklists, videos, images, and infographics.
Regularity counts
Many corporate blogs suffer from a lack of topicality and frequency of posts. But the regular publication of up-to-date posts is the basis for reader loyalty and for a sustainable increase in blog traffic.
The answer to the question “How many blog posts should I publish?” is most likely “More than you currently do,” according to Dan Zarrella in The Science of Marketing.
Here are some numbers:
- Fifty-two or more blog posts increase blog traffic by up to 77%. Source: TrafficGenerationCafe
- Businesses that blog more than 4 times per week drive more traffic and leads. Source: PWB Marketing Communications
- Companies that blog more than 16 posts per month get over 3.5x more traffic and 4.5x more leads than companies that blog less than 4 posts per month. Source: HubSpot
- 89% of businesses that update their blogs multiple times a day gain more customers through their blogs. Source: WordPress
The corporate blog as a central content resource
In content marketing, the focus is not on the channel, but on the content.
In this context, the blog is “just” one channel among many. But a corporate blog can do more. With social media features like comments and interaction buttons, the blog is not just an outlet channel. It also serves as an important feedback and dialog channel for customers and prospects. This feedback and dialog channel is an influential basis for regularly reviewing and adjusting the content strategy.
This means that the corporate blog should be the central editorial interface, resource source, and seeding center for the content marketing, PR, and social media strategy. All content marketing activities run centrally from and back to the blog.
By providing information on the corporate blog for the various stages of the purchase decision process, you can establish the blog as a valuable resource for customers and prospects. But in this way, the blog can also be a source of information for internal communications and production departments in sales, support, and product development.
Seeding, recycling and cross-promotion for corporate blogs
A successful corporate blog rarely stands alone. It is not enough to publish valuable content only on the corporate blog. Only a fraction of potential customers finds their way there directly. It is much more important to cross-media publishing, network, and promote the blog and the content of the corporate blog via various other media and media formats.
In this way, the content can also be recycled several times (content recycling) and distributed further.
Social media networks are certainly the most critical sources for seeding to present content to the largest possible readership and a good way to generate more reach for the blog.
Thanks to social media tools and plugins, the corporate blog can be integrated into social media marketing. Social media buttons for following, liking, sharing, and comments establish a direct connection of the blog with the own social media channels and the channels of the followers. But the tools also help to attract new followers and generate more discussions and comments.
With widespread distribution (seeding) of posts and media across many various social media channels, visibility and reach can be increased and the lifespan of content extended. However, targeted cross-social media marketing of posts is important to consider the specifics of each network and community.