CORPORATE BLOG: DEFINITION.

A company’s blog is the part of its website where articles, computer graphics or videos are published that highlight its activity, reveal its news, or present its expertise.

Often neglected by VSEs, SMEs and local brands due to lack of time, trained staff or even inspiration, this practice, also known as blogging, is one of the most effective and economical means available to them to ensure the success of their online communication.

1 – IMPROVE REFERENCING AND TARGET PROSPECTS.

The pages of a website for small businesses, SMEs, craftsmen… are often static and their content is rarely updated. The number 1 objective of these sites is generally to position themselves on the main keywords where competition is very strong (restaurant, transport, plumber…) and for which it will be difficult to obtain the best positions in Google. Except in exceptional cases, this fixed approach to online communication does not allow to optimize or develop the SEO of a site.

With blogging, you can free yourself from this constraint which locks your site in a reduced perimeter. Indeed, each time you publish a new blog article, an additional page of your site will be indexed on the web. By multiplying the number of articles and using the long tail (i.e. trying to position yourself on requests composed of several words), you will index your publications in less competitive but highly specialized searches.

The practice of blogging can therefore, if it is well, be mastered :

• Represent a significant part of a site’s traffic;
• Provide a competitive advantage (better visibility in search engines);
• Direct a site’s communication towards its core target.

According to a recent Hubspot study, sites that regularly publish articles on their blog have a higher traffic (+55%) and have more indexed pages (+494%) than a site without a blog.

2 – DEVELOP ITS NOTORIETY AND DISPLAY ITS EXPERTISE.

Blogging is not just for large companies, it has its place in the digital strategy of a small business or a local SME. Blog articles are indeed the most effective means available to local companies to promote their offer, but also to establish a bond of trust with their customers and to assert their expertise in their field of activity and on their territory.

Even if the final economic impact that a blog can have on a companys’ activity naturally depends on its sector of activity, the regular publication of quality articles adapted to the information needs of customers and its catchment area aims to create a virtuous circle that develops notoriety and progresses through the following stages :

• The publication of targeted articles enhances the image of a brand and allows a
  better diffusion of its offer;
• The company’s website gets more traffic and a better referencing;
• The confidence of the visitors of the site increasing they will be more easily disposed to become customers of the company;
• The use of social networks makes it possible to federate and interact with your community of customers;
• The members of this community will then become your ambassadors to their own network.

3 – BECOME YOUR OWN MEDIA.

By publishing content that provides answers to your customers’ problems, you inspire them in their choices for their next purchases, you feed their curiosity or you keep them informed on subjects that are close to their hearts. This status as a reference, expert, recognized professional, in your theme in the eyes of your prospects, which therefore contributes to establishing your reputation, allows you to maximize the chances that they will naturally turn to you when they make their purchase.

Social networks allow you to amplify your audience. Commenting, answering, giving your opinion to your community of subscribers can help you amplify your reputation, but you will have to choose the social network(s) best suited to your business.

4 – FORGE OR IMPROVE YOUR BRAND IMAGE.

A corporate blog will allow you to humanize your corporate communication and improve your sympathy capital, indeed:

• A company blog is less formal than a showcase site or an e-commerce site, the tone is more free, which allows you to “humanize” your company.
• On a blog you will indeed be able to disseminate non-commercial information about your products or services (advice, tips and tricks, tutorials …).
• A blog is not a closed space, it generally also allows you to exchange with your customers about your products and bring them an enriched brand experience.

5 – CONVERT PROSPECTS INTO CUSTOMERS.

If, as we have seen in the previous points, blogging is a powerful marketing tool that allows you to control your digital communication, establish your authority and generate targeted traffic, we must not lose sight of the fact that the ultimate goal of a commercial company website is to turn visitors into customers, or even a company ambassador.

Therefore, as in the diagram below, you should consider your blog as a lead generating machine, make sure that these leads become mature prospects, and then at the end of the conversion tunnel turn them into customers.

The most commonly used method to achieve lead to customer conversion is Call to Action. The Call to Action is a “button” on a web page that invites the visitor to take action in exchange for a promised benefit in return (subscribe to our newsletter, request a free quote) or to engage in more direct interaction (contact us today…).

6 – GET INTO INBOUND MARKETING

Simply put, inbound marketing is a digital strategy that allows corporate websites to be their own media. The aim of this approach is to attract prospects with relevant content instead of soliciting them via advertising (outbound marketing). As in the previous point, the objective here is to generate qualified leads to take them through the conversion tunnel and thus of course to convert them into customers. Several tools exist for this, one of the most powerful on the market is the sales and marketing software Hubspot, of which Done is an official partner since 2019.

7 – CREATE OR ANIMATE YOUR COMMUNITY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS

Sharing quality blog posts on your social networks allows you to increase your visibility while having a more authentic presence than via a website with your customers. The comments and interactions you can have with members of your community will allow you to humanize your relationships and have more direct contact with them.

The virality and sharing of publications can also allow you to broaden your audience and generate traffic to your website.

TO CONCLUDE

The corporate blog is one of the most powerful weapons in the arsenal of digital marketing. Inexpensive compared to other marketing expenses and easy to set up, it is nevertheless absent from the digital communication strategy of many Luxembourg SMEs and VSEs.

Preconceived notions about its supposed cost, the difficulty of producing articles at a regular pace, the absence of staff who can devote themselves to it in many companies, but also the widespread lack of knowledge of the benefits that blogging can bring, explain to a large extent why it is absent from many digital strategies.

On the bright side, there are great opportunities for those who would like to boost their digital communication through blogging. So if you too are convinced of the usefulness of corporate blogging, contact us, we can help you with training or even administer and manage your publications.