Nowadays, most business owners and marketers recognize that a blog is a great tool for content marketing, brand journalism and an SEO booster. Yet it seems to me that many company blogs still fall short of their potential. Why is that?
From my experience, business blogs are often an afterthought. There is no blog strategy, KPIs or content calendar. The employee who owns it is often in marketing or communications, busy with well planned-out campaigns, and writing a blog post is something she does when she has an hour to spare maybe once a month. Or maybe the task to write blog posts is given to an intern or junior employee with little direction and consequently, little success.
Inevitably, one day you get asked “what’s the ROI of our blog?” Because the blog was never a priority, you can’t really demonstrate a solid ROI, and that justifies continuing to de-prioritize the blog. It’s a vicious cycle.
The main objective of your company blog should be to add value to your customers—to tell stories about your products and your company in a way that will help them see why your brand should be a part of their life. In a world of endless choice and diminishing brand loyalty, adding value is not something that should ever be put on the back burner.
Beyond that, a blog can be used to share content targeting customers at all buying stages from awareness to customer service. Blog strategy and measurement should be part of your broader marketing plan, and the content calendar will help inform your distribution strategy.
So if you truly want to add value with your blog and see measurable results, you must prioritize it like you do other marketing activities.
Paulina Zelazny Copywriting 