Corporate Blogs - Bad conversion rate so what’s the point?
January 31st, 2008
More and more companies are adding blogs to their sites with only one thought in mind - more conversions. This is what they think - Blogs bring traffic - traffic brings conversions - A BLOG WILL GET US MORE SALES!!!
Then they see that they are getting thousands of hits to their blog while only getting a couple more sales so they stop blogging and think of it as a failed project.
This is a very bad way of thinking about your corporate blog. Of course your blog can be used as a sales tool, but that’s not all a blog is. When you effectively use social media along with your blogging it not only will get you a lot of traffic and spread the word about who you are/what you do - you also can get other people to start talking about your company on their blogs and linking back to you.
From an SEO perspective - links are all I care about. When you get to the front page of Digg or whatever social site you use you’re more likely to be mentioned somewhere else. This happens because a large percentage of social media junkies are running blogs of their own (sometimes several) and they will link to great content - always.
The more links you get the higher your page rank is going to be and you can spread that link juice your blog post is getting to your other pages - the ones that are high converting but rank poorly in the search engines for the keywords you want.
From a user perspective - You get your name out, people who didn’t know you existed now do. Sometimes more importantly than getting the word out - a corporate blog can put a personal face on your business. Blogs open the lines of communication with your users. Would you rather buy from someone you could have an open dialog with - or - someone who turns his back to you?
Don’t miss the point - Corporate blogs are more than just about conversions.
4 Responses to “Corporate Blogs - Bad conversion rate so what’s the point?”
By Jake Matthews on Feb 1, 2008 | Reply
Great post. ON THE SPOT! The worst is to see a corporate blog that just gets stopped in its tracks just when the company was beginning to dialogue. The sales come down the road and for big companies perhaps it should always be thought of from the PR stance, and at the end of the day, that probably delivers sales anyhow…it’s just not always tracked.
By Harvey on Feb 3, 2008 | Reply
Well said. And it makes such great spider food as well, when your brochureware site is otherwise pretty thin on content.
By James Duthie on Feb 3, 2008 | Reply
Great topic. I think a lot of companies decide to create a blog without clear objectives… or with the wrong objectives (sales). Corporate blogs really are all about PR - creating an ongoing conversation with your customers. Blogs create the ability to talk directly to consumers and learn more about their needs. Ultimately, blogs and other forms of social media should replace focus groups for customer research and insights.