The Secrets Behind Successful Company Blogs by lisafuger

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The Secrets Behind Successful Company Blogs
by lisafugere

According to Hubspot?s, State of Inbound Marketing Lead Generation Report, 2010, ?B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month? than those who do not. That's not a typo. If you aren't blogging, you're falling behind.

However, creating a blog is only the first step. The most successful company blogs capture quality leads, not just more leads. We looked at some blogs that generate the right kinds of leads, and we noticed a few patterns. Insert these secrets into your blog strategy, and watch the leads flow.

Blog About Trending Topics
Starting a conversation that goes viral is one of the best ways to catch the attention of new prospects. The number one failure that most B2B companies make with their blogs is using them to post what they want to write. What you and your company want to write about is not always what your target audience wants to read. Your prospects don?t necessarily care about the technical aspects of your product ? especially if they?ve never heard of it. Use Sales Intelligence to unearth the topics your existing and prospective customers discuss via social media, and add them to your blog to capture new leads. Infographics tend to go viral more often than other forms of content. Create one that?s relevant to your industry, or share one someone else has created (with credits).

Blog to Give Your Customers Value
While your prospects probably don?t care about the details behind your product integrations and business partnerships, your customers might. You don?t want to turn one of them off your blog by focusing on something only the other cares about, so how do you capture both of their attention at the same time?

Separate thought leadership blog posts from product-specific articles. Add a blog to your community, or create a customer service blog designed solely for those familiar with your product.

Marketo, for example, separates their blogs by topic. Their marketing blog focuses on marketing best practices, and their product & industry blog contains product updates, company news, product tips, etc. Rather than attempting to create a catch-all blog with topics that jump all over the place, Marketo separates topics by target audience, and can better track which readers are interested in which topics ? a targeting practice that makes sales & marketing follow up much more effective.

Blog to Establish Your Expertise
In addition to capturing the attention of target prospects and customers, your blog allows you to establish yourself as an expert in your industry. The more specific information you have in your blog about your particular industry, the better the chance  that you?ll be the expert resource that others look to for answers. If you become a thought leader, your prospects will trust your brand and buy your products.

By doing these three things, your blog will generate high quality leads and a lot of brand awareness. A blog is a lot cheaper than an expensive branding and advertising campaign, and has the power to be even more effective.