Corporate blog, what it is and why it's important

In the general panorama of small and medium-sized enterprises, the problem of how to be able to attract new users interested in one's product is becoming more and more.

This problem has become even more complex as traditional advertising saturates the listener's patience, creating in him a veritable rubber wall to promotional messages. On the other hand, we are the first to go to the toilet when the commercial arrives in the middle of the film. We are the first ones we click compulsively “Skip Ad” when we venture up Youtube, or on any other site where advertising such as welcome (you will understand!). Advertising, flyers, telemarketing, radio spots no longer work. Effective commercials that invite you to the product for the low price no longer work.

A company can be defined as large not by its revenue volume, which is always relative when compared to the volumes of other companies, but by the ease with which it manages to intercept new potential customers. And to do this it is essential that we study the times we live in, at three hundred and sixty degrees, analyzing how and where to intercept new users.

And it is in this evaluation that the strategy to insert a corporate blog connected to your business becomes a smart move. Before explaining why, however, we need to clarify what is meant by corporate blog, also because this strategy is often crossed out just because there is so much confusion on the subject. The corporate blog is an online diary in which a company periodically publishes articles relating to its sector, in various ways. Some articles can be inserted into a category that can have a weekly or daily regularity. In other sections you can talk about your direct experience with a client, in another you can present your work. The company blog is your “Owned PR“, which inform and influence, maintaining authority and without implying that in the end you are promoting. But now we will go into specifics.

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The customer no longer buys at random, but looks for information: try to give it to him!

Each user on average consults various sources of information before making a purchase decision. These sources are of course search engines, blogs, social media, review sites, etc. Basically, before buying, users search for information on products and companies on the net. And it is precisely here that you need to be present, with the right content at the right time, to be found by buyers.

In summary, what are the activities that allow you to reach your audience?

• blogging: publish useful information to your potential customers
• search marketing: be found by those who are looking for information on search engines
• social media marketing: gain visibility thanks to social networks.

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Intercept a customer thanks to content

With the company blog, the relationship between company and customer changes diametrically. The company no longer has to desperately chase after a new customer, who perhaps belongs to the wrong target. But it is the customer who, thanks to the content deemed interesting on the blog, approaches the company. Said like this, everything seems easy and beautiful, but like everything, it takes commitment, time and above all knowledge of what you are doing. It is essential to publish original and interesting content: no one will laugh to hear the same joke. That is, you have to try to invent and stand out, and to do that you have to rely on quality. Also, very importantly, you will never have to use your blog as an announcement board! The user, who was dedicating his time to you, will dash away in a nanosecond. The difference between corporate blogs and paid advertisements is that the former creates a path, a historicity and has a validity that remains over time and if you work by building a solid foundation, the investment you make today will stay with you forever.

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There is no corporate blog without an editorial plan

It is important to make a editorial plan, traced in a precise period of time, in which it is decided to create a given number and a given type of items. If you deal with clothing and you want your user to go to your e-commerce to buy a certain item on which you have a good profit, you need to trace a precise path. For example, you could schedule four articles aimed at selling that dress: one that talks about the historicity of this type of garment (how fashionable it is, etc.), another about how it is worked (the fabric, its biodegradability ), one in which you report a list of VIPs who may have worn it (also Brad Pitt he wore it!), and finally, in the fourth you mention it by marking it on your e-commerce, referring to an indispensable offer (by Friday you will find it at 30% less than its normal price!). These are just examples, but they make us understand how the company blog has turned the relationship between company and consumer upside down.

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Users finally see a face

With the corporate blog, the company earns a lot in human form: what does it mean? It means that a user finally sees a face, sees an opinion, finally sees a non-standard answer to his own question. This means that the user becomes loyal because he perceives that he can have a relationship with the company, of not being just a number, but even seeing the company come out of its anonymous shell to have a chat with you. Those words are for you and no one else. Obviously, to make all this happen, you need the utmost dedication and always be ready to give an answer to users. An unanswered response equals ten lost customers, as one is the person who has not received an answer, the other nine are those who wanted to ask a question, but have seen that the company has not yet responded to others.

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Professionalization of the company in the eyes of users

Opening a corporate blog is not a move without any other strategy. Meaning what, there is no dichotomy "doing marketing" - "doing a company blog". The two things are closely connected, since to have a company blog that is increasingly visited and read, it will be necessary, as we always say, to make use of other channels as well. In this, social networks are absolutely crucial, because it would be criminal to establish yourself on the web with a blog and not let anyone know about it. It is absolutely necessary to combine this blog with the related social pages (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn above all) of the company. Users spend most of their time on the web on social media: it's the best place to intercept them.

But it's also the best way to intercept the target of people who might be interested in your business. If you're gardening and making a poster to hang at the entrance to a crowded theater, don't think your idea is clever. "Yes, but there were a thousand people last night!". Yes, but how many people were interested in gardening? Maybe 10, maybe 100, maybe zero. The real problem is that you'll never know, and when you don't know the results of your campaign, you're already wrong. This with the ads di Facebook, for example, it doesn't happen, as you can base your advertising campaign on an audience where you place the necessary filters to profile the best audience. Do you do gardening? You can set an age range higher than 25/30 and put "gardening" "flowers" "plants" as interests, and so on. All this, in addition to bringing traffic to your site, does nothing but increase the reputation of your brand, because the user who knows the world of the web, and of the blog in particular, will notice all your attentions.

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The importance of having your own media

You don't have to ask or account to anyone: you write when you want and how you want. It is clear that one thing can be more advisable than another, but the importance of being able to modulate one theme rather than another to your liking is fundamental, especially if you have a large volume of users. You can offer an object and you can offer it with something that is perceived differently from an advertisement. The corporate blog wants to give awareness to the reader, it doesn't want to impose a product on the customer, limiting his freedom of choice. And this is why advertising is viewed in a hostile way: which of you, in that famous commercial for detergents, would not have exchanged a can for having two? This is because advertising does not care about the real situation of the user and his ideas. He just has to sell. Not the blog.

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The corporate blog is the antithesis of improvisation

Earlier I said how essential it is to focus on the quality of the content, otherwise all these fine speeches would immediately fall apart. It is useless to talk about communication, loyalty and professionalization if the basis is missing. Evaluate whether your company is able to extrapolate interesting content, but above all evaluate whether to rely on professionals in the sector. They will push you to analyze with you who is your company's ideal customer and to understand what kind of strategy you need to implement to reach your audience. THEPart of it will take investing because a corporate blog is not a magic wand on your business, but it's the smartest and most patient way to turn potential customers into loyal people who would like to die for you. Why? Because you have used a form, a language and a courtesy different way to propose your product, without having forcefully entered his house, trumpeting the usual advertising slogan that has nothing really credible.

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