In today’s world of blogging and content marketing, it seems like the majority of the focus is put on blogging to an audience of the everyman. However, B2B blogging is just as important in the business world. And while blogging to John and Jane Doe comes more naturally to most people, business blogging can prove to be a greater amplifier than you may have thought possible. So to help B2B businesses with their blogging ventures, here are three tips for having a more effective B2B blog.
Be Determined to Provide Value
For B2B blogging, you have to have providing value be your main focus or you take the chance of coming off as a non-credible source and partner. This is true even more so for B2B blogging than B2C blogging. However, there are simple ways in which you can show your determination to provide value to your readers.
According to the Content Marketing Institute, businesses can provide value in their blogging efforts by writing intriguing content, using visual content to complement your text, re-posting similar content over time, responding to communication from readers and more. By ensuring that each one of these aspects is effectively accounted for in your business blogging, you can feel confident that you’re giving your readers something valuable to consume.
Have Clear Blogging Objectives
While being determine to provide value to your readers is important, it can be hard to pinpoint how you’ll go about providing that value without a clear plan for your blogging objectives. What are you trying to accomplish with your blogging efforts? What’s your plan of attack for reaching those goals?
To help you find your own objectives, Derek Edmond of Search Engine Watch suggests using objectives like supporting your SEO strategy, being an industry thought leader, providing customer support, or helping your sales team. Once you have your particular objectives nailed down, you can find more ways to help achieve those goals, like providing video content rather than written content, offering coupons to encourage sales, or using guest bloggers to garner trust.
Think About Your Business Blog A Little Differently
Blogging for a business requires a different way of thinking than blogging for the general population. Because your business blog has to be so much for so many, Kipp Bodnar of HubSpot recommends for business bloggers to think about their role more as a vertically integrated publisher rather than just a blogger.
Bodnar explains that this should mean that you are focused on all aspects of your content, like a publisher of traditional media would be. You’re on the hook for creating the content, publicizing that content, and advertising for that content. If you’re able to think about business blogging in this format, creating B2B content will be much easier for you.
B2B blogging doesn’t have to be intimidating and difficult. You can find blogging success by targeting other businesses if you simply provide value to them, have a plan for your efforts, and think about your content creation as a whole rather than a piece. Now get out there and get blogging!
Originally posted on August 19, 2015 @ 2:38 am