Too many businesses create blog posts and articles with no strategy or plan set in place. They simply hear, “create a blog” and don’t put any thought into why it’s actually useful. This is a shame because it results in never enjoying the full benefits of doing so.

Practically every business can benefit from a blog. Getting a company blog is common advice that has lost intentional purpose in recent years. Too many businesses create blog posts and articles with no strategy or plan set in place. They simply hear, “create a blog” and don’t put any thought into why it’s actually useful. This is a shame because it results in never enjoying the full benefits of doing so.

It’s not uncommon to look at a potential client’s site and discover that they’ve faithfully published blog posts every month for the past three years yet somehow none of them have a single comment or share.

Every blog post should serve a purpose and meet a specific need within your company, and this means understanding both your business and your target audience. You must work to identify why you need it, how it will help, and then take intentional action toward achieving those goals.

1. Identify the needs of your company first

Why are blogs useful and how do I make one successful? Well, blogging is inbound marketing. It can educate potential clients about the industry, your service, and demonstrate how you can help. It is a tool that enables you to generate high quality leads and ultimately convert them.

Don’t craft a blog post if it doesn’t solve a problem for either your company, a customer, or both. It has to serve a purpose. If you’re having difficulties convincing potential customers why they need your service, why not craft a full-length piece of informational content about why they need it and how it will help? This type of blog post educates clients and becomes a marketing tool. It allows you to solve problems before they arise by setting expectations.  

Not following this fundamental step is the most common problem I encounter. Always be intentional when spending your time and effort creating anything. What is the benefit? How will it be received?

2. Consistently produce content

A rolling stone gathers no moss. You must maintain momentum by consistently providing content to your readers and visitors. Visitors won’t return unless you give them a reason to. In addition, a regular stream of content will enable you to create a subscriber list for interested parties. Readers who like your content will return, and this makes them much easier to convert.

3. Accompany the post with other media (photo or video)

Your blog post is more likely to get shared if it contains images, a video, or both. Having images and videos makes your blog post more visually appealing and can help convey the message and illustrate specific points you’re trying to make.

In addition, images can be great for SEO. Google crawls images and pulls information like image descriptions and alternate text. If these are intentionally written in support of your topic then you’ll have the most benefit.

These images and videos can also be hosted elsewhere and serve as a pathway that leads more people to your website. The more ways for your content to be found and consumed, so much the better.

4. Share the post to social media

If you’re simply publishing posts on your own blog, you’re missing out on sharing your work with a global audience. Social media amplifies the reach of your content. You can develop an audience who regularly reads and shares your content, thus increasing your reach many times over. Your posts may even catch the eye of potential clients.

Too often you see businesses with blog posts that are never shared or commented on. This is a shame because these businesses have already laid a foundation by creating the content in the first place. This is akin to baking a delicious pie for your dinner guests but never bringing it out for them to enjoy.

You have the content already: it’s time to use it!

5. Internally link to other blog posts you write

Some business owners may not be fully versed on SEO best practices. One of the most powerful on-site SEO tactics to use is internal linking. This means that you insert hyperlinks into your content and pages that refer to other relevant pages and content on your site. The anchor text (the words that are linked) are strategically chosen to reflect the page you link to.

For example, say I had previously published an article on my company blog about SEO best practices. When I mentioned this in the past paragraph, I would insert a link that would visually look like this: SEO best practices.

Having an internal linking structure helps visitors navigate your site easily. In addition, it statistically increases the number of pages your visitors will navigate to. The most significant SEO value however is that this structure of connections throughout your site make it easier for Google to “crawl” your site and map it out, and is therefore a search engine ranking factor.

This type of linking and referencing externally is also important, but that is a subject for another day. Internally and externally the best practice is to always reference your relevant past content.

Each of these 5 best practices will help your company blog become a successful inbound marketing tool.