Corporate Blog : Why and How to Start One

Do I need a corporate blog? That’s the first question.  To respond to this question, we need to think about: “How would a corporate blog help my business?” (We assume that you find or want to find clients online, whether by having leads or by selling directly online with an ecommerce).

To start answering this question, we will focus on the search engine optimization aspects. Say you know what is SEO and why you need SEO, now I am going to tell you why a business blog is good for your SEO.

Corporate blog for SEO

1 – Refresh : one of the most important aspects about a website is that “the more you refresh its content, the better for SEO”. If you have a corporate blog you will be able to easily update the content of your website with new blog posts, and search engines love it.

2 - Increase the number of relevant words: No, for sure, your website does NOT contain all the vocabulary of your industry. There are thousands of words and phrases related to your industry. If you write about your field, little by little, you will fill that gap, and you will appear in the search engine response pages to people looking for your services. (Why the hell do you think I write about SEO ;0)

3 - Increase the number of backlinks: Yes, you are more likely to have backlinks on your blog than on your corporate website, and that’s a very good reason to have a company blog. John has no reason to link your coporate website, but he really wants to put a link to that very interesting article you wrote! A website is a brochure, a corporate blog allows you to start a conversation. (check our post about the backlinks strategies)

4 - Increase the number of pages of your website: statistically, the more you have pages, the more you are likely to attract traffic online. Wikipedia would not have that traffic if it had 100 pages. Your blog enables you to increase the number of pages of your website with RELEVANT content, doesn’t that sound magic? (Actually, it’s not, you have to work for that. Yeah I know, we all dream of finding aladin's lamp, but until then, there is only one solution “que se llama el trabajo”)

5 - Increase your reach within blog search engines: people are using search engines, but not only google universal search, they also like google blog search or technorati. Be visible there too (it’s free).

Now we can check the benefits of a business blog from a business and a marketing point of view.

Marketing / business considerations.

6 - Show that you have the knowledge: Yes, you are an expert… but people doesn’t know it! Show them, let them see that you have a brain, and that you know what you’re talking about. Everybody can have a website about everything, but not everyone can blog about everything (##even though some try )

7 – Create or increase trust: Your corporate website speaks about you, but your corporate blog creates relationships with your visitors. Build trust, and you will improve your business. 

8 - Improve brand awareness: reading your blog, seeing your motto, your logo, your products, all this helps increasing your brand awareness. And it’s a cheap mean compared to classic advertising.

9 - Cheap communication channel: You want to communicate an event, sales, your new collection, new feature, just use your blog. All those who could be interested are tuned in… almost for free. (isn’t that a marketer's dream?)

10 – Feedback: How many businesses do I know with no feedback channel. NONE. They have this or that problem they could easily improve or repair… if only they knew. Let your customers tell you what they have in mind, it can improve your services or even create new ones, by pointing out new needs.

11 - Your competitors become your… partners! : That’s my favorite. The “make love not war”philosophy. Guess what? Who are the people linking the most to this seo blog? And the answer is… seo bloggers and seo pros! And the reason is easy to understand: they are the guys interested in this topic, and they are the guys blogging about it! I know what you’re thinking: we should use some blogging rules in real life, it would make it easier… some day my friends, some day…

Ok, so now I hope I convinced you that a corporate blog is good for your online business and internet marketing efforts (if I didn’t, then, I didn’t…). Well, now you need to know how to…

How to blog on a company blog, to help my business?

Two types of blogging: you create information or you pass on the information.

-  You can create the information: you will have an original content, and if it’s good, it’s more likely to attract backlinks. It’s also better if you want to become a reference in your sector of expertise. On the other hand, it takes more time to create the posts (because you have to think about it and make some research), so you will blog less, so you will refresh your website less.  

-  You can also pass on the information : you use your corporate blog just as a channel. It’s easier, you just have to configure some alerts on your industry, and write a quick and easy blog post when there is something new. It’s easy… but you will have less backlinks. The information that you write is not original, thousands of blogs are writing the same thing, so why the hell would people link back to you? Still, it refreshes your website, add vocabulary of your industry, so it’s better to do it than not to have a corporate blog.

-  Of course, you can also make a mix a these two, that’s actually what I do in this blog, by passing on information like on the article about Google Caffeine, and by also creating original content like I am doing in this blog post you’re reading right now (this article is a bit long because I am writing from “the little Saigon”, a French and Vietnamese restaurant in beijing, and the owner is taking great care of me by making me taste his new dishes … I know, you hate me).

What tone should you adopt on a corporate blog?

That totally depends on the image you want to give and on your industry. I would probably not write the same way nor with the same tone if I was working for “Channel” or “Dior”. Strategy should lead your actions in every aspect of your business, and your corporate blog is no exception.

How to start a corporate blog?

If you are a very very small company, specially if what you do has no relation with internet or IT, then just go on a simple free blogging platform like http://www.Blogger.com  or http://www.wordpress.com (in france : www.skyrock.com/blog/ or  www.over-blog.com) (in China : http://blog.sina.com.cn/ http://blog.163.com/ http://blog.sohu.com/ ) .

If branding is important for you, then you should install your blog on your own domain name with your own hosting (like our blog). Any web agency is capable of doing it, just contact two or three and compare their quotations. You might also be interested in reading this article about choosing a blog platform.

Should I really start a blog?

If you hate writing and hate your field or industry… well, start a corporate blog anyways, but pay someone to do it for you. Here I am talking about business, not only about “sharing your passion with people online”. If you have the chance to be passionate about your field, then chances are you will like blogging about it. Just like I do.

People will steal my information if I blog it?

This fear is really common… but it’s wrong. Let me explain, YES people will steal some of your content “I have prints of people who just copied and posted articles of this blog on their own blog… and signed the articles with their names!”. BUT, the harm is by far… small compared to the advantages it brings.

People will know my secrets?

Oh really, is there many informations you have we could NOT find online? I mean, I blog about seo, and people can learn from me to become my competitors tomorrow, but seriously, they don’t need me, as they don’t need you (I hope I am not too harsh :o), what you have is no gold mine… and if it is, you’d make better use of it by blogging it and have some backlinks .

Who has a corporate or a business blog?

well: mc donald's, dell, google, gm, wal mart, bank of america, amazon, yahoo, ebay, cisco. so you know, you're not the only one, and you can use this as an argument to convice your boss.

Where can I find a list of corporate blogs? To have some inspiration you can find many examples of corporate blogs here.

Some more links on corporate blogging

I did not read any other article on the topic before writing about it, because I knew what I wanted to say, and I didn’t want to copy or to be too much influenced. But after writing it, I went looking for interesting articles about corporate blogs and corporate blogging for you, and I found this ones:

[10 Harsh Truths About Corporate Blogging]

[Corporate blog designs and more advice on corporate blogs]

[corporate blogging best practices]

[Questions to ask yourself before launching a corporate blog]

[20 free wordpress corporate themes]

So now, you can answer the question : do you need a corporate blog? Answer in the comments here below. If you like our posts, you might subscribe to our seo blog rss feed, or the newsletter on the right side.