The final installment of our three-part series on business blogging includes tips for putting together a highly effective blog, with examples that companies can learn from. In addition, Sparx provides information about alternative digital marketing tools that can help elevate your brand.
What does a successful corporate blog entail? In the first and second installments of our three-part series on blogging, we analyzed the potential benefits and challenges of starting and maintaining a business blog.
If, after reading the two previous blog posts, you believe that the pros of content marketing outweigh the cons and are leaning toward a corporate blog as the right choice for your business, then read on for tips and examples of putting together a successful blog.
As mentioned in the first installment, 4 Benefits of Having a Business Blog, the core advantages of having a corporate blog are flexibility, connection, ownership, and authority. To reap these benefits, it is critical for your company to develop a corporate blog that provides consistent content that readers find interesting and that aligns with your company’s objectives.
How can you do this? The first step is to determine your blog’s core purpose.
A corporate blog can help you promote and fulfill your company’s mission, such as increasing brand awareness, generating sales and revenue, or sharing knowledge on a matter that your business is passionate about. It can help you solidify your brand and demonstrate your expertise.
Once your blog’s primary purpose is established, you can more easily determine your target audience and create content that provides value for that audience. In doing so, your corporate blog will help you cut through the noise in a world overloaded with marketing content. You will be able to nurture and build lasting relationships with your readers, and if done correctly, your audience will be more likely to think of your brand and promote it via word-of-mouth marketing.
At Sparx Publishing Group, for example, we generate content that not only brings value to our audiences but also stays true to our mission of creating “content to make the world better.”
Our blog’s core purpose is to “amplify better” by using our platform to showcase stories of individuals and organizations (including ourselves) working to make the world better.
Sparx provides tips for fellow marketers, raises awareness for important causes, and brings interesting topics of discussion to light. The content on our blog is an important vehicle for connecting to our readers and making a positive impact on the world.
Today, there are many great examples of successful blogs to emulate. Three examples that Sparx finds particularly interesting are from IBM, Seth Godin, and Garth Turner – all of which help make the world better by providing readers with valuable information that they can use to improve both their professional and personal lives.
IBM, also known as the International Business Machines Corporation, is a multinational technology and management consulting company that is committed to “creating innovations that matter for the world.” IBM highlights their thought leadership with a catalogue of blogs on various topics catering to a wide range of clients from different communities, including software, social, cloud, business, and more. The depth and variety of blogs showcase the breadth of their technology expertise, and cements their reputation as a trusted thought leader in the consulting space. One great example, the Watson Blog, demonstrates their proprietary, cutting-edge AI platform and the ways IBM’s innovations are shaping the current business landscape. By sharing knowledge through their blogs, IBM is also able to encourage forward-thinking change in society, which helps meet their mission of creating a “smarter planet.”
Seth Godin is an American best-selling author, entrepreneur, and speaker who has launched “one of the most popular blogs in the world.” His blog, seths.blog, shares his wealth of knowledge from the worlds of marketing and business, providing helpful insights and tips for his readers.
What makes this blog stand out? Godin brings value to his audiences by sharing content that is unconventional, or even weird. His blog is a “purple cow,” which is “a term he popularized that describes ‘something phenomenal, something counterintuitive and exciting and flat out unbelievable.’” Importantly, Godin is able to consistently create and share posts every day, which provides readers with a reason to come back regularly to stay connected to Godin’s content and business endeavours.
Another successful business blog example is GreaterFool.ca, a blog by the Honourable J. Garth Turner. A former member of the Canadian House of Commons, Turner is a Canadian business journalist, best-selling author, entrepreneur, financial advisor, and speaker. The Greater Fool blog shares Turner’s wisdom on economics, real estate, and finance, as well as his perspectives on current events. Like Godin’s blog, Turner’s captures attention from a well-established niche audience with a consistent schedule (he posts almost daily) and content that is of great value and interest to his readers. The success of this blog has in turn helped generate exposure, revenue and new clients for Turner’s investment business, Turner Investments.
While business blogs are a great way to enhance most businesses, maintaining a blog might not be the right choice for every company. As outlined in the second installment of this series, 4 Reasons a Company Blog Might Be Wrong for Your Business, the drawbacks of maintaining a corporate blog are commitment, continuity, competition, and cost.
If your company does not have the resources to start and maintain a consistent blog, you can allocate your resources toward alternative strategies and tools for sustaining your business.
For instance, you can focus your efforts on sharing content through social media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Pinterest. By using social media, your brand can capture readers’ attention without exerting the same time and energy that is needed to research and write longer blog articles. Social media provides quick snippets of quality content that are easily digestible for readers – in fact, “Twitter originally billed itself as a ‘microblogging service’” – and is also an efficient way to engage with your audience.
Other ways you can elevate your business without a blog include email newsletters and paid Google advertisements. Newsletters provide your stakeholders with up-to-date announcements without the pressure of a high publishing cadence, while paid media ads on Google can help you attract new potential clients and customers.
No matter which digital communication tool you choose for connecting with your audience – whether it be a business blog or otherwise – these tools are important for the success of your brand and are invaluable to helping you promote your company’s purpose.
If you need help starting, planning or managing an effective corporate blog, or if you have any other content marketing inquiries, contact Sparx Publishing Group today – we’d be more than happy to help! You can reach us here.
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