Corporate Blog - The most important points in brief: |
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The end of the Daimler blog in 2019 marked the end of a twelve-year success story. Since the flagship of German-language corporate blogs was shut down, the question is increasingly being asked: Is a corporate blog even worthwhile anymore?
Our answer to that is a definite “yes.” There are eight good reasons why they should still have a corporate blog today.
A corporate blog is a blog that is maintained by a company. It is usually maintained by one or more employees.
In its basic mode of operation, a corporate blog is no different from normal blogs. Content is created and published. The difference to other blogs is the objective. While private bloggers write about topics that interest them, a corporate blog serves the marketing of the company. The chosen blog content should appeal to a certain target group and inspire them for the company. Accordingly, the blog topics then also have to do with the company’s industry.
Not every corporate blog is the same, as each company pursues its own unique marketing goals with it. However, many corporate blogs can still be divided into categories, with some corporate blogs also having overlaps in the respective categories.
The service or product blog provides customers with additional information and tips related to their own products. For instance, in the case of a food manufacturer, it could include delicious recipes, while a hardware store chain might offer handy do-it-yourself and home improvement tips.
Companies that sell products requiring detailed explanations often rely on service/product blogs. Microsoft, for example, has its own blog for Excel, where they provide monthly updates on the latest Excel features and offer valuable formatting tips.
Microsoft’s corporate blog on topics related to the Excel product.
A campaign blog is usually only operated for a certain period of time, as part of a specific advertising campaign. It can contain further information about the product, references to social commitment, a special sustainability or also provide insights into the manufacturing methods and the like.
Theme blogs cover a wide range of topics and typically focus on a specific subject area. A theme blog is particularly effective for establishing a company as an expert in its industry. LocalUp’s blog is an example of such a theme blog. As a provider of marketing automation, our blog revolves around the topic of online marketing.
A customer relationship blog is there to build your own community that can identify with the company. The bond with the company is strengthened through the blog. Often, more references to the company’s social media channels are incorporated here to drive more traffic to them. The comment functions of the blog are also used to enter into a regular exchange with the readers. A good example of such a blog is that of Ritter Sport. We will discuss this in more detail below.
In industry and news blogs, companies inform their customers about industry news and trends. Such blogs are mainly aimed at attracting customers in the B2B sector. A well-known blog in the marketing sector is, for example, the OMR Blog.
A corporate blog can’t just be written on the side. It requires a lot of effort to research and prepare the topics and to provide them with appealing and informative creatives. Not to mention the necessary preparations, such as creating the blog, keyword research, competitor analysis, etc. You will probably even have to hire extra staff for your own company blog, at least if it is to be published with a certain regularity and in a good quality. Nevertheless, these efforts are definitely worth it. There are 8 important reasons why you should have a corporate blog.
Deutsche Bahn is a company that very often faces angry customers. Too full trains, delays, train cancellations and strikes make it hard to keep passengers happy. It is precisely in such cases that a corporate blog helps to stay in touch with customers and also to give them positive experiences with the railroad. With its blog “Inside Bahn” , Deutsche Bahn is doing just that. Here, it not only offers its passengers interesting background information and helpful tips and tricks for everyday rail travel, but also regularly draws attention to digital promotions and offers. The blog answers questions such as “What is the difference between the toddler area and the family area?”, “Where do I put my luggage on the train?” and what happens to the seat reservation on the ICE when it changes.
Inside Bahn, the blog of Deutsche Bahn.
IKEA’s corporate blog is only secondarily about its own products. The topics are divided into the categories of company and business, sustainable living, interior and innovation, people at IKEA, society and responsibility, culture and lifestyle, work-life-sleep balance, DIYs and delicious and healthy.
What is Ikea doing right with this blog? For one thing, Ikea presents itself as a sustainable and responsible company through its choice of topics. The articles often link to each other, which also draws the reader’s attention to older articles. Product mentions are often found in the articles, but without them being aggressively promoted. Nevertheless, if the reader is interested, he or she can go directly to the product in the online store with just one click. Thus, the store is actively integrated into the corporate blog. The same happens with Ikea’s YouTube channel. This is actively included by embedding videos in the blog posts.
Examples of current Ikea blog articles are “Munich is my home – World Refugee Day 2023”, “Summer salad with plantbullar”, “Ikea goes TikTok” and “Summer vacation 2023 – It’s best at home”.
IKEA’s corporate blog doesn’t seem like that of a furniture store at all.
As chocolate is said to bring happiness, it should be easy for manufacturers to sell their products and build customer loyalty. However, chocolate manufacturers also struggle with a poor reputation due to the cultivation conditions of cocoa beans. Negative reports about low wages, child labor, deforestation for palm oil, and the associated destruction of the habitat of orangutans and other endangered animals just keep coming. Ritter Sport’s corporate blog therefore focuses primarily on the issue of sustainability. Topics such as “women in cocoa farming,” partnerships and so-called “cocoa programs” designed to support cocoa producers also emphasize the positive sides of the company. Of course, the blog also features service topics, such as recipes, or readers are allowed to vote on which poster design for a new vegan chocolate should soon hang at German train stations.
How does Ritter Sport go about it? Smileys are used a lot in the articles, which has a loosening effect. In this corporate blog, the individual articles also refer to each other and to the company’s social media channels, which ensures more traffic there. There are also regular call-to-actions for this. Ritter Sport actively uses the comment function to exchange ideas with customers. This not only strengthens customer loyalty, but also provides additional feedback for the chocolate manufacturer.
Ritter Sport lets the readers of the corporate blog become active themselves.
“The Red Bulletin” is the name of Red Bull’s corporate blog. That doesn’t just sound special, the blog actually is. Readers won’t find any scientific articles about the effectiveness of taurine or insights into the production of the energy drink. Instead, in addition to topics such as music, film and travel, the main focus here is on the topic of sports. As one of the biggest sponsors in the sports sector, Red Bull can draw on a number of top athletes to write about in the blog. From Leon Glatzer, Germany’s best surfer, to racing driver Max Verstappen and skateboard pro Jost Arens: The Red Bulletin makes the heart of every sports enthusiast beat faster.
What good are Red Bull articles about athletes without any mention of the product? Readers, of course, know whose website they are on when they read. Being able to read articles and photos for free in the quality Red Bull offers leaves customers with a feeling of gratitude towards Red Bull. Customer loyalty is thus strengthened, and Red Bull and the topic of sports become even more associated by focusing on this topic, in addition to the already very strong advertising in the sports sector.
If you pay close attention, you will discover that the Red Bull logo appears in one way or another in every article. Whether as a print on a surfboard, on an athlete’s cap, or on a racer’s helmet, the logo is always presented very discreetly and absolutely unobtrusively.