How to know if your company is ready to launch a blog
Marketing people in early-stage companies have daily to-do lists that would, per head, choke many of their counterpart departments in larger enterprises. Still, as we continually preach, the need for ever-fresh content on web sites is a primary to-do for companies of any size. The fact that business blogs are typically the fastest, simplest means of keep content topical and fresh is the biggest reason why they’re so prevalent.
But a recent Inc 500 survey revealed a sharp decline in corporate blogging last year compared to 2010 (37% vs. 50%). In the same survey, however, 56% of the non-blogging companies said they planned to start or re-start a blog in 2012. We suspect the reasons for the drop-off may have to do with the realities of blogging and the resulting disillusionment of bloggers who failed to recognize benefits.
To those companies intending to blog for the first time and to those willing to jump back in the game we send best wishes — and a caveat. We counsel a variation on the advice proferred recently by Reputation Capitalization’s Mary Slayter. We have our own checklist we offer our clients.
You know you’re ready to publish a blog if:
1. You are not a control freak. You trust the employees tapped for content generation to represent your brand without an onerous review process that takes a half-dozen people and untold hours of deliberation.
2. Your goal is to establish a reputation as a trusted source of industry information as a means of eventual revenue. The operative word here is “eventual”. You’re OK with the long-term-prospect nature of actual revenue coming directly from leads your blog will create. Of course, results will vary company to company, industry to industry. Quality leads generated by effective keywords on the rest of your site is a different matter. The payoff is swifter than publishing a blog, but the time and effort to maintain efficacy is more labor intensive.
3. You have no problems linking your content to a competitor’s site. We especially like Slayter’s counsel here: “A robust industry blog will require you to have civilized, public conversation with your competitors. A generous spirit in this regard is what will make you a thought leader in your industry; it also has some powerful SEO advantages”. Hey, your customers know they have choices. Earn their confidence by showing confidence in yourself.
4. You understand the utility and the value of any content having nothing to with pitching your wares. You write the blog to gain and keep readers. Period. You understand them well enough to know instinctively what compels their interest and what they find interesting enough to warrant their time. Your whitepapers and case studies reflect this exact same insight.
5. You know there is no free lunch. And no free blog. For this reason, you’ve set aside the sufficient resources for design, content and promotion. Why? Because to measure content marketing’s contribution against the other elements in your mix (traditional advertising, PR, etc.) you need to examine actual costs.
So, did you or a company you know discontinue blogging recently? Why? How did you respond to the checklist items above?