Generate More Sales Leads with a Corporate Blog
Call it the next wave of blogging. An increasing number of companies are adding a blog to their corporate Web site. What was once mainly reserved for individual bloggers is rapidly becoming a must-have for many companies. In fact, corporate blogging is a key component of what’s coming to be known as Inbound Marketing — the various ways to get your company found on the Internet.
As with many traditional marketing mechanisms, setting up a blog is not an event. It requires long term commitment and diligence.
However, the results can be positive on many fronts. Pravda reports that RADVISION obtained value in six different areas as a result of their corporate blogging initiative. Number one on the list is lead generation.
Debbie Weil reported last year that Technorati had determined that only 12% of bloggers were corporate bloggers. So, we may still be in the first inning of corporate blogging.
Corporate Blogging Platforms
The most popular blogging platform is WordPress. WordPress is a snap to install at many Web hosting companies. However, effectively using WordPress for corporate blogging involves some definite planning and strategy. It takes the right combination of properly configured plugins, the optimal theme and appropriate best practices to get WordPress set up correctly in terms of usability, SEO and other traffic generating and conversion elements.
WordPress itself is free, but getting WordPress effectively jump-started takes either a fair amount of internal elbow grease, or it takes the services of an outsourced consultant.
Other popular blogging platforms include Typepad, Blogsmith and Movable Type. Here’s a story on the blogging platforms of choice for the top 100 blogs.
In terms of increased visibility and therefore increased lead flow, there’s likely some benefit to being early in the game to corporate blogging, while the noise level is still relatively low. So if you don’t have a corporate blog on your radar, it may be time to do some investigation.
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Steve Chipman is the founder and president of Lexnet Consulting Group, based in San Francisco. Lexnet is a leading value added reseller for CRM (customer relationship management) solutions.
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