10 Reasons Why Industrial Companies Should Blog

Industrial companies are increasingly faced with the question: should we start our own corporate blog? Until a few years, if not months ago, the almost universal answer was: "We don't need that, we don't have any topics anyway and we reach our customers through other channels," but now the considerations are sometimes a little more differentiated. After all, the competition never sleeps and more and more competitors in the industrial environment are daring to take the step into the blogosphere. Inevitably, the initial rejection of a corporate blog is stirred up to raise further questions:

• Who is interested in our topics?
• Who do we want to reach?
• What topics can we cover?
• How often do you actually publish a blog post like this?
• What goals do we actually pursue with a blog?
• Does a blog help us achieve our company goals?
• And finally: Who can write something like this for us?

Not entirely selflessly, I decided to dedicate my first blog post to the question of whether the world still needs a B2B blog. I have put together ten reasons that clearly answer this question in the affirmative:

Table of contents:

1. With a blog you increase your reputation.
2. With a blog you position yourself as an expert in your field.
3. With a blog you invest in search engine optimization.
4. With a blog you can bring your own topics and concerns into the industry discourse.
5. With a blog you optimize your content strategy.
6. With a blog you can open up new sales channels.
7. With a blog you can reach new target groups compared to traditional marketing channels.
8. With a blog you can rejuvenate your communication and become a modern company.
9. With a blog you can make a sustainable investment in the future of your company by creating content for eternity.
10. When maintaining your blog, you always take your customers' perspective and thus understand their concerns better.

1. With a blog you increase your reputation.

As part of your marketing strategy, you have already developed a clear positioning. You know exactly which niche segment your company operates in and you have a defined target line in product development. Your company stands for certain values ​​and your quality requirements are above average. Bring what your company stands for closer to your target groups by focusing on these points in your communication! A blog supports your content strategy precisely: There is no limit on the number of characters and you can report in detail about what makes up your reputation or what you want to make up in the future. There are no gatekeepers who edit your texts again before publication. This way, you position yourself in your corporate blog in exactly the light in which you want to be perceived as a company!

2. With a blog you position yourself as an expert in your field.

You know your segment! Your know-how is your capital – but what use is it if nobody knows you have it? Share this knowledge! Strengthen your positioning as an expert in your field. You shouldn't immediately give away company secrets. Take a stand on current trends and developments in your field! Pick up your customers' questions and set milestones in the development of new solutions! What's the point of all this? With your expert know-how, you can convince your customers and those who could become customers that you are the right partner for their needs. In the age of Google searches, it is no longer enough to rely on word of mouth when it comes to acquisition. Remember: the competition never sleeps and whoever appears at the top of the Google search results paints first! Which brings us to our next point:

3. With a blog you invest in search engine optimization.

Search engine optimization always begins with a comprehensive keyword analysis. If you then spread the keywords relevant to your segment well as part of your content strategy, you have already taken a big step towards the top Google ranking positions. Google also evaluates things like the topicality and text rate of your homepage, the length of your posts and external links to your blog posts. So if your community shares your posts, Google classifies you as particularly relevant in your niche, which in turn gives you plus points for your search engine ranking. With all the hype about search engine optimization, however, remember that you are not blogging for Google: Your blog is about your readers and your company!

4. With a blog you can bring your own topics and concerns into the industry discourse.

Does agenda setting mean anything to you? Set topics! After all, you are an expert in your field. You can give your two cents to the current industry discourse. Maybe you are also annoyed by the same old story about topics like Industry 4.0 or digitization? Then set new accents in your blog and help to stop discussions going in circles. This will then encourage your community to comment and link, which in turn will help to expand your network.

5. With a blog you optimize your content strategy.

Strategic content management defines topics and posts in advance in order to distribute them across all communication channels in a way that is adapted to the respective form of presentation. Many B2B companies that have not previously been active on social networks argue that they do not have any topics to regularly use such channels. And nobody wants to fill their professional communication channels with topics such as the last Christmas party or participation in the company run. By maintaining your corporate blog, you become a generator of your own content. You set your own topics, generate texts with real added value for the readers and link them across all channels. Believe me: there are topics galore! In this way, you create sustainable knowledge contributions that your sales team will also thank you for.

6. With a blog you can open up new sales channels.

In addition to being used in corporate communications, blog posts can also be used in sales. Sales colleagues will be happy to take up your blog posts in sales discussions if they address your customers' concerns, show possible solutions and underline your company's expertise. But the synergy effects for sales don't end there: a blog supports the development of a larger network of contacts. People who "like", "share" your posts or subscribe to your blog can be specifically addressed by the sales team and included in further sales measures. This is called "social selling".

7. With a blog you can reach new target groups compared to traditional marketing channels

Before buying a product or service, people always google it first. If you appear at the top of the search results through good content management, you attract potential new customers to your website and the chance of conversions increases significantly. You can also reach new target groups through your community, which is happy to pick up and share posts that add value for the reader. Last but not least, the millennial generation is moving into companies and can now be best reached via social media. This brings me to my next point.

8. With a blog you rejuvenate your communication and position yourself as a modern company.

Demographic change is also affecting your workforce and that of your customers: many long-serving contacts will be retiring in the next few years and younger colleagues who grew up with social networks will be moving up the company hierarchy. This generation also integrates social media into their everyday working lives as a matter of course: they look for job openings online, prefer to process applications via social networks, comb their own network in search of service providers and consult review portals, expert forums and technology blogs before purchasing new products. As a future-oriented B2B company, it therefore makes sense to position yourself today with good content on social media.

9. With a blog, you are investing sustainably in the future of your company by creating content that will last forever.

What is a horror for data protection experts can be a blessing for you: the Internet never forgets anything. What this means for you is that content that has been published once is preserved for eternity. You can always refer back to it as part of your content strategy and your articles can still be quoted, linked and "liked" in a few years' time and draw the attention of potential customers to you. You generate a pool of good articles that keeps your company's expertise alive in the long term, unlike short-lived press releases or print publications.

10. When maintaining your blog, always take your customers’ perspective and understand their concerns even better.

At the beginning of your blogging career, ideally even before you create a new blog post, you need to ask yourself who your target group is, what their interests and habits are, and what topics you can use to serve them. To do this, you need to put yourself in the shoes of your potential readers, get to know them, and analyze them. This is also the basic requirement for good marketing: if you don't know your target group, you won't be able to reach them. Intensive engagement with your readers' concerns, including their comments, will provide you with valuable insights for your marketing activities on an ongoing basis and across all channels.