More and more professionals are creating a Business blog to gain visibility. Often the launch of the blog is an exciting project, carrying many hopes: we will be able to transmit his vision, to touch new customers, to have a content "to oneself" to share on social networks instead of simply to relay the news of its sector ...
Alas, some professionals are very quick to find out that their corporate blog does not meet the expected success. What are the frequent mistakes to avoid? How to go on a good basis? A few tracks in this article!
* To have from the outset a blog well optimized technically, compatible with mobile, fast to load;
* To have a clear architecture and navigation;
* To write content optimized around the right keywords: the Web editor who manages your blog (you maybe?)) must be able to propose topics that elicit research on Google & others ... and if possible subjects on which the competition is not too supportive, history that you can position yourself on within a reasonable time. Otherwise, you will soon find yourself producing a multitude of content that does not generate any long term traffic.
* To avoid writing for Google: Forget posts that use too much the same keyword. Answer the problems of your prospects, help them to find an answer to their questions and make the right purchase decision.
Domain name separated or not?
Be sure to create your blog on the same domain as your site, so that it takes full advantage of the existence of the blog: the blog articles will be more conducive to be shared on the networks social and content of the site, a valuable source of traffic.
The blog can receive links which will increase the authority of the site as a whole in the eyes of search engines, making it more credible and trustworthy.
The user experience is often more consistent for the visitor with a single domain as if he passes from one universe to another, at two different addresses.
The blog being updated regularly, it often goes hand in hand with a significant frequency of search engines, than on a website for example.
A few arguments that you should create a business blog on the same domain as your main site, for example with a URL of the type blog.mywebsite.com
If you decide to create a corporate blog, you have to be aware that the return on investment will not be immediate: it means you have to plan to stick to it for at least a year, history of letting your blog to emerge. And keep in mind that it sometimes takes even more time, especially if you launch at the same time your business site and your blog (the blog not being able to benefit from the notoriety of a company already present on the web, it will necessarily need more time to start).
It also means that you must implement from the launch of the tracking tools to monitor your performance, with a minimum: Google Analytics to study the traffic, acquisition channels (where your visitors come from), conversion, the behavior (which pages are the most views?) How much time spend on the blog users?).
Google Search Console for study in more accurate traffic from search engines (keywords typed in by users, number of clicks and impressions).
The benefits of a corporate blog are many it is well-managed: visibility, credibility, and ultimately, your blog can become a salesperson who works for you 24/24, 7 days a week: he values your expertise, answered questions that your prospects are asking, reassure your customers on your ability to meet and loyal everyone remembering to them regularly. What more?
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Error # 1 – Create a business blog without strategy
we hear everywhere that you absolutely have to create a blog, that content marketing or inbound marketing is the new Eldorado to develop its turnover. So everyone starts, without necessarily taking the time to define a strategy beforehand.
In order for your content to be effective, it must address the right target and deal with good language issues.
So many imperatives that already give you work to perform upstream!
Identify your target very precisely
You can rely on your existing customer base, ask your salespeople to bring up accurate information about your prospects, carry out a study ... This will allow you to better understand who are the people who are using your services or who are buying your products.
You can then establish what is called "buyer personas", extremely precise profiles of your potential customers: their age, their profession, their level of education, how they inform about your subjects, their interests, etc. You can quite have several different targets, just like you can decide to focus on a specific target.
For example, the Allianz insurer – which caters to professionals – includes insurance for freelancers and auto-entrepreneurs, to help them protect their business in the event of a glitch or if they are challenged by one of their clients. On his blog, Allianz brings a wealth of advice to this entrepreneurial target. A good way to accompany them to a business creation and a more serene development!
It is the knowledge of your targets that will allow you to produce content adapted to their expectations.
Think about the language your target is talking about the content of your business blog should reflect how your prospects express themselves. You have an expertise that they do not necessarily have and it can lead you to use a jargon that not everyone has control over. It can be a real drag on the development of your blog.
