I just read an interesting article about the rising trend of marketing budgets in 2010 versus 2009. Smaller businesses are driving content marketing initiatives by double that of large businesses. Over two-thirds attribute social media as their primary marketing venue. Why? Because it works and it’s far less expensive than direct mail or print/TV advertising.
Corporate Blogs
Small business blogs can increase website viewership by over 50%. In today’s business climate of shrinking budgets, blogs have become a low cost viable marketing strategy. A recent search on Bing for ‘corporate blogs’ returned over 27,000,000 results! As higher and higher percentages of shoppers search the Internet to research products and services, blogs offer a closer relationship with a company’s prospects.
The Challenge of Providing Valuable Content
While content has to be relevant to the company, it needs to provide value to the visitor as well. Simply creating posts that promote your products or services will have diminished results. Typically, blog posts should add value to the visitor – offering creative solutions.
The Real Goal?
What are we are looking for on our websites? I’ll venture “recurring traffic.” Why? Because return visitors are considerably more likely to respond to a call to action. Successful blogs build regular readership that, over time, foster a business relationship of know, like and trust. Prospects don’t buy products or services – they buy from people or businesses they know, like and trust.
Content marketing requires a commitment of time
Posts need to be frequent, and contain a consistent source of useful information. Building a readership takes time – sometimes months before users recognize your blog as worth following, and recommending to others.
Corporate blogs should engage your entire organization
If you’re responsible for your company’s blog, look for ways to engage others within your organization to contribute. The collective knowledge of everyone in your company shapes who you are. Connecting with your visitors on multiple levels leverages and sustains your marketing efforts, and ultimately, your return-on-investment (ROI).
So my questions would be:
Corporate Blogs
Small business blogs can increase website viewership by over 50%. In today’s business climate of shrinking budgets, blogs have become a low cost viable marketing strategy. A recent search on Bing for ‘corporate blogs’ returned over 27,000,000 results! As higher and higher percentages of shoppers search the Internet to research products and services, blogs offer a closer relationship with a company’s prospects.
The Challenge of Providing Valuable Content
While content has to be relevant to the company, it needs to provide value to the visitor as well. Simply creating posts that promote your products or services will have diminished results. Typically, blog posts should add value to the visitor – offering creative solutions.
The Real Goal?
What are we are looking for on our websites? I’ll venture “recurring traffic.” Why? Because return visitors are considerably more likely to respond to a call to action. Successful blogs build regular readership that, over time, foster a business relationship of know, like and trust. Prospects don’t buy products or services – they buy from people or businesses they know, like and trust.
Content marketing requires a commitment of time
Posts need to be frequent, and contain a consistent source of useful information. Building a readership takes time – sometimes months before users recognize your blog as worth following, and recommending to others.
Corporate blogs should engage your entire organization
If you’re responsible for your company’s blog, look for ways to engage others within your organization to contribute. The collective knowledge of everyone in your company shapes who you are. Connecting with your visitors on multiple levels leverages and sustains your marketing efforts, and ultimately, your return-on-investment (ROI).
So my questions would be:
- Do you have a blog, and if not, why not?
- Is there only one person responsible for posting to your blog? And if so, why?
- Do you post regularly to your blog? And if not, why not?
