With the Web2.0 trend in the industry, more and more companies have started using blogs as new marketing tool, to the extent where blogs have transformed themselves into brand elements, as blogs now have the power to give a voice and a personality to a company.
Still, should we start a corporate blog? Is a question every company should consider, because like any other marketing tool, it needs to fit the company’s profile, needs and outlook in order to be truly effective.
It’s must for every company to ask these 2 very basic questions before launching a new corporate blog.
Question 1: Is the blog a need or a fad?
The decision to launch a corporate blog should be based on many factors and the advantages it can bring to the company. Few of which could be:
- Accelerate Sales Process
- Generate Leads
- With purpose of customer support and feedback;
- To position team members as experts or thought leaders
- Search engine rank improvement;
But what about it when a company decides to create a blog for one of the following reasons:
- “Our competitor also has a blog”;
- “A blog can make us look more hi-tech“
In hypothesis, the above reasons are really bad ones to start a blog. Launching a corporate blog only for the sake of doing so can even hurt the company’s image.
Question 2: Do you have the necessary resources to launch and maintain a blog?
A blog is not just like any other presentation website. A blog is a continuous resource consumer.
Blogs requires:
- Financial resources – The cost could be in form of development, creative needs, writing or research
- Time and attention – A blog requires time in form of maintenance, analysis, writing and communication with readers
- Human Resources – This could be the team working in house or a third party person working and expanding your blog presence
Interpreting these answers
It doesn’t take a lot of intelligence to figure out the if your new blog is simply a fad, If yes, the owner will most likely forget about it and so, the blog will die after a short period of time. Also, without the required resource, a blog cannot be maintained, or even launched.
So, maybe every company should sincerely evaluate and answer these questions as the success of the future corporate blog depends on it.