Think very early about adopting simple reflexes: limiting jargon and explaining complex terms if need be, find out how your prospects talk about your products by visiting, for example, the forums where they inform themselves, by studying the exchanges that take place in the prospecting phase (mails, telephone, questions posed to your sales/pre-sales, etc.).
In order for your content to be effective, it must address the right target and deal with good language issues.
So many imperatives that already give you work to perform upstream!
Identify your target very precisely
You can rely on your existing customer base, ask your salespeople to bring up accurate information about your prospects, carry out a study ... This will allow you to better understand who are the people who are using your services or who are buying your products.
You can then establish what is called "buyer personas", extremely precise profiles of your potential customers: their age, their profession, their level of education, how they inform about your subjects, their interests, etc. You can quite have several different targets, just like you can decide to focus on a specific target.
For example, the Allianz insurer – which caters to professionals – includes insurance for freelancers and auto-entrepreneurs, to help them protect their business in the event of a glitch or if they are challenged by one of their clients. On his blog, Allianz brings a wealth of advice to this entrepreneurial target. A good way to accompany them to a business creation and a more serene development!
It is the knowledge of your targets that will allow you to produce content adapted to their expectations.
Think about the language your target is talking about the content of your business blog should reflect how your prospects express themselves. You have an expertise that they do not necessarily have and it can lead you to use a jargon that not everyone has control over. It can be a real drag on the development of your blog.
Think very early about adopting simple reflexes: limiting jargon and explaining complex terms if need be, find out how your prospects talk about your products by visiting, for example, the forums where they inform themselves, by studying the exchanges that take place in the prospecting phase (mails, telephone, questions posed to your sales/pre-sales, etc.).
Error # 2 – A bad platform choice a buisiness blog
Buisiness blog don't necessarily meet the same requirements, are not always managed by the same people ... and the platform you use for your site is not necessarily adapted to the needs of a blog.
Creating a corporate blog requires a lot of flexibility so that you can easily update it independently without the need to call a computer provider for the slightest modification (leaving an arm in the way!). WordPress often imposes itself as the most suitable solution to create a successful business blog.
Creating a corporate blog requires a lot of flexibility so that you can easily update it independently without the need to call a computer provider for the slightest modification (leaving an arm in the way!). WordPress often imposes itself as the most suitable solution to create a successful business blog.
Error # 3 – Forgetting referencing
a corporate blog has several advantages: it allows you to showcase your seriousness and your expertise and can also become a formidable forum to make you known to people who do not even know that you exist ...
But for your blog to fill this function, it is necessary to find it, and not only when we are already on your site! The natural referencing can bring you this visibility "out of brand".
What is a well optimized blog?
* To make referencing a real leverage of traffic, one must think in particular ...
* To write about topics related to your business that closely affect your prospects ' concerns: so there will be an adequacy between what your target is likely to search on Google and what you are proposing;
But for your blog to fill this function, it is necessary to find it, and not only when we are already on your site! The natural referencing can bring you this visibility "out of brand".
What is a well optimized blog?
* To make referencing a real leverage of traffic, one must think in particular ...
* To write about topics related to your business that closely affect your prospects ' concerns: so there will be an adequacy between what your target is likely to search on Google and what you are proposing;
* To have from the outset a blog well optimized technically, compatible with mobile, fast to load;
* To have a clear architecture and navigation;
* To write content optimized around the right keywords: the Web editor who manages your blog (you maybe?)) must be able to propose topics that elicit research on Google & others ... and if possible subjects on which the competition is not too supportive, history that you can position yourself on within a reasonable time. Otherwise, you will soon find yourself producing a multitude of content that does not generate any long term traffic.
* To avoid writing for Google: Forget posts that use too much the same keyword. Answer the problems of your prospects, help them to find an answer to their questions and make the right purchase decision.
Domain name separated or not?
Be sure to create your blog on the same domain as your site, so that it takes full advantage of the existence of the blog: the blog articles will be more conducive to be shared on the networks social and content of the site, a valuable source of traffic.
The blog can receive links which will increase the authority of the site as a whole in the eyes of search engines, making it more credible and trustworthy.
