You finally bit the bullet and started a company blog. The customers should start rolling in any day now, right? Wrong. Your company blog is a great way to share valuable content, but unless you include the right type of content you are wasting time.
Consider these five content marketing tips to enhance your company blog:
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Create Valuable and Interesting Content
The online community talks a lot about the value of great content, but it is rare that we talk about the audience’s actual interest. Sure! If you run an accounting firm, then the 2,000 word article on income statements and balance sheets is valuable—but is it interesting?
Business and marketing language can easily become stiff and boring. More importantly, content that is not interesting will not be shared. Readers may indeed find your company blog valuable for their own purposes, but they are unlikely to post it to social media or email a link to their colleague. Make it easy for your audience to share by consistently producing interesting content.
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Share Timely Content on Hot Topics
If you are knowledgeable about your business, then you are probably aware of news or happenings in your industry. Remember that your audience relies on you to keep them informed. More specifically, they are looking to you as the subject matter expert—they want to hear what you have to say about it. So, give the people what they want, in good measure. After all, evergreen (i.e., timeless) content is valuable and a great foundation. Yet timely content when tagged with a relevant trending topic is more likely to go viral.
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Offer Community Engagement Opportunities
The old way to create engagement was to offer up the comments section of an article and wait for readers to chime in. Eventually a call-to-action was added at the bottom of the post, prompting readers to respond. But there are new ways to connect and leverage the growth of social media.
Have you considered asking your audience to join a Facebook group to discuss a company blog post, or providing a hashtag and invitation to continue the conversation on Twitter? These are both great ways to create buzz and debate—and most importantly, continue the conversation.
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Don’t Forget Your Email List
You’ve likely learned that an opt-in for your mailing list is key to drive subscriptions. But if your online marketing is working as it should, a lot of visitors are landing directly on your company blog posts when they arrive on your site.
To keep the conversation going add an opt-in email sign-up box. Use it as an opportunity to collect email addresses and grow your list. Then, readers who really connect with your content won’t have to click around the website to access your mailing list. Add a box right at the end of your posts to collect new email addresses.
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Include Multimedia Content
People love videos, and podcasts are becoming increasingly popular. Play to your audience’s desire for various media by including a video in your blog post, or an audio follow-up to your article that a reader can listen to on their commute. Additionally, colorful and informative infographics are often shared freely on most social media networks, so give your audience additional options for sharing your content.
Company blogs are an important medium for sharing your industry perspectives, but you have to make it easy and engaging. Review your blog today and consider how to incorporate these tips into the structure of your content marketing plans.
This article has been edited and condensed.
Mallie Rydzik is an online business coach and digital marketing strategist for overeducated and underfulfilled Millennials who have or want an online, service-based business. She is a recovering academic who dropped out of a Ph.D. program following a mental health breakdown. This was the catalyst that drove her to rediscover life and work. She writes and podcasts about the future of work, work-life balance, and online business strategy at The Off-Road Millennial. Connect with @metnightowl on Twitter.
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