Have you decided to launch your corporate blog? Congratulations! But before you start, it’s important to stop, think and reflect, so you don’t get overwhelmed. To help you prepare for it, I’ve come up with a list of 10 questions that you should ask yourself before creating your corporate blog:
In this article you’ll learn…
1. What are the goals of my blog?
If you don’t know the reasons why you are creating a company blog, you have to think about that part. It is very important to define the objectives of the blog, they should be clear to both you and your team members: what we will talk about in the blog? What are we contributing to our blog readers or audience? You’ve got to determine the identity of the blog before you start writing.
2. How do I structure my blog?
This will help you to organize your content. Here you have to ask yourself if there will be a contact section, an “About us,” etc. To define this structure, put yourself in your readers shoes: what is the information they are interested in and how they would like to see them organized? You can also use tags to improve the segmentation of the articles.
3. Should I incorporate the blog to my website?
When creating a blog, choosing the URL that will determine if it’s a part of your company website is essential. The choice will depend on several factors, including the way in which the company web is hosted. Some platforms can be difficult to manage and you will have to rely on a technician to perform any update on your corporate blog. We use WordPress because it’s easy to use, even if you don’t have technical knowledge (like me!). Before choosing the hosting, think about the goals you have set in terms of traffic; a blog integrated onto your site will bring more traffic than a blog hosted out of your website.
4. Which design should I choose for my blog?
The visual part is a key aspect in web. Many studies show that content that integrates videos, images or infographics are viewed and shared more than those without. A visual blog with elaborate images can attract the attention of visitors, however, once again, do not forget that it’s a business blog! Create a brand guide to ensure the blog’s visual consistency with the brand image, and also to manage the creation of visual elements that will be integrated into the different blog content.
5. How often will I publish material?
When we create a blog, we usually know the first post we want to publish. But over time, inspiration fails us and we end up posting less frequently. It is essential to maintain a regular rhythm of publication. Readers will stop visiting your blog if you don’t publish. Do not set goals that are too ambitious, two publications per week is an achievable goal.
6. Do I have an editorial calendar for the next 2 months?
This question is related to the above: Have I prepared a enough content to last me a little while? The editorial calendar is an essential tool to manage the blog. It allows you to have visibility over the publications that are pending and to plan for future content. Readers don’t want the same information found on the website of the company, but beware of going off topic. Irrelevancy is a common corporate blog error.
7. How do I promote my blog?
Publishing articles is fine, but if nobody sees them, nobody reads them! Fortunately social networks offer us the ability to distribute our articles to our communities. The first step is to create the communities and identify profiles that match with your target audience along with influencers profiles that can help your blog to go viral. Remember to link all your social media accounts to your blog so that readers can share directly from your blog after reading some of the articles.
8. What am I going to measure?
Managing a blog takes time! Today, measurement is the queen for marketing and communication professionals. Set the key performance indicators you want to follow to know if you reach your goals or not: traffic to your website, number of comments (positive/negative), number of times it has been shared, etc. In order to better track all of your results, consider setting up your Google Analytics account and paste the tracking code on the pages of your blog.
9. Have I defined the roles to manage the corporate blog?
Okay, so you’ve got the hosting, frequency of publication, an organized editorial calendar, etc. But now you have to assign responsibilities for managing the blog: if management requires technical skills, check their availability so you aren’t stuck each time you want to publish some new content. Remember to agree on what is going to be published, when, and who is going to do it. Then decide is going to manage and respond to the comment comments, who will promote it on social networks, who measures the results…
10. Have I checked all the rules?
Now, you’re ready to launch! But please, do one last final check to make sure everything is ready and enjoy your adventure as a new blogger!
Do you have any other questions or comments about starting a corporate blog? Let us know!
By Launchmetrics Content Team
The Launchmetrics content team is always on the lookout for new trends in the fashion and technology sector. We are geeks with style and lovers of good stories!
