05.26
Marketers need not be baseball savants to recognize the expression, “If you build it, they will come.” For the past 20 years, executives in board rooms across America have proposed countless ventures by utilizing this maxim, which originally emanated from Ray Kinsella’s cornfield in “Field of Dreams.”
The success of a company’s marketing enterprises is only as great as the number of prospects that see them. This is especially true for the corporate blog, notably one of the most challenging marketing ventures for which to attract an audience.
Blogging is a challenge that companies are not handling well, according to a 2008 Forrester Research report. The study, which reviewed 90 business-to-business (B2B) blogs, determined that most blogs are uninspiring, and almost three-quarters of them don’t receive comments because they don’t engage readers. Further, more than 70 percent of B2B bloggers do not imbue any personal insight or experience in what they write.
Those are only the first three strikes against corporate blogs. Fortunately, with the expertise of an outside B2B marketing agency, blogs can hit a homerun.
While a business shouldn’t entirely outsource its blog to an agency, a company can rely on its outside marketing team to play a vital part in developing and maintaining the blog. From strategy and competitive research to feeding content and monitoring results, an agency can recommend the right elements to keep a company’s blog in line with its brand.
Stepping up to the plate
Undoubtedly, blogging is a great means for building a corporate brand online. Devising a format and design for the blog is the first step. Any marketing agency worth its weight in salt will coach business executives to ensure the blog’s design doesn’t depart from the company’s corporate identity and make certain that the blog’s name resonates with the core business, products and services.
With so much free and low-cost blog software and hosting sites available, it’s no wonder B2B blogging is more widespread than it was 10 years ago. But while those pre-existing sites may be easy on the corporate bottom line, they come at the cost of control and design limitations. Companies should not cut corners on blog design if it prevents the blog from reflecting corporate identity or readers from easily navigating the site.
Connecting a blog to the company Web site is a sure way to keep the look and feel of the brand in check. This should not just be a hyperlink to a blog hosted on an outside platform. Marketing experts can recommend a blog platform such as Wordpress or TypePad that will allow a company to host its blog alongside its corporate Web site.
The marketing team can customize the page design beyond what the pre-set software templates allow. Tag clouds, about us pages and library archives are just a few custom features an agency can design and create for the blog.
To be continued. Check back next week for Part II of “Take Me Out to the Blog Game.”
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About the author:
Debra Yemenijian joined Schubert as a Sr. Social Media & PR Executive after six years as a medical editor and writer. She is a Penn State graduate and currently is pursuing her MBA. Debra is also a ballet teacher and dabbles in community theater and jewelry design on the side.
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