Blogging can be a great way to promote your company online, as we’ve discussed before, but it can also be a struggle. If you’re finding that your company blog isn’t achieving its goals, it might be time to re-evaluate your approach. There are certain elements that you can add to your blog to help transform it into a successful marketing tool for you company. Take some time to analyze your blog and ask yourself the following questions, and you might find that you’re missing out on a key element to success.

1. Is my blog relevant to my industry and does it provide valuable content to my audience?

Developing a solid understanding of who you’re writing for and what you’re writing about is crucial to running a successful blog. Your blog should center around your company’s expertise and the services it provides to customers. Make sure to blog about industry-related topics that are valuable to your target audience. For example, if you run a blog for a landscaping company, your customers might enjoy reading about is tips and resources for lawn care.

2. Does my blog have a personality?

Nobody wants to read a blog that sounds like it was written by a robot! Your blog should be a reflection of your company, so work to develop content that appropriately represents your company’s style. Don’t shy away from sharing things like important company news or new employees, as this type of content helps readers better connect with the company behind the blog.

The Dropbox blog occasionally features posts about their company and its employees.

3. Do my posts contain important keywords?

From a search engine optimization (SEO) standpoint, a blog can be beneficial in driving more traffic to your website. Therefore, it’s important to integrate keywords related to your business into your blog posts. Consider what search terms are most important for your company, and work those into your posts as appropriate. If you are continuously blogging about industry-related topics, this should happen fairly naturally!

4. Do I provide a clear call-to-action (CTA) in each post?

A CTA should be included in each post on your blog. To decide what the CTA should be, determine the purpose of your post and what action you want the reader to take as a result. This will help further engage readers and is a great way to send traffic back to your website. For example, if you run a blog for a restaurant and create a post that highlights a signature dish, the CTA might be to visit your company’s website to learn more about your other menu items.

The Evernote blog includes a prominent CTA at the bottom of each blog post.

5. Does my blog promote sharing and other social interaction?

Social integration can help you to attract a wider audience to your blog and build relationships with your readers. Include social sharing capabilities on every post to make it as easy as possible for readers to share content with others. Consider implementing a commenting feature to engage readers in further conversation. Take it a step further and respond to those comments to show that you are interested in what your readers have to say. If readers can interact with your content, they are more likely to return to your blog.

The GE Reports blog has sharing icons prominently displayed on each post.

6. Do I pay attention to what posts are most successful?

Track your blog traffic to help you analyze post content. Blog analytics can help you determine what types of content are most successful amongst your audience. If you find that readers are uninterested in certain posts, then try to determine why that is in order to make improvements on your content.

TBH Creative can help you get your blog on the path to success. Contact us to find how can we help steer you in the right direction.