Benefits and Best Practices for Enterprise Blogging

Do you need some inspiration for your enterprise marketing? Check out the online business blogs of large, complex companies like Slack or ADP. 

Blogs like these provide massive volumes of content, and each piece speaks to an audience's pain point. The content feels intimate and valuable no matter what side of the business you're looking at, yet it all ties together.

That sweet spot is the power of enterprise blogging. Do it well, and you can build meaningful relationships with millions of customers. The first step is understanding why blogging works and what it can do for enterprises.

What Is Business Blogging?

An online business blog is a collection of articles written for a company's target audience. It offers value, builds relationships, and helps with search engine optimization (SEO). 

Did you notice that the above sentence didn't use the word "sales"?

While you might mention products or services, blogging for business is about informing rather than persuading. It's content writing, not copywriting.

A blog post's job is to open the door by offering valuable information or advice. That value earns the reader's trust and helps them think positively about the brand. That positive regard is the foundation for future sales.

4 Benefits of an Enterprise SEO Blog

Every blog post is another chance to improve enterprise SEO. While static web pages are limited to a few keywords and ideas, a blog targets new topics every time you publish. More topics mean more opportunities to rank — and more chances to engage audiences.

1. Allows You To Drive Organic Traffic and Establish Authority

When it comes to SEO, enterprise organizations are big fish in even bigger ponds. Larger companies rank higher in search and generate more organic traffic, but so do their equally large competitors. Stiffer competition means you need every advantage you can get.

Enterprise blogging can boost your domain authority to give you that advantage.

Domain authority is much more specific than your reputation within an industry. It indicates a website's expertise on a particular topic based on trust signals. If you have great content that other websites link to, your domain authority gets a boost.

Great content can boost your traffic on its own, too. If your content is more comprehensive and valuable than the competition's, it can rank higher. Google knows good content when it sees it.

2. Provides Valuable Organic Content That Can Be Repurposed Across Channels

Enterprise companies have the resources to do more with their content. A blog post isn't just an article; it's material you can reuse and repurpose across multiple marketing channels. 

Have you ever promoted a blog post on social media platforms? It's an essential step to getting blog readers, but it's just the beginning. You can also change the content's style, format, and presentation so it works on multiple levels.

A blog post can easily become a video script, ebook chapter, or podcast episode. A statistics-based post would make a great infographic. Or, if you're ready to take things to the next level, you can repurpose a blog post into an interactive resource. 

Quizzes, calculators, and clickable educational resources boost your content's engagement, and blog posts make great starting points for this type of content. For inspiration, check out these examples of B2B interactive content.

3. Gives You a Great Platform To Share Company News

An enterprise's company updates can be big news. Engagement is about how you spin things, and enterprise blogging is the perfect opportunity to spread the word.

When you share business news on your blog, you can explain why readers should care. Your post isn't about the company's recent merger or new feature; it's about why you're a better choice than ever. It's still not a sales pitch, but it does have a consumer-first angle that other company news sources might not.

Always blog about business in a way that puts readers first. If you do, your blog (or your client's blog) will become a place where followers go for the latest updates.

4. Helps You Test Out Campaigns to Inform Paid Ads

Blog posts and ads complement each other. Ads generate short-term results because you pay for exposure, but they only run as long as you keep paying. They can be highly lucrative, especially with a big budget, but they must provide a return on investment.

Blogging has a lower overhead. Blogs are investments in long-term exposure and awareness, making them ideal testing grounds for ad campaigns. If one post resonates particularly well, an ad with a similar angle is more likely to succeed.

Content testing can be as simple as analyzing the traffic and click-through rates for various posts and identifying the topics that attract the most attention. 

Enterprise-level resources let you take things to the next level. You can run A/B tests by creating slightly different versions of the same post and sharing those versions with similar audiences. For example, you might send one to half of your email subscription list and another to the other half.

Split testing gives you more detailed information about what works. For example, you might find that a post with interactive elements performs much better than one without, which could mean that an ad needs to promise interactive options. 

You can test anything — from brand voice to call-to-action (CTA) verbiage — to determine what will improve your ad campaigns' return on investment.

