When considering how to write a blog that attracts new B2B clients for your Human Resources business, here’s a helpful framework to consider:
- Strategic content planning – Using extensive qualitative and qualitative methods as well as industry knowledge and expertise.
- Content research – Using internal and external data to find the best information sources for each piece of content.
- Content creation – Reliable, high-quality blog content created to attractive your ideal business customers.
- Content promotion – Getting the word out to your target audience.
Seems like a lot of work right? All that just to produce some regular content on your company blog and then tweet it out afterwards?
Well, it’s worth it.
By now I’m sure you’ve seen the statistics on business blogging . . .
- B2B companies that regularly blog generate 67% more sales leads than non-blogging companies. If you write for a specific market and your content is good, then you can’t avoid but get more sales leads.
- B2B companies that give blogging high priority get 13-times higher ROI than the companies where blogging is a barely tolerable, low-importance activity.
- 37% of marketers agree that their blogs are the most valuable type of content marketing.It’s predicted that, by 2020, buyers will manage 85% of their relationships without talking to a salesperson.
- Regularly blogging B2B companies generate 97% more inbound links to their websites. More inbound links means higher search engine ranking, leading to a higher probability of being found.
- With 29%, blogs are regarded as the 5th most trusted source (new sites 51%, Facebook 32%, Retail sites 31%, YouTube 29%) for honest and accurate online information.
- Blue Leadz reports that when combined with other SEO techniques, blogging 2-3 times a week can lead to a 177% traffic increase.
However, many HR company blogs fail to generate the right levels of website traffic or lead generation.
I really enjoyed Marcus Sheridan’s excellent take on this issue in his article on why blogging fails to generate sales leads for so many companies:
Here are some of the highlights:
- Unbelievably High CSI: “Content Saturation Index.”
- Terrible Blog Titles
- Poor to Non-Existent Targeting of Specific Industries
- Blah,blah,blah: Boring with few opinions, no personal voice, and often times little thought provocation.
- A Major Lack of Case Studies and Personal Experiences – consumers and businesses are not terribly interested in theory these days.
- Awful Networking
How To Write A Blog That Attracts More HR Clients [15 Steps]
Here’s what you need to do to increase traffic and sales from your company blog:
- Have a strong understanding of your relevant buyer personas and jobs to be done so you plan for the right content.
- Map out your blog content plan according to your buyer types and to the stages in the buying journey.
- Conduct SEO research on traffic volume, competitiveness, and search intent for keywords and topic clusters.
- Choose good topics that bring in the right types of prospects to your business.
- Craft alluring headlines that get the blog content opened (this is half the battle).
- Write excellent blog articles in formats that increase traffic and lead generation.
- Include attractive images and graphics to vary article presentation.
- Mention influencers and other businesses in the articles so they share the post.
- Layout the post in a visually-attractive way.
- Generate attractive evergreen social media posts based on the article content.
- Offer a downloadable resource to generate leads and newsletter subscribers.
- Reach out to influencers and businesses mentioned in articles to encourage sharing an boost blog traffic.
- Conduct advanced content promotion and amplification for traffic, sales leads, and SEO backlinks.
- Monitor blog data (typically via Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools) to seek continuous improvement in blog performance.
- Report on your blog’s performance on a regular basis (typically weekly or monthly).
There’s more that can be done but this list of 15 steps will have a big impact on your company’s blog traffic and sales leads.