If you have not seen Jeff Cohen’s terrific presentation on 16 Best Practices of B2B Corporate Blogging is is worth checking out (see below).
Our best practice recommendation:
Start with a content framework
All of Jeff’s recommendations are valuable but the first 7 can be addressed in a practical way by creating a simple content strategy/framework that answers the following questions:
- What business are you really in?
- Who is your target?
- What are their needs and pains?
- What is your value proposition?
- What does your customer really want to know, broken out into main categories?
- What are the key purchase decision stages?
- What Keywords should you target?
Here is an example of an older BrainRider content framework:
In order to efficiently draft your content framework, with input and buy in from key stakeholders we recommend using a workshop format so you can tap the expertise of your team. Check out our post on “Content Planning” for an example of the workshop we use.
If you have the time input from the workshop can also be used to develop your initial topic list and create an editorial calendar with 12 months of high-value topics generated in less than half-a-day
But the key to success for your your blog is customer-focus ie blogging about “what your customer wants to know” not “what do you want to tell your customer”. This simple focus and a disciplined content framework will go a long way in creating a successful blog.
More information
If you’d like some help leveraging the value of what you know to create more customers, click here check out how we work or contact us directly.
We can help you:
- plan your content,
- update your website,
- create new case studies and white papers,
- build new sales collateral,
- use marketing automation tools like Pardot, Marketo, or Eloqua
- leverage social media like twitter and LinkedIn for connecting with customers
Sharing what we know is what BrainRider is all about.
Related articles from BrainRider:
- B2B Marketing: Understanding Decision Stages
- B2B Marketing is Like Dating: How to connect & convert customers
- B2B Lead Generation Best Practices: Reaching More Customers
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Tags: B2B content, best practices, blogging, decision stages, Developing Content