Blogging has become a central pillar of B2B marketing in recent times. But is the idea of a traditional corporate blog starting to become slightly outdated? By Alex Aspinall
Though not commonly name checked in B2B Marketing editorial meetings, The Center (sic) for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (CMRUMD) recently got us talking about the role blogs play in B2B marketing.
In February, the CMRUMD published a study suggesting that America’s fastest growing companies are using blogs considerably less than they were previously. The longitudinal study concludes that among the 174 of the 500 fastest growing companies contacted only 37 per cent claimed to have a corporate blog. This figure was down 13 per cent when compared to the same research project published only 12 months before. Obviously this led to a glut of headlines around the world announcing the death of blogging, as well and countless ‘experts’ pointing at the likes of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and declaring it was social media ‘what done it’.
But is this really an accurate representation, or is it possible things aren’t quite so black and white? Unsurprisingly, we discovered B2B marketers (at least this side of the pond) still have quite a bit of faith in a well crafted blog; and with good reason.
A mature medium
Andrew Nicholson, head of online at Sodexo Prestige and B2B Marketing’s Marketer of the Year, cites his company’s blog as being of central importance to its marketing efforts. He says, “At the heart of Sodexo Prestige’s content strategy lies our blog; acting as a portal into our corporate website.
“By carefully targeting our blog content we’re able to drive select long tail traffic through to the site, and this strategic approach has clearly paid off, with the blog now accounting for the vast majority of referrals through to Sodexoprestige.co.uk. More importantly, visitors that access our corporate site via the blog have higher dwell times and view more pages than visitors that arrive from other sources.”
Nicholson is far from alone in his belief that well-targeted blogs still offer a great deal to businesses. Danny Whatmough, account director at EML Wildfire, says, “Blogging is still massively important. The challenge for brands is how to make a blog stand out and achieve the business returns you require.”
This challenge of cut-through is representative of a mature medium – rather than a dead one – and is probably a more relevant discussion. The test with any well-established marketing channel is ensuring your potential customers are digesting your content, especially when corporate blogs are commonly hidden away in the depths of otherwise fairly static websites. It makes planning and integration primary concerns.
Ben Leow, head of digital at Quick-Thinking, offers the following advice to approaching a blog, “It’s not how often you write that’s important – a concern that’s frequently misplaced – the value of the content you write is what matters. That value comes from giving readers information they can use, learn from, or question in discussion. It also comes from entertainment and distraction, as much as learning.”
A new lease of life
Mark Edmondson, analytics and social media manager at Guava, highlights the opportunities presented here by the new digital landscape. He says, “Traditional blogging is still with us, but with easier channels to promote the material.”
Social media and the sharing culture it has created, rather than serving to kill off blogging, has given it a new lease of life. In the past, people had to know your blog existed, the URL at which it resided, and then be bothered to type it in to their browser and press ‘return’ – all before they even read your intro. These days your intro could appear on their Twitter stream, they might notice the image you used on a picture sharing site, the blog may have been picked up by their Google Alerts or they may have seen a link to your blog in any number of other ways. The point being; blogs remain excellent marketing collateral. And they are especially good at drawing in interested parties, post-social media flirtation.
John Hayes, EMEA business development executive for iContact, says, “A well written blog should be considered an essential component of a wider content marketing strategy. It will add incredible value to your social media activity, as well as create opportunities to promote more detailed content-led campaigns such as whitepapers, ebooks and videos. While many of these more detailed products will be hidden behind lead generating forms and members-only gateways, your blog posts will stand out proudly on the major search engines and social networks.”
As with almost any sensible marketing activity these days, successful blogging is tied up with both content marketing and integration strategies. It’s great that the company blog is not siloed away by itself and good that so many people are actively engaging. It just means you need to plan what you’re going to say and how to deliver it more than you may have done in the past.
Discussions about the challenges of how best to leverage the opportunities presented by corporate blogs are valid. But aspiring obituary writers should sit tight: there’s clearly life in the old blog yet.
The write stuff
So what makes a successful blog? Mark Barrett, B2B Marketing’s most-read blogger in 2011 and search marketing consultant at Base One, shares his tips
- Know your market. There’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to successful blogging. Each industry has a different audience and every company measures blog success differently.
- Showcase your expertise. If you are looking to expose your brand and fuel sharing of your post, give invaluable insight and commentary. Provide your audience with the expertise that only your company is positioned to give.
- Stimulate debate. If you’re looking for interaction, use your post to address a question. Provide your opinion but leave it open for the audience to answer, or act impartially and encourage debate.
- Test your style. Mix up blog styles and assess the response each type receives. This will give valuable insight into what your audience wants. Use that knowledge to fulfil this desire, but remember that you can have too much of a good thing, so make sure to keep your posts varied in style.
