Business Growth Blog

When done correctly, a company blog is the hub of all sales and marketing efforts. Good blog articles continuously drive traffic and sales leads and arm sellers with the information they need to communicate quickly and effectively with prospects.

More and more companies are beginning to invest in blogging, but they often have gaps and weaknesses that hold them back from getting positive results. Company blogs that consistently deliver real business value share the following eight characteristics. How does your blog strategy stack up?

When I talk to salespeople about blogging, I get the same response Bob Wiley gives Anna when asked about going sailing: “I've never blogged before; I don't think I can handle it!” The good news is that even though Bob is terrified, he has a great attitude and is willing to try.

Below are some blog ideas that can get you started. Hopefully, when you write a few of your own posts, you can be as excited about your accomplishment as Bob is about sailing!

Blogging is critical for business growth. But before you rush out and start writing articles, there are two things you need to know:

• Quality: Good blog posts get results: Bad blogs posts don't.
• Promotion: A blog post by itself is worthless - it's what you do with it that counts.

The last thing you want to do is spend time and money writing blog articles that aren't helping you get new business. In order to get results, you need to approach blogging from a strategic point of view.

Here are 10 qualities of a good blog strategy:

It may seem like a simple question, but there’s a lot more to blogging (good blogging that is!) than you might think. People read blogs all the time, but when it comes time to actually create one, the questions start popping up!

What is a blog? “A personal website or web page on which an individual records opinions, links to other sites, etc. on a regular basis.”

Read on to get 8 tips for writing good blog articles.

Sellers are on the front lines talking to prospects and customers all day long. They have deep company and industry expertise and know what messaging elicits the best responses. If anyone understands what information will resonate with your ideal buyer persona, it’s them.

But too often, sales and marketing are not aligned, and sellers aren’t at the table when it comes to developing the corporate content strategy or lending their experience and expertise to the content creation process. Here are some ideas about how to get your sales team engaged in creating useful blog articles that prospects and customers want to read:

Blogging is not just a marketing activity. When done correctly, it's the backbone of both the sales and marketing functions. Companies that understand and embrace this strategy use blog articles on the marketing side to increase awareness and get people to the website. Then, they use those same articles on the sales side to guide their active prospects through the sales process.

Here are 4 examples of how blogging can help you sell:

I spend hours every week reading blogs (literally). It’s how I get my information. I can instantly spot a good company blog vs. a bad company blog.

Here are 10 tell-tale signs you’re wasting valuable time and money on your blogging efforts.

More and more companies are starting to see the value of blogging as a means to build credibility and trust and guide prospects through the buyer journey. Companies that blog get more leads. Period.

Why You Need a Blog Manager

The tough part is implementing a process for consistent blogging. Who’s going to write the articles, about what topics, how frequently? Who’s going to see the articles? How can you use the articles to help the sales process? How are you going to know if it’s working or not? Blogging requires a big corporate culture change.

I wish I could say “Oh, just hire a professional writer, get your team involved, find guest bloggers, and it will be a piece of cake.” While those are great ways to ease the burden, the truth is that someone has to be in charge to oversee and coordinate the whole process.

Blog management will either need to be added to someone’s job duties, or you’ll have to hire a specialist to do it for you.

Blogging and email marketing are increasingly becoming standard practices for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Creating content and sending messages is very easy now-a-days, which puts us in the midst of a never-ending data explosion.

Videos, articles, chats, streams, texts, emails, pictures…With so much content available, people have to pick and choose very carefully what they want to give time to. Only content that is relevant to the issues, thoughts, or concerns a reader has will get noticed, and only content that adds value in some way will get their time.

Sometimes I come across articles I want to read, but it physically hurts my eyes to look at them. I get so much information thrust in front of me every day that I'm forced to pick and choose very carefully which articles I dedicate my time to. (I wish I could read all day, but work must get done!)

When I find an article I want to spend time on, my curiosity has been piqued and I look forward to getting the information. If I find it difficult to read (visually or textually), I end up feeling let down. And then I furrow my brows, click my tongue, and quickly leave the website.