The user experience is often more consistent for the visitor with a single domain as if he passes from one universe to another, at two different addresses.
The blog being updated regularly, it often goes hand in hand with a significant frequency of search engines, than on a website for example.
A few arguments that you should create a business blog on the same domain as your main site, for example with a URL of the type blog.mywebsite.com
Error # 4 – Only talking about your business
creating a corporate blog is keeping in mind that all your readers don't know you. This is a very common mistake, which many companies are committing, including well-known companies. They are persuaded, consciously or unconsciously, that the Internet users know them and will think of them the day they need their products or services. In fact, that is not always the case.
Sometimes the surfer will do a Google search and get caught by the first links he finds without necessarily looking further and turn to you; Sometimes he knows your brand but does not know that you are proposing a product that meets his expectations; Not to mention all the people who have a need or a problem that you can answer but don't even know you exist!
Your business blog must therefore go beyond your own products. For example, the web host 1 & 1 could do a blog entirely focused on the theme of hosting and web tutorials... but the subject is competitive and ultimately wouldn't be very different compared to other hosting companies in the market. So he chose a clever strategy: create a business blog running like a real magazine for professionals, a Digital Guide with content focused on online success.
No one has to read a series of press releases that smell good self-promotion!
Sometimes the surfer will do a Google search and get caught by the first links he finds without necessarily looking further and turn to you; Sometimes he knows your brand but does not know that you are proposing a product that meets his expectations; Not to mention all the people who have a need or a problem that you can answer but don't even know you exist!
Your business blog must therefore go beyond your own products. For example, the web host 1 & 1 could do a blog entirely focused on the theme of hosting and web tutorials... but the subject is competitive and ultimately wouldn't be very different compared to other hosting companies in the market. So he chose a clever strategy: create a business blog running like a real magazine for professionals, a Digital Guide with content focused on online success.
No one has to read a series of press releases that smell good self-promotion!
Error # 5 – Wanting immediate results
Any blog whether amateur or professional, takes time to develop. It often takes several months to start generating traffic and a few more months for this traffic to have a real impact in terms of business. Very often companies start to invest in content writing for a blog and then drop by seeing after a few months that the traffic generated remains low: after all, no one wants to continue to invest in a strategy that produces no results!
If you decide to create a corporate blog, you have to be aware that the return on investment will not be immediate: it means you have to plan to stick to it for at least a year, history of letting your blog to emerge. And keep in mind that it sometimes takes even more time, especially if you launch at the same time your business site and your blog (the blog not being able to benefit from the notoriety of a company already present on the web, it will necessarily need more time to start).
It also means that you must implement from the launch of the tracking tools to monitor your performance, with a minimum: Google Analytics to study the traffic, acquisition channels (where your visitors come from), conversion, the behavior (which pages are the most views?) How much time spend on the blog users?).
Google Search Console for study in more accurate traffic from search engines (keywords typed in by users, number of clicks and impressions).
Error # 6 – Producing content
that is too short today, difficult to have a company without competitors! There are necessarily people who are playing on the same commercial ground as you or, quite simply, dealing with the same topics as you on the web. On the search engines they also become competitors.
To distinguish yourself, you can no longer limit yourself to producing articles of 250 very superficial words. Don't be afraid to enrich your pages, to treat a subject from different angles to provide rich information that will prevent the user from visiting 5 different sites to have the information he is looking for.
The trick is just enter your topic on Google and to examine each of the sites that stand out on the first page: what angle they address the subject? It will then allow you to write an article that will take into account all these aspects... and sometimes add additional information that you will find nowhere else!
To distinguish yourself, you can no longer limit yourself to producing articles of 250 very superficial words. Don't be afraid to enrich your pages, to treat a subject from different angles to provide rich information that will prevent the user from visiting 5 different sites to have the information he is looking for.
The trick is just enter your topic on Google and to examine each of the sites that stand out on the first page: what angle they address the subject? It will then allow you to write an article that will take into account all these aspects... and sometimes add additional information that you will find nowhere else!
