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Business Blogs: A Key Entry Point

 In Email Marketing, Social Media

Some time ago we published a Business Blogging Basics guide to help businesses figure out why they should have a corporate blog, how to manage it, who should write it, and how often they should update it.  If your business blog isn’t running like clockwork, go back and check out those tips.

If you’re not sure a corporate blog is right for you, consider this trend: MarketingSherpa writes in their blog that “Many B2B marketers report that their team’s blog — not the company homepage — is now the most popular entry point for online visitors.”  Yes, many blogs are outpacing their company homepages for key metrics such as:

  • Total visits
  • Time spent on site
  • Number of pages viewed

Why might this be the case? They suggest that “two factors are at work here: Blog content that is frequently updated and loaded with your team’s most important keywords lead to greater visibility on search engines. Plus, social sharing tools now enable your readers to share that content with their extended networks, further extending your reach and visibility.”

So – if, starting tomorrow, you saw that more people came to your blog than your homepage, how you would handle your blog differently? Here are a few ideas to start you on the right path:

  1. Make sure your blog reflects your brand image. This is especially important if people are coming to your blog FIRST. It needs to have the same look and voice of your website and offline communications.
  2. Keep it fresh! Update your blog at least weekly, if not daily. A stale blog signals to the world that you don’t have anything going on, or anything valuable to say.
  3. Get multiple voices involved. First, having a team of bloggers means no one person  is overburdened with the task. Second, it provides multiple viewpoints for your readers AND multiple ways to incorporate keywords that will drive more traffic to your blog.
  4. Don’t just make it me, me, me… an interesting blog can’t just talk about internal topics like press releases and new product offerings. Add value by offering a perspective on industry news, giving advice that will help your readers, or educating readers on a topic you know a lot about.
  5. Encourage dialogue. Post questions and invite readers to respond in the comments. Then be sure to respond!
  6. Leverage other social media. Link to your blog post on Twitter and encourage followers to re-tweet it to their networks. Allow readers to share your blog post on Facebook, and engage in dialogue about each post on your business’ Facebook page.

Need more ideas? Check out BusinessWeek’s 10 tips on building a great blog for your business: How to Make an Awesome Corporate Blog.

We are always here to help you create and maintain your blog – contact us for more details.

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