Historically, companies involved in providing marketing services or resources have steered clear from creating content and opening blogs. Companies would deliberately avoid providing too much information to new customers and clients about a specific topic or service in an attempt to make their service more valuable to prospective decision makers.
This “paywall” style tactic was a strategy used by a lot of businesses in the early era of blogging. Some companies still use this strategy to date, but they tend to be the giants who don’t need to provide any authority in their space through blogging, companies like Nike and Apple are great examples of these.
This protective strategy has become effective as an exclusive marketing tactic, however, in the last few years, the majority of new, small and medium sized businesses need to drive awareness for their services or products. Company blogs are one of the best methods, in an attempt to provide value in the hunt for authority, to gain new custom for their business. But, are company blogs becoming more insightful than publications?
Developing new leads
Company blogs have a proven track record with supporting the delivery of new traffic to relevant pages. Research has showcased that brands that “create 15 blog posts per month average 1,200 new leads per month” (source), and according to Hubspot “businesses that blog 20 or more times per month attract 5 times more traffic than those who blog 4 times a month”. This investigation of 4,000 companies and their leads indicates the modern need to keep a refreshed and vibrant company blog to retain your authority and readership.
Company blogs have become one the biggest assets to any small or large businesses looking to drive new traffic and interest to their website. These new leads are generated from the value that these companies are providing to their audience and the targeted awareness of insight into a topic that the blog has. Some good examples of a company blog that drives leads are Intercom and Mixpanel. Intercom offer a clean and simple, well-updated blog.
Both of these blogs deliver plenty of value, with long form blog posts over 2,000 words, but capture your attention using simple call-to-actions like eBooks, PDFs or email sign-ups. This is a confirmed lead for the business. As you can see, this value converts to successful leads.
It’s not all about leads
A company blog has not been solely about driving new leads, although a well-polished, consistent company blog will do this, it has been an enabler for a company to drive authority in its space. Consumers are attracted to resources that they understand and can use in practice, the blog format has been rated as the 5th most trusted source for accurate online information. This is why company blogs are now becoming more dominant choices
Buffer, a social media sharing site, is a perfect example of a company blog designed to drive trust and authority in the field of social media. This site has become one of the top sites to visit to learn more about social media and using it in everyday activities to grow your business or your following effectively. The blog receives over 850,000 page views per month with thousands of social media shares per new post.
This focus on authority and useful insight from Buffer has become a cornerstone and inspiration for many small and large businesses to start and drive value for consumers.
Marketing company blogs
As for informative resources, there are a number of excellent resources for audiences looking for high-quality advice or simple tips and tricks. Some of the existing sites like Buffer, Moz, QuickSprout give great opportunities for marketers to grow various areas of their business.
There are also up-and-coming company blogs that have been taking the marketing space by storm sharing valuable insight into their specific fields. Here are a few suggestions for new company blogs growing their authority in the world of marketers and sales pros.
GetResponse, an email marketing and marketing automation platform for SMBs, runs a very broad blog but aims to specialize in all things automation for inbound marketers. This has been a popular blog to follow for many professional marketers looking to hone their automation skills. The blog also includes marketing, productivity, platform, email marketing, relationships, lead generation and much more. Their regularly updated blog will keep you in chasing their latest articles with 8-10 new articles every week, perfect for anyone looking to boost their marketing skills. GetResponse is one of the rising blogs in the marketing space.
Yotpo, a social curation tool for commerce, provides an insightful blog focused on producing the best results with commerce leads online. Their niche is Instagram and they have good amount of articles to help you with your sales experience on Instagram. Everything from email marketing tactics to successful sales strategies on Instagram, their blog post aims to support commerce marketing around the world.
Outbrain’s blog posts are perfect for content marketers looking to improve their skillset. With the continued development of content marketing there are updates every single day that need to be reported on and analysed as a content marketer, whether it’s the understanding of a customer’s experience using content to picking the best title to your next blog post. Their daily blog post from Outbrain keeps it fresh and updated to the latest trends in the world of content marketing.
Company blogs continue to drive vast amounts of traffic and in today’s busy world of instant access they are winning the marketing space as useful tools on the go to improve the everyday life as marketers, although their aim is to convert you to their service, the value they give are insightful and becoming worthy publications to read.