8 Best Practices for Your Enterprise's Blogging Strategy

Enterprise blogging can drive traffic significantly if you do it well. A reputable business name boosts the power of engaging and valuable content, but maximizing that power is up to you. 

Here's how to make that happen.

1. Choose the Right Type of Corporate Blog

If you're a regular blog reader, you've probably noticed the different approaches company blogs can take. Popular options include:

• SEO blogs: Central to enterprise content strategy, SEO blogs target selected keywords to attract readers and improve a site's ranking for that topic. An SEO blog is your best bet for expanding top-of-funnel audience numbers or speaking to specific pain points.
• News blogs: One of the most straightforward formats to plan and execute, news blogs primarily share information about what the company is doing. They're ideal for re-engaging previous customers and staying top-of-mind with existing audiences.
• Campaign blogs: Content that integrates with a marketing or rebranding campaign, campaign blogs enhance consumer appeal and reach less aware audiences.
• Customer relationship blogs: Publications focused on customer connection — often independently of products or services — relationship blogs work on gaining followers the company can target with marketing later.
• Thought leadership blogs: A vehicle for starting conversations within your industry, thought leadership blogs are ideal for B2B content marketing because they let you expand on trending and technical topics. Highly insightful thought leadership blogs publish some of the most shareable content online.

Mixing and matching is also an option. You might start with a campaign blog, then transition into a primarily SEO-based style. Or, your company's thought leadership blog could occasionally feature company news. Consider your blog's fundamental goals and choose the format that works best.

2. Understand Your Target or Buyer Persona

No blog can cover every topic. Even Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, targets specific audiences with multiple special-interest blogs.

Google "Amazon blog," and you'll find options for Web Services clients, partner sellers, business leaders, and more. There's also a company news blog for general audiences who want to know what Amazon is up to.

Slack takes a similar approach. It sorts its blog posts into "collections" based on target audience, such as sales teams and engineers. Readers get more value from the experience because they can view only the posts that apply to them, and Slack benefits from stronger reader connections.

The key is to understand your potential customers and write for their needs. The more you know, the more valuable your posts will be.

If your enterprise already has a buyer persona, start there. Learn about the company's potential customers and their pain points, goals, and needs. That understanding is the foundation for your blog's strategy and structure.

For example, do you need to divide your blog by interest, like Slack? Or, your audience may have enough common interests to appreciate a blog like Microsoft's, which addresses various technical topics. If every post resonates with customers, you're doing it right.

3. Outline the Metrics That Will Define Your Blog's Success

Big or small, content marketing strategies need specific goals to strive for. Just as your business wouldn't structure its fiscal year around "higher revenue," your blog needs targets to define success.

You likely started brainstorming blogging goals when you learned about the different types of enterprise blogs. Those goals can point you toward the best content marketing metrics to target. 

Options include:

• Organic search traffic: How many visitors come to your website via search engine results pages (SERPs)
• Revenue from content: The dollar value of sales from people who viewed your blog posts and moved forward through the sales funnel
• Average engagement time: How long people spend perusing your blog post or overall site
• Click-through rate: The percentage of people who click on your posts' calls to action (CTAs)

It's essential to track your blog's overall performance and the success of each post. You want to know which topics resonate and whether the style, approach, and overall quality work well for your target reader.

4. Identify Keywords That Align With Your Audience and Business Goals

Keywords are the connecting thread between your blog and its target audiences. Google's algorithm uses keywords to determine the topic and user intent you should rank for.

Keywords fall into four intent categories, each getting different results. Those categories include:

• Informational keywords: Searches for general advice or answers without obvious purchase intent
  (e.g., How to hard boil an egg or Trending shoes this fall)
• Investigational keywords: Product research phrases, typically for narrowing down options 
  (e.g., Best birthday gifts for 10-year-olds or Top reef-safe sunscreens)
• Transactional keywords: Bottom-funnel searches with immediate purchase intent 
  (e.g., Pizza place open now or Cheap flights to Mexico for Christmas)
• Navigational keywords: Branded searches for a specific company, usually including the brand name
  (e.g., Walmart return policy or Bob's Barber Shop Seattle)

Blog posts typically target informational or investigational keywords, but every strategy differs. Focus on keyword intents that align with the blog's business goals.

