Not sure what the point of your company blog is? You’re not alone. More than likely Google is equally clueless and visitors to your company’s website have no idea either. Not only does this make your company look bad, it also means you’re missing out on massive opportunities to grow your business further. It’s time to find focus.
If you’re looking to enhance your content marketing strategy, launching a company blog but are unsure of where to start or what to write about, or if you need help convincing others in your organisation about the benefits of blogging, this series is for you.
These are the starting blocks for blogging success, helping you decide what content to write, who to write it for and what topics to choose so you can plan content ahead well into the future.
But before you reach that point you need to ask yourself some tough questions…
Is Your Blog Pointless?
How does your company’s blog add value? Does it do anything for the company’s bottom line? Take some time out to look through some of your blog’s articles with a more critical eye. Do they provide any benefit to users? Is there a clear strategy at work here or is it just a case of publishing for the sake of publishing?
The fact is, while some companies do blogging right, the vast majority still don’t. Many companies, even large global corporations, still view blogging as more of an obligation – “well our competitors are doing it, so we need to do it too.”
They’re easy to spot too, there’s always a general lack of cohesion in terms of categories, topics and tone. More than likely the blog is not regularly updated, often with huge gaps between publishing dates that can even extend to year-long droughts before somebody finally posts a generic press release. Maybe it’s an award the company won or a new partnership announcement. A simple copy/paste job with no real thought given to it other than somebody higher up the chain said, “we need to put this on our blog.”
Sounds familiar? Sounds pointless.
Let’s fix it.
Grab a pen, open Notepad, whatever is the easiest way to make notes and start jotting down all the benefits of blogging that you can think of.
If your company already has a blog, take a deeper look at it and do a mini SWOT analysis noting its strengths, weaknesses and missed opportunities. Take as long as you need for this exercise then come back to me when you’re ready.
Giving Your Blog Purpose
Right, let’s compare notes. Here are some of the main benefits of blogging and I’m confident you will have come up with a lot of these already:
- Building Brand Recognition
- Building Authority & Trust
- Growing Site Traffic
- Lead Generation
- Backlink Generation
- Increasing Social Shares
- Customer Service
- Community Engagement
- Promotions
Maybe you worded them differently, maybe you missed a few, maybe you have some on your list which are different to mine. Don’t worry if they are. What’s important is that you are beginning to start thinking strategically about your blog so you can hone in on what matters and give your blog purpose.
