Corporate blogs are a little tricky. Building and keeping up with a blog that is branded and is repeatedly visited by your clients, prospects and referral sources, requires some thought, some planning and some real commitment.
Once again I am compelled to have you ask the question “Why?” A corporate blog takes time to create and then maintain. You are focused on your ROI. You don't really feel the blog is necessary but you've consented “because it's what everyone is doing.” So, “Why are you moving forward with the creation of a corporate blog?”
There are many good reasons for corporations to create and maintain a blog, but I'll save that discussion for another time. For now, let's assume you've solved the ROI equation and answered the “Why?” to your satisfaction and you're ready to get started. I'd suggest you put on paper a sentence or two representing the goal you have set your sights on for the blog. Maybe it's something like this:
The XYZ Company Blog will provide invaluable information to current clients, prospects and referral sources while establishing XYZ Company as a thought leader in our industry. The result will be seen in the increased visits to our website and blog, the active engagement of our clients, prospects and referral sources in our social media efforts, along with an increase in our revenue which we can directly relate to our blogging efforts.
From here you could:
- Think about really defining metrics for tracking your progress.
- Determine what your bloggers are going to write about so they have clear parameters.
- Build a reasonable Content Calendar that meets the needs of your bloggers while striving to accomplish your goals.
- Determine who's going to proof-read and edit each post.
- And, finally, determine some parameters for handling the interaction you are hoping to generate from your clients, prospects and referral sources.
Now it's time to implement your plans and start writing and interacting, while regularly checking tracking devices and tweaking things along the way. We're huge proponents of blogs for a variety of reasons, so if you need some help figuring all this out, we're here for you.
There are many other things to think about and do to create a successful corporate blog. So, if you have some ideas of your own, please leave a comment below.
