One of my pet peeves about company blogs is that they really aren’t blogs. Corporations make the mistake of using blogs as sales tools or announcing company news, which I believe is a huge mistake. When blogs are used properly, they can actually be the best lead generator you have in your online arsenal.
Blogs are supposed to inform, entertain or educate your target or secondary target audience. It is not to be used as an opportunity to directly sell your services or product. No one wants to read about how great your product or service is in a blog. They should get that from the content on your website.
Do you want to increase traffic? Do you want to decrease your bounce rate? Do you want your blogs shared by your clients? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you must have a blog that interests your audience in some way. It either imparts information they want to know, answers a question to a problem they may have or entertains them. Blogs have to have some type of take away for your intended audience to keep them on your site and interested.
A blog is not a press release. Blogs are not your company getting news coverage. Blogs aren’t about launching a new product. They can mention these things, but the main topic isn’t about selling. It’s about informing.
And why are blogs so important if it’s not really a sales tool. Blogs don’t directly generate sales, but it can drive traffic to your site, and that is its intended purpose. Increased traffic can turn surfers into buyers.
A great blog can show that your company genuinely cares about their customers by offering informative articles. It also shows your company knows the market and this builds trust for your product or service.
Let’s say your company sells teas imported from around the world. Most companies would say their blog should be about how great their teas are or how they just opened a new import market in India. That type of information is a “press release” or on your company’s “in the news” page if a media outlet has covered the story. It is not a topic for a blog.
A tea blog would be about the history of tea, or the history of tea used for medicinal purposes, great tea infusers, what country exports the most teas, different types of teas and what each type of tea may offer the tea connoisseur. These types of informative blogs show your clients or prospective clients that you know the tea business and it may help them select the types of teas they want to order or how to use the tea once they do order from you.
The hidden gem of blogs is that blogs can pull in customers who are not looking to purchase tea but are just wanting to find out more about tea. And then when they land on your site, they may indeed become a customer. That’s your secondary target audience.
Also, another huge benefit of a great blog is that they are often shared with other users on Social Media, emailed or saved for future reference. You will get brand recognition and increased traffic to a whole new audience that hadn’t even intended to visit your website.
Launching a blog isn’t an afterthought. It’s a well-thought-out strategy. It’s about selecting topics that have an impact on your target and secondary target audience. And the bottom line is that blogs can generate traffic you might not otherwise get from your website copy. Make your blog count!