When it comes to creating a successful corporate blog, the old cliché of “if you build it, they will come” doesn’t necessarily hold true. When people read a blog, they are usually looking for specific information or for the solution to a problem. But they can only get that information from you if they know how to find your company’s blog. If you publish posts but don’t much traffic, you might want to re-evaluate your promotion strategy and the content you’re creating. Following these tips can help you increase corporate blog traffic.
5 Ways to Increase Corporate Blog Traffic
1. Create Content People Want to Read
Ever wonder why people read blogs? A study from 2010 took a close look at the reasons why people turn to blogs. Among other things, the study found that people read blogs to get guidance or an opinion, to get answers to a specific question, to get general information, and just because they like the look or tone of a blog.
If your corporate blog isn’t meeting readers’ needs, people aren’t going to read it—no matter how well you promote it. Before you start thinking of ways to increase corporate blog traffic, make sure your posts are actually worth reading.
2. Play Around With Headlines
Think of the headline of each blog post as the introduction not to the post itself, but to your business and your blog. If a headline is attention-grabbing or makes certain promises to a reader, he or she is more likely to click over to your blog.
Interestingly enough, according to the New Yorker, the way you phrase a headline can have an effect on people’s perceptions of the content of your post. For example, a headline that’s not quite accurate can actually affect people’s ability to remember what the post was about.
When creating your posts, feel free to make multiple headlines. You can run tests with different titles, using some headlines on Twitter and some on Facebook, or different headlines each time you share the post to see which ones generate the biggest response.
3. Use an Influencer
Partnering with an influencer can help you increase corporate blog traffic. Why? Because people trust influencers and are likely to take direction from them or listen to what they have to say.
There are a few ways to use influencer and social media marketing to increase your blog’s traffic. One of the most popular uses of influencers, according to the 2017 State of the Creator Economy study, is to create sponsored Facebook updates. The influencer can share a relevant blog post from your company with his or her following.
Another option is to have your influencer create sponsored blog posts on his or her blog, which link back to your blog. Sponsored blog posts have increased in popularity dramatically in recent years. The study’s results showed 42 percent of marketers used the technique in 2016, compared to only 26 percent in 2015.
You can use influencers for product sampling as well. Give your influencers one of your brand’s products to try and post about. The post should include a link back to a relevant post on your corporate blog.
4. Make Your Blog Posts Easy to Share
It’s not just influencers who can share your blog posts on social media. According to research conducted by Pew, almost 80 percent of online Americans are on Facebook. And, a small percentage are on the other social networks such as Twitter and Instagram as well.
If social media users find useful information on your business’s blog, it’s likely they will want to share that information with others, increasing traffic to your blog. To help them out, make it as easy as possible for them to share your posts. Installing social share buttons on your blog — especially one for Facebook — is the easiest way to do that.
5. Don’t Forget About SEO
The focus on social media marketing can lead some to forget SEO and organic search. You want to optimize for readers, rather than algorithms. So, don’t ignore keywords and search terms for which you want to be found. A combination of influencer marketing, sponsored social, and SEO will help direct more and more people to your blog.