Many senior executives, marketers included, don’t think that blogs rate high in terms of marketing strategies. At best, they view company blogs as a cost of doing business. The subtext of this message is blogs don’t do anything to help me achieve my business goals.
Does this sound like your boss? If so, check the ten reasons bosses have for not wanting a business blog and show him why he’s wrong.
- Does your boss believe blogs are a waste of employee time? Show your manager how a blog can help support other marketing initiatives such as providing content for a weekly non-promotional emailing. Show evidence that blogs help improve search optimization through keyword rich content, and linking, and how they supplies information and content for social media interactions.
- Is your boss’ attitude: why spend our precious marketing resources on blogging if no one reads them? Think again. Recent research by Cone Inc. showed that 70% of consumers did online research and over 40% cited blogs explicitly before purchasing. Blogs are useful for presenting information about your brand, products and company in a non-promotional way to give prospects the information they need prior to buying.
- Does your boss think blogs don’t generate sales? To support the sales process, your firm’s blog content and related editorial calendar must be aligned with your product offering and the type of information consumers need. This translates to providing useful content that shows customers how to use your products effectively with posts that give helpful tips, recipes, and how tos. Ideally, where appropriate, you should link to the specific product. It also helps to use a call to action and tailored promotion code. (Here’s how to measure blog effectiveness.)
- Is your boss concerned that there’s not enough to write about every day? If your product and/or firm doesn’t have enough to blog about, consider telling company stories, highlighting a customer or employee of the week, spotlighting customer’s use of your product, interviewing experts (both inhouse and in the field), offering patterns or recipes, and/or answering customer questions. Of course, you can suggest a editorial brainstorming meeting to help. (Here are some tips on blog post frequency.)
- Is your boss afraid that the blogger will make company secrets public? In today’s age of corporate transparency, it’s critical to outline what’s acceptable for employees to say or disclose as representatives of your organization. To this end, it’s useful to provide training so that employees, especially those with customer and public facing jobs, know what they can and can’t say and do.
- Does your boss believe that the blog will embarrass the firm? Start by making sure that your organization has brand monitoring and social media guidelines in place. If he’s still concerned, created targeted guidelines for bloggers as well as other blog contributors.
- Is your boss worried that if you have a blog, you’ll receive negative comments? While this is a concern for many organizations, the reality is that the public will say whatever they want about your firm, either on your internal media or on third party media. Therefore, you’re better off having the comments in the open on your platform where you can respond to them directly. Realize that by doing this you can convert someone into a loyal customer and find issues that need to be addressed. Further, before you open your blog to the public, set guidelines for acceptable commenting such as no foul language or no derogatory statements.
- Does your boss point to the fact that your competitors don’t blog as his rationale for not blogging? Paying attention to your competitors’ marketing across platforms is critical to helping you succeed. If you always wait for your competitor to do things first, you will be perceived as a follower, not a leader. The reality is that you have an opportunity to build your blog as an effective lead generator that supports your customers and your search marketing.
- Did your boss (or anyone in your firm) have a blog in the past that didn’t succeed? The digital landscape continues to evolve and expand. It’s important to continue to contribute non-marketing-speak information to engage your prospects and the public. Remember buyers must see your name, brand and message several times before they’ll purchase. Further, the last blog may have been poorly resourced or not aligned with your marketing initiatives.
- Does your boss feel that everyone is only on Facebook so why bother with a blog? Yes, Facebook does have high usage and reach but most users are focused on their family and friends not brands. You want to develop your blog as a social media hub with useful content that will help fuel your social media interactions.
Despite your boss’ objections, blogs can be an effective marketing tool that supports a wide range of business goals in a measurable way. Often the most difficult step is overcoming your management’s conservatism because blogs are often one of your most effective social media options.
Are there any other objections that your boss has to a corporate blog? If so, what are they? How can they be overcome?
Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen
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Photo credit by Joe Shlabotnik via Flickr
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