The keywords themselves should match audience interests, regardless of intent. The primary goal of your keyword research is to learn what questions your audience is asking online so you can craft content that answers those questions. The keywords you choose will be the foundation of your corporate blogging strategy.

5. Create High-Quality Content That Includes Industry Trends

Google's algorithms reward "helpful, reliable, people-first content" — material that answers readers' questions instead of playing to search engines. This type of content is also how you build loyal blog readers. 

Choosing Effective Topics

Your keyword research will reveal some of the questions readers ask. Start there, then go deeper by delving into customer data. Find out what pathways people take to purchase, including what marketing and sales campaigns get the most conversions.

Sales representatives can also be helpful. Ask them what questions prospects ask and what pain points they need your product or service to solve. 

Strive for a balance of "evergreen" and trending topics. Evergreen topics will drive traffic months and even years down the line. "How to create blog content," for example, will never get old.

Trending content addresses today's high-volume search terms. There's always something in any industry that people need to know about. Industry blogs, newsletters, and forums are great places to find these topics.

Crafting Engaging Content

Every post you publish should add something to the reader's knowledge, whether you're writing for experts or beginners.

Explore what's already out there on a topic, then choose your angle. Provide information the reader didn't have before or offer original thought leadership. 

And remember, even if you're writing for experts, they're still web readers. Apply content writing best practices — a skimmable structure, helpful images, and an engaging CTA at the end. Send readers on the path to conversion.

6. Leverage an Editorial Calendar To Stay Organized

Enterprise blogging is a juggling act. Each blog post is a one-to-one conversation with the reader while hundreds of other discussions go on in the background. Each conversation has its core topic, flow, and next steps.

You need something to keep all those conversations organized; an editorial calendar is an excellent solution. 

Editorial calendars give you a bird' s-eye view of what, when, and where you'll post. Think of them like appointment calendars, but every appointment is a blog post or other type of content. 

A calendar makes it easier to juggle large volumes of content on multiple topics. It simplifies planning and allows for smoother collaboration since everyone on your content team can see where their work fits.

Calendars also let you integrate enterprise blogging with other content types, diversifying your strategy. If thinking beyond the blog feels overwhelming at this stage, check out some of our favorite B2B content marketing examples. These examples will help you understand what's out there and how to tie it together.

7. Define a Content Promotion Strategy

Compelling blog posts are discoverable via SEO and shareable on social media, but that doesn't mean you can "post and forget." Attracting readers to your blog is the same as enticing customers to try your product or service — you must make it worthwhile.

The first step is understanding the blog's overall business goals. Awareness-building content needs to find buyers who don't know your business, so you should target them by interest. Lower-funnel content can go to existing audiences, such as email list subscribers.

Think about where those readers spend the most time. Consider the marketing channels you already have and whether there are any you haven't used yet.

Also, explore your competitors' online presence and where they promote content. They might share blog posts on channels you have yet to think of. Try those channels if you believe they might work, but make your strategy your own. Get your content into places your competitors aren't.

8. Create a Reiterative Process of Testing and Optimizing Content

A well-researched content strategy puts you in the best position for launching your blog, but what next? 

One word: Data.

You need to know whether your strategy gets results. To do that, you need a defined process for testing and evaluating content.

We've already discussed testing content — showing slightly different versions of a post to similar audiences. The next component is evaluating those results, tweaking the content, and publishing the polished version.

It's worth being methodical about this process. Writing for enterprise is never a solo show; you need everyone on the same page. Also, with high volumes of content in process at all times, you need to track progress.

Take time to figure out a standard process for testing and optimizing each blog post, then document it. Make sure all participants can access it — and remember, you can test and edit the plan itself, too.

Reap the Benefits of Blogging for Enterprise With Compose.ly

Now that we've covered the basics of blogging for businesses, let's talk about the work itself. Who does the strategy, keyword research, writing, and editing at your organization?

Enterprises ask a lot of their content marketing teams, and blogging is a time and resource investment. Compose.ly's expert team can help with all aspects of your blogging strategy, from strategy development to final editing. 

Get branded content without the heavy load on your content team. Explore our blog writing services today.