Your company blog is the most forward facing piece of content that your company has and it is the driving force behind every inbound marketing strategy.  It’s also the number one way to build SEO, attract visitors and establish your company as a thought leader in your industry.  There are many ways you can improve your blog to turn it into a B2B lead generation machine.  A quality blog is the heart of any inbound marketing effort, used properly it can serve as an invaluable tool to drive business.

Keyword Research

The first step in developing your blogging strategy is to perform keyword research.  There are several tools you can use to see where you rank for certain terms.  Using long tailed keywords rather than shorter, broader terms gives you a better chance at ranking high.  It also ensures that the people who find you are actually looking for your type of solution.

Educational Content

The content presented in your blog should be educational and not overly self promotional.  This establishes you as a thought leader in your industry and develops trust with your prospects.  If you become a trusted source of information, your prospects are much more likely to follow your blog until they’re ready to make a buying decision.

Optimize For Mobile

With the majority of the population using smart phones to access email and social media optimizing your website content for mobile viewing has become essential for generating visits and leads.  If your website is not optimized for mobile people will quickly click off your pages which will hurt your search rankings.  You stand to alienate and lose potential clients unless your site is properly optimized.

Optimize For Skimmers

Most people that read through blogs these days don’t take the time to read each word.  You’ll want to make sure your content is easily digestible for those that like to skim.  Using bullet points, numbered lists and white space are some key ways to make your blog easier to scan for key pieces of information.

Diverse Content

In many cases strictly having a written blog will not get the job done.  It’s important to incorporate several different types of media in your blogging strategy.  This can include webinars, podcasts, videos, infographics and interactive questionnaires.  This will keep your content fresh and entertaining while allowing you to re-purpose your most successful pieces.

Links

Within the body of your blog, you’ll want to have both internal and external links.  External links to trusted industry pages will help establish your company as a trusted resource.  You’ll also want to link to relevant internal website pages to provide your prospects with additional direction and information to guide them through the buying process.

Images And Graphics

Blogs that contain images tend to garner more clicks than those that don’t.  You’ll want to make sure you use high quality images.  Changing your image alt text to contain relevant keywords also helps to improve your SEO.

Calls To Action

Inserting calls to action that link to relevant premium content is the best way to convert your visitors into leads.  Make sure your calls to action are easy to find and let the reader know exactly what to expect when clicking.  Once they click, it should bring them to a landing page with a form to fill out.  This is where you obtain their information in exchange for a piece of premium content.  Make sure the offer lines up with the amount of information you’re asking for.

Premium Content

Developing ebooks and white papers that contain more in depth information on the subjects contained in your blog will drive conversion.  You’ll want to have a piece that fits each stage of the buyer’s journey to ensure you are still able to convert visitors that are still in the top of the funnel.  You’ll be able to place these leads into nurturing email workflows to guide them towards a sales decision.

Consistency

Once you’ve developed your content strategy, it’s important that you remain consistent with your postings.  Statistics show that publishing 16 blogs as opposed to 0-4 will produce 3.5 times the amount of website visitors.  This is a dramatic shift which can greatly increase your blog's ability to generate leads.

Promotion

Now that you have a quality, consistent content strategy, it’s time to promote your blog.  Social media provides a great platform to distribute your content.  Take advantage of your company’s page and also industry related groups to show off your work.  Find out what platforms your target audience visits most and concentrate your efforts there.

Winn Technology Group has dedicated staff to ensure your blog succeeds. From a team of in house writers to social media specialists, we can provide you with managed services to turn your company blog into a high powered lead generation tool.  

Click below for more tips to improve your inbound marketing strategy