Blogging is essential for any company that wants to connect with consumers online. 70% of buyers learn about a company through posts rather than ads. But while it’s easy to start a blog, it’s not always easy to publish valuable, engaging posts on a regular basis.
The best way to learn? By example.
The 10 corporate blogs below, in no particular order, consistently deliver valuable, relevant, engaging content, while exhibiting a clear business strategy with a high potential for conversion.
From social networking to global publishing, the successful rollout of LinkedIn’s crowdsourced content generation platform piqued the curiosity of the opportunistic blogger in us all. What could have been a potentially cacophonous endeavor has instead enabled 330+ million users to adequately show and tell in a professional setting, with their professional network, on an aesthetic interface. The posts are curated by a content aggregation platform, aptly dubbed The Pulse, that makes for a relevant and valuable user-centric experience and fosters engagement.
The company’s official blog offers consistent industry insights and guidance to job seekers, recruiters, employers, and employees alike. Tips on how to navigate and utilize LinkedIn advantageously, incumbent career advice, and industry-specific data are just some examples of what LinkedIn’s now burgeoning blogosphere has to offer.
Buffer
Buffer’s simply-designed blog, Buffer Social, is a pleasant call to action to the uninitiated and a valuable, consistent resource for social media marketers of all levels of experience.
The blog itself hosts a header, of sorts, that informs users of the company’s ability to save you time and provides an ad hoc testimonial from a few large companies. Following the digital conversion nudge are the posts themselves, loaded with pearls of social media wisdom. Not to mention: undoubtedly engaging as each post hosts a significant number of comments and social shares.
HubSpot
Pumping out roughly 10 posts on a given day, HubSpot clearly has a deep understanding of how to provide value to marketers, salespeople, and agencies around the world. The inbound marketing mecca resembles their name with an aesthetic, well-written blog that has become an industry-wide resource to individuals and to companies of all sizes. It is intelligently organized, elegantly designed, and brimming with relevant content.
IBM
With their A Smarter Planet campaign, IBM has created a robust nerve center for their content marketing efforts. Peripherally, they have developed an impressive arsenal of blogs committed to a number of seemingly disparate communities. From software to social, connections to cloud, big data to business, the global tech giant seems to cover an encyclopedic list of topics over a myriad of industries.
If blogging were a hypothetical dragon, then IBM would be thy dragon slayer.
Bravo, IBM. Bravo.
Marketo
Featuring topics such as infographics on the psychology of impulse buying to interviews with Seth Godin on the future of marketing, Marketo consistently delivers relevant and engaging information to throngs of content hungry marketers. Marketo is considered to be a leader in the digital marketing software industry, so it seems only natural to find their blog full of high-quality, well-organized, superbly-written, über-hyphenated gems.
Hootsuite
The social media management company’s blog offers an intangible value that is difficult to put into words.
Accessible. Let’s just say it’s accessible.
Although it contains a wealth of information on the evolving social media horizon and in-depth discussions on engagement techniques, it offers value to social media newbies and pros alike. It’s not overtly technical or narrowly targeted, and it exhibits a minimalistic, yet aesthetically appealing design.
Etsy
The peer-to-peer e-commerce sensation, Etsy, offers a whopping 8 unique blogs aimed to attract a global audience. From the history of the gingerbread house to featured shops, or the Seller’s Handbook to company news, Etsy’s octo-blog offers a little something for everyone. The posts typically have a high level of engagement, many with hundreds of comments, and are consistently accompanied by alluring photographs and artwork; unsurprisingly, nothing on Etsy lacks in the visual design category.
The Creators Project
Intel partnered with Vice to create what has now become a focal point for the multinational chip-maker’s content marketing strategy, entitled The Creators project. As their mission statement suggests, this blog features “visionary artists across multiple disciplines using technology in innovative ways to push the boundaries of creative expression.” Subsequently, the blog is jam-packed with posts ranging from mind-controlled robotic arms to a retirement community being featured on the latest Modest Mouse album cover. With many daily posts, the content is fresh, entertaining, and engaging to even the artistic philistine.
Salesforce
The Salesforce blog is an admirable source for sales and marketing tips, informative data, and new developments in the technologically interwoven landscape of today’s business world. A constant feed of engaging posts full of advisements, anecdotes, and announcements analyzing acronyms with little to no advertisements or alliteration makes the Salesforce blog one of our favs.
KISSmetrics
It comes as no surprise that a sophisticated web analytics entity boasts an impressive blog. Although it may lack visual art, which is undoubtedly intentional, the KISSmetrics blog delivers an extensive list of posts chock-full of tips on analytics, marketing, and testing. And the blog reinforces the company’s position with consumers by exemplifying their deep knowledge of said topics. Every post is a worthwhile read for a marketer, hosts conversion tactics like the standard email signup, and has significant engagement—namely in the form of social shares.
It has become increasingly difficult for even corporations to effectively cut through the saturated barrage of information users and consumers experience every waking minute, which is why a solid content strategy is essential in order to stay competitive and effectively position your brand. Although blogging is but a cog in the content strategy machine, it remains one of the most simple yet effective ways to increase brand awareness and drive engagement. So, blog on!
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