When you first start a company blog, you have a lot of choices to make. What should you write about? How will you carve out time to keep it up to date? What voice will you use? Sidebar or no sidebar? How often do you update? But while these are important characteristics of your blog, you’ll need to make an important decision -- who will write it.
Fortunately, you have a number of content sources from which to pick. You could keep it in house and ask different people at your company to contribute to the blog or assign one communications person at your company to take over. You could also outsource the writing to any number of freelance specialists or agencies.
However, we’re here to point out the pros and cons of hiring a content marketing firm to write your company blog. And you may find that what follows are some pretty compelling reasons that a content marketing firm can provide you the best ROI for your company blog and the fewest content marketing headaches.
1. Should You Tap Into An Outside Perspective?
Feedback and constructive criticism are an essential part of the writing and marketing process. The more ideas you have, the better the selection you have to choose from. And it’s often easier to see the solution to a challenge when you’re outside of the situation. An outside perspective on your blog and your editorial calendar can help you uncover otherwise hidden topic opportunities and present your examples and research in a way that will attract new business opportunities and help people find your company (even in the smallest niche).
2. Do You Balance Your Blog’s SEO Needs With a Genuine Voice?
A content marketing firm takes into account the technical and human needs of your blog and balances both. Instead of writing for search engines and using jargon-heavy copy, a content marketing partner could help you optimize your blog so that it’s written for your prospect (not company-focused or too technical), comes up in relevant searches, and is written in the natural voice of the blog.
While your own company employees are certainly capable of writing and certainly more knowledgeable than an outside writer, trying to do this might not have the best results. If your blog is too technical, you’ll end up with a blog full of SEO mumbo jumbo, or you’ll have a well-written and compelling blog with little to no online marketing value.
3. Do You Speak to the Right Audience?
The most common problem we see on B2B company blogs is writing that doesn’t speak to the right audience. Instead of crafting careful customer personas and writing to meet their needs, companies often assign the blog to an in-house marketer and expect them to fill up the editorial calendar on the fly.
The result? Random updates, press releases, company news, event announcements and other news that isn’t like to engage or convert a person who’s comparing solutions. A content marketing firm, on the other hand, will take the time to understand the type of prospect you’re writing the blog for and develop the blog accordingly.
4. Are You Sending a Targeted Message?
Beyond writing your blog for the right audience, a content marketing firm can also help you develop each blog post with the most important call to action message. When people discover your blog by clicking a link on Google, you have the unique opportunity of presenting other information they may find helpful. Different blog posts and different calls to action encourage customers to further engage with your company.
A content marketing partner can help you understand how to get prospective clients to click from the blog to the pages of your website that encourage people to give you their contact information (such as downloading white papers and signing up for email newsletters).
Your company blog is a valuable marketing tool that you can use to refine your value proposition, educate customers, and form relationships with prospective customers. You can certainly do this on your own without the help of a partner, but carefully consider the questions above. Do you have the time and resources to write? Do you know what to write about?
Are you in the process of starting a company blog? Maybe thinking about shutting yours down? Contact us today to see if you can turn your blog into a business development tool.
