How to start off on the right foot with a new corporate blog

How to start off on the right foot with a new corporate blog

When you start up a blog for a big corporation you're working with, or the corporation is your own, it's still a daunting task because there are a lot of things that need to be done.  Don't worry, you can do it and there are some things you should focus on if you want your corporate blog to start off on the right foot. 

Blogging is an amazing way to brand your business, and it doesn't matter if you're selling cars or baskets, your blog will eventually be the face of your business since a lot of people will be landing on your pages through your blog posts and not your home page   You'll continually need to post, and promote, your content to the masses that are actually interested in what you're writing about.  That alone can be a scary thing to deal with, but it can be done over time when you get use to actual blogging.

In this discussion I'll be going over how you can start up a corporate blog, for yourself or a business, and be sure you're starting off on the right foot.


Be yourself when you publish content
When you decide to start blogging on a corporate blog, you still need to be yourself and not a robotic sounding writer.  You can't fill your blog posts with corporate jargon and promotions, because people will leave almost immediately after landing on your website or blog.  What you'll want to do is write in your own words and in a way that people can relate to you through your post.  If you can do this, you will create a devoted following who will come back time and time again to read and share what you wrote for them. 

People know when you're being yourself, whether it's through writing or speaking, and they will like you better if you're honest with them.  So be yourself and watch your followers work with you and not against you


Quality content is better than quantity
It's been proven that longer blog posts regularly do better than a bunch of smaller posts in the same industry.  If you're writing 5 blog posts that are each 500 words long, you might get some traffic from the search engines.  However, if you're writing a single post that is 2,500 words long, you will almost always outrank the shorter 500 word posts in the rankings and get more traffic over time. 

Longer content will not only help you in the search engine results pages (SERPs) it will also help you keep people on your blog and increase engagement.  Since there's more content, there is more of a chance that people will find something within your post that they love, increasing the chances of engagement.

If someone can read through your blog post in one or two minutes, it's not even close to long enough.  They should be on your page for 5 minutes or more because the content is so long


Become a story teller
When it comes to corporate blogging, people think that you need to fill each post with dozens of statistics about what your company is doing, but you don't have to at all.  In fact, blogs that tell stories are proven to have a higher percentage of engagement with their readers. 

Not everyone will be able to get this right the first time, so I would highly suggest you think of how a popular children's story is written and see how they're keeping your interest spiked.  They write in a way that keeps your interested in every turn and every new page that pops up, and this can be brought over to corporate blogging in order to increase engagement


Fulfill your titles promise
I'm not saying to make your title "Free puppies to all readers!" and then write about how someone can obtain a free puppy after jumping through a bunch of hoops.  I'm saying that you should write your titles in a way that increases interest and when they actually get to your website, the content fulfills that promise in some way.  A good example of this would be "5 ways backlinks help your rankings" and then you cover the 5 ways someone can actually improve their rankings through backlinking.

If you can do this, your readers will love your content more.  There are actually companies out there who write titles in a way to increase their click through rates and then they don't fulfill a promise they made within the title that brought the person in.  This is basically click bait through using misleading titles instead of images, and you shouldn't be doing it lol.


When you eventually launch your blog
Now, we all know that blogging is essential to do for any business, but a lot of us don't properly launch when we're ready to start up.  Many businesses start their blogs when they begin their business, which is amazing, but even they don't launch properly at times. 

What you'll need to do is launch your blog and then begin to promote it to your audience a few different ways, such as:

1. Sharing your new blog on all of your social media profiles.  This will get you some links that are easily found and indexed, and people will begin to come and see what your blog is all about.
2. You'll need to submit your blog to the right directories and lists in order to get seen a little more.  It's not a difficult thing to do, just search "(your niche) directory" and you can find a decent amount of places to post your blogs URL.
3. You can write up, and publish, a press release to help get your blog noticed easier.
4. If you have your own list of newsletter subscribers, you can email them a notice that your blog is live and you will notice a spike in traffic.
5. Add sharing buttons so people can come in and share whatever they want.  This will increase your engagement across the board

Online communities are your friend
A great way to start off your blog is to get active within online communities related to your industry.  This means you can join other blogs that allow signature links as well as forums that encourage you to use a signature link to share your websites or blogs.  This will help in two different ways, and they are:

1. Increase rankings in the search engines due to you placing links within your signatures.  The search engines like to see backlinks aimed at your blog, so using your signature links will usually help boost your search engine rankings.
2. Gain direct traffic through the signature links.  You won't get a massive amount of traffic, but the people who do decide to click through will be interested in what you have to say

Building up your authority is best when you're on other websites, forums, and blogs spreading useful information.  People will see you're doing this for free and they will begin to see you as more of an authority within your industry, which is a great thing to have and can be built up over time


Advertising your blog posts for more views
It isn't enough to just publish a blog post and the waves of visitors come in droves to see what you wrote.  You need to do a bit more work after you do publish your content, and that means you need to promote your posts to the masses in order to bring them in.  This isn't a difficult thing to do, you can simply set up a Facebook ad and get super targeted.  If you have a broad target, you won't get as much engagement, so you need to get super specific when targeting.

What you'll need to do is bring people to your blog post through ads and then engage with them when they decide to comment or share your content.  If you aren't engaging them when they engage with you, you're just going to lose readers that could have been your very own brand ambassadors over time.


Sharing your posts with other bloggers
One of the best ways so build up your own authority is to share your content with other bloggers in the same industry.  Not all bloggers will jump on this opportunity because you're basically their competition, but there are some out there that don't try to sell anything and they will usually jump on the opportunity to work together.

Sharing content between two different blogs will almost always help build your authority and get you started off on the wrong foot.  Think about it, you're having content on multiple blogs within your industry and they both contain useful information and say you're the author.  It's a win win for everyone who is involved because you and your partnered blog gain authority through the post.  You gain authority from being the one who wrote the content and the partner gains authority by linking to another authority


Word of mouth promotion is still strong
How many times have you made a decision simply based on what a family member or friend said to you?  Pretty often if you're like the rest of the world lol.  Word of mouth is actually the most trusted form of promotion according to many studies.  And it's not just people talking to their friends and family, it works well with influencers and online reviews as well

Many people look to online reviews before they make a purchasing decision, so if you have plenty of people talking about you in a positive way, you'll notice a lot more people trusting every word you write on your new blog



In Conclusion
Starting off on the right foot with your blog is an easy thing to do, but it can also be messed up just as easy.  If you follow everything I said above, you're going to be well on your way to having an amazing blog for yourself or the company you work for   Blogging isn't the easiest thing to do if you're just starting off, so take your time and learn the entire process along the way.  You'll make some mistakes, but they can be ironed out quickly and they all need to be treated as a learning process



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Thanks!

Razzy