6 tips for your successful corporate blog

Do you have uncovered success stories or other valuable content on your website that threatens to dissapear in the depths of your Internet presence? There is no need to worry – by setting up a business blog or magazine in conjunction with the right marketing approach, you can give your topics the attention they deserve – and that can be as scalable as desired! But not every blog is created equal, in a way that the readers always return to it. We will give you 6 tips on how to successfully build your own content hub and generate leads as well as awareness.

by Kathrin Eubisch
CMO und Content Marketing Manager Evernine Group

Many companies are relying on the opportunity to create a platform for their ongoing content and topics –  so-called company blog, its own news page or the magazine, which takes up all trends and news from the industry. This is also ideal as an extension of your direct portfolio marketing. But not every blog is created optimally. In this case, it is usually a matter of small things – lack of user experience (UX), no ”up-to-dateness” in the contributions, no dynamic content, too few ”read-out” recommendations etc. This article gives you an overview of the most important aspects that you should consider in your business blog, in any industry.

► 1. Google loves dynamic content

You know it yourself. Within the first 5 seconds on the website you decide whether you want to read the article or not. What is the reason? The human eye can be strongly influenced by a professional content presentation, conspicuousness and other aspects like the relevance. If these are missing, the user is quickly bored and jumps off quickly. For your business blog, it is therefore advisable to choose a right mix of dynamic and static (fixed text blocks) content. Dynamics can be seen twice – on the one hand by the ongoing updating of the blog (about routines – and if it is “mini-news”), and on the other hand, a minimum of dynamic content such as a moving picture or slider. Especially on the homepage of a magazine these dynamic elements are offered. They encourage the user to read the page.

But you should not exaggerate with dynamic elements. In our example, only the content slider was animated in the upper part of our cloudmagazin.com. Here, three “feathered” contributions regularly change. Not too fast, but not too slow. The reader encounters a first movement within the magazine and waits for what contributions are recommended to him in the upper section.

And the best is – Google loves dynamic content. Through its use, your page is always up-to-date – it stays in motion and this also affects your ranking at the largest search engine. This is often more effective than any on-site optimization.

► 2. More attention by subtitles

In order to prepare your articles in a high-quality format, you should include as many headings as possible, as well as highlightings in the text, such as bullet points. These help to keep the attention of the readers and not to bore them too early with a “lead desert” by too much text. By further linking in the text you increase the length of the stay, offer the reader additional input, but can also run the risk that your readers bounce (jump).

Here again, a certain mix is ​​required: the subtitles provide a brief overview of the upcoming passage, highlights lessen the text a bit, and links provide the reader with more information.

Tip: Look for the SEO-optimized, right mix of “H1”, “H2” and other text modules.

► 3. Does the contribution keep what he promises?

Of course, an own company magazine or your own company blog is a surplus value for the company and above all for the marketing. A magazine provides the right platform for marketing and sales managers alike. You can refer to this platform during ongoing campaigns or sales talks and use them in a targeted manner. But a company blog should also be professionally built and managed. In addition to your topics, place the latest topics on the industry on your blog. And, above all, use the “leader” function, which summarizes the contents at the beginning of the article and stimulates them to read. The preamble also has a magazine-heavy and professional effect.

What is the best way to do it?

✎ Find out what topics your target group is dealing with (for example PainPoints in the industry).

✎ Formulate exciting headlines that attract attention, and

✎ mention in an exciting way what aspects of your contribution will you show.

The most important issue you should consider when writing a post: Make sure the article keeps what it promises. Because only 5 to 20 percent of the article is read when he does not. So do not be annoying your readers. Stay with the truth and teasern only the headline and headline, which you can also deliver in your contribution.

And something else: It is said that one loses 50 per cent of readers in the first sentence. Think about it when you enter the article and write it “crisp” or even in a surprising form.

► 4. Article reviews

So that your company magazine is as trustworthy as possible for the readers, it is advisable to point out further articles from your blog – for example contributions to a similar topic or other “trends from the industry”. These are placed mainly at the end of a post, but can also appear in the sidebar or within the post. They work very well and give the reader the feeling that he moves in a professional magazine environment. Evernine recommends that you install these boxes below a post, so you do not lose the readers at an early stage by clicking on them, but still offers you further possibilities. After all, 30 per cent of the readers scroll down to the end of the page – readers are happy to continue. So let your readers “do not starve” down.

There are now two possibilities. Either one recommends only editorial contributions from your own company blog – here are certain settings, which you have to make in your CMS so that only certain articles are recommended. Or, as you can see in the picture, we place some ads.

Secondly, as a publisher of the major publisher networks plista and Outbrain, you can program such “read more” recommendations and click on the respective ads (which can also be assigned thematically) also earn one or the other cent. At cloudmagazin.com we do this and earn money by the way. The advertised recommendation is not a must – and for many company magazines, of course not recommended, but also gives the reader the feeling that he is in a professional magazine environment (but what the read-ahead recommendations in themselves do) , The cloudmagazin.com has chosen a mix of 4: 2 – 4 editorial contributions from the magazine and 2 other advertisements. Thus the reader is not overloaded with too much advertising.

► 5. Give your magazine its own additional “Trend” menu

To make your readers feel even more comfortable in your magazine and enjoy the reading experience, you should add an additional trend menu to your business blog next to the main menu. This should be clearly different from the menu of your company homepage and also clearly separated. Imagine you bring your customers to your magazine to bring them closer to your topics and create enough awareness. Their goal is also to reach as long as possible on the contributions. This also helps when it comes to SEO matters.

► 6. The ideal basis for your content marketing

You have the right topics, your blog is up-to-date and you want to use it as an extension of your marketing? Focus on content marketing and make your target group aware of your pain points in your contributions. Let your customers immerse in your world of experience. With content marketing campaigns, you have the opportunity to optimally address your target group with your topics and to generate targeted awareness and leads. After content marketing has become a strategic tool for the communication strategy in the last few years, it is now easy for an existing magazine to reach its KPIs in the best possible way.

How do you manage this? The Evernine Group has for some years now been designing, implementing and optimizing content marketing campaigns, for which a magazine is always used. Evernine’s Qualified Lead Marketing (QLM) approach provides marketers with a mix of Nativer content distribution, social media marketing, and retargeting to deliver the best results. One of the tricks is to use Landingspages with your offers in conjunction with the contributions, optimizing the click-through rate (CTR).

We got you interested and you would now like to start with content marketing, for example in B2B?

Contact us directly or get the first info in our Whitepaper.

Source title image: Evernine Group.