If it’s the former, there are several reasons why you may not be generating much engagement, but luckily some quick fixes if you’re hitting these blogging bum notes.
1. You don’t post regularly
The whole point of having a business blog is to raise your organisation’s profile, demonstrate its expertise and ultimately generate views, shares and if you’re lucky – leads. Not surprisingly, the more frequently you post content, the more frequently you should expect to hit these targets. Blogging at least weekly is advisable, and if you can do it more regularly, then why not? You’ll likely discover that once you begin to research a piece, ideas for others come to you and you find yourself on a roll – why ignore this simply because it doesn’t fit with your schedule? Keep going, and keep posting.
2. It’s too sales oriented
There’s no denying that the motivation behind a B2B blog is largely sales based. We all want to secure more customers, become thought leaders within our industries, and sell, sell, sell. But if that’s all you use your blog for, it’s unlikely you’ll receive much engagement at all. Sure, there’s no harm in basing a blog post around a product or service offering – but don’t do this exclusively. Your company website is there for visitors to gain an understanding of what it is your organisation does. Your blog is a tool to show them just why you’re a reliable option, and that you seriously know your stuff. It’s ok to make a couple of relevant links to product or service pages within your blog, but focus more on linking to other related blogs you’ve published, and build credibility this way.
3. It’s not educational
Opinion pieces, and blogs on industry developments and trends, all make for appealing reads. But these alone will not cement your status as an industry leader, or a company that truly knows what it’s doing. My favourite kind of blog to consume? One that teaches me something. A how-to guide, in depth practical tips or a best practice post from an expert, provide huge value to readers, and will particularly resonate if they find something so useful that they put it into action. These sorts of blogs make you feel as if you’ve sneakily gotten something of real value, for free! It almost makes the organisation look as though they’re swimming in high quality information and ideas and are generous enough to share them.
4. You’re not promoting it
If you’re proud of what you’ve written, you should have no trouble sharing it on social media – don’t just settle for reaching your blog subscribers. Promote your blog on LinkedIn by posting it in appropriate groups, and encourage debate around the topic by posing a question and inviting group members to share experiences and views. Similarly, on Twitter, don’t just link to your blog and expect followers to find that sufficiently appealing to click on. Add relevant hashtags (not too many) and introduce it with intriguing and informative copy. If your target market hang out on Facebook and Google+, have a presence there too – it’s all about knowing your ideal customer, or buyer persona.
5. You’re not optimising it
You don’t just need to shout about your content, but make it easy to be found as well. Compose your post around a few relevant keywords – both short and long-tail, and ensure your URL, title, image alt text and meta description accurately reflect what your post is centred around. These things don’t take a lot of time, but could be the difference between your post appearing on the first few pages of search results (to be frank, the only ones that most of us pay attention to), and it languishing somewhere at the back end of Google.
Don’t just have a business blog because inbound marketing says you should, do it because you value it as an opportunity to share ideas, interact with your community and, in essence, show off just how well your organisation knows its industry. Make the most of this publishing platform, and you’ll realise why it’s such a crucial part of your content strategy.