Error #7 - forget the call-to-action
for your blog to fully fulfil its objective, it must push the visitor performing an action. Most of the time, it will be not as direct as a purchase. It will, for example, the fact to subscribe to your newsletter, download a resource (white paper, guide, etc.), to register for an event you are organising online (a webinar, etc) or offline (a breakfast, a workshop, a Roundtable, etc).
Highlight this call-to-action, made sure he either explicit ("sign up for our August,17 meeting ") and measure your performance to know what role did the blog against your goals.
Highlight this call-to-action, made sure he either explicit ("sign up for our August,17 meeting ") and measure your performance to know what role did the blog against your goals.
Error # 8 – Do not promote your articles
it is worth remembering that a blog is not limited to writing! Also consider promoting your content in order to promote their diffusion beyond the borders of your own "brand World".
They can feed your strategy on social networks, you can share them with your customers in a newsletter, value your best articles of the month via an advertising campaign on a social network relevant to you (LinkedIn, Facebook ...).
Likewise, do not perceive your site and your corporate blog as two separate entities. The blog is a tool for the service of your company and as such it is an integral part of it. If you have for example a page that sells a photo software, you can quite display suggestions of articles from your blog that give photo tips.
Feel free to create this type of bridge between blog and site, in a sense like in another, to enhance your content on these two media.
Look at what happens in a store: there are people who head straight for the product they want, while others take the time to look at everything, seek advice from a seller. On a site, there are also people who go directly to put a product in their basket, or request a quote for a service and others who are going to need to understand you, reading tips, customer testimonials, etc. Website and blog can then complement intelligently.
They can feed your strategy on social networks, you can share them with your customers in a newsletter, value your best articles of the month via an advertising campaign on a social network relevant to you (LinkedIn, Facebook ...).
Likewise, do not perceive your site and your corporate blog as two separate entities. The blog is a tool for the service of your company and as such it is an integral part of it. If you have for example a page that sells a photo software, you can quite display suggestions of articles from your blog that give photo tips.
Feel free to create this type of bridge between blog and site, in a sense like in another, to enhance your content on these two media.
Look at what happens in a store: there are people who head straight for the product they want, while others take the time to look at everything, seek advice from a seller. On a site, there are also people who go directly to put a product in their basket, or request a quote for a service and others who are going to need to understand you, reading tips, customer testimonials, etc. Website and blog can then complement intelligently.
Error # 9 – Being afraid to quantify your performance
At school you have often grown up with an opposition between literary and scientific. Then you may have a hard time imagining that you can measure the performance of editorial content with numbers. Yet it is not only possible but also indispensable to evaluate the real ROI of your content strategy.
Follow the traffic progression from one month to the next, the evolution of your positioning on the search engines, define a conversion goal that you then follow on Google Analytics, there are actually plenty of indicators to measure your performance.
Follow the traffic progression from one month to the next, the evolution of your positioning on the search engines, define a conversion goal that you then follow on Google Analytics, there are actually plenty of indicators to measure your performance.
For example, the purpose of your blog can be to get the visitor to complete a form or to make a request for quotation, a goal that you can then follow.
Error #10 - Remain anonymous
Your blog is your voice ,It's as simple as that. A blog does not have the same tone as a corporate site, it allows you to give advice, to convey your values and tell stories with a lot more convenience than a site.
You will never have the same impact by being anonymous by giving a human face to your writings. Show the name and photo of the editor who signs the content, do not be afraid to affirm your personality. It is a powerful vehicle to create a community around your content and create a trust around your business.
You will never have the same impact by being anonymous by giving a human face to your writings. Show the name and photo of the editor who signs the content, do not be afraid to affirm your personality. It is a powerful vehicle to create a community around your content and create a trust around your business.
The benefits of a corporate blog are many it is well-managed: visibility, credibility, and ultimately, your blog can become a salesperson who works for you 24/24, 7 days a week: he values your expertise, answered questions that your prospects are asking, reassure your customers on your ability to meet and loyal everyone remembering to them regularly. What more?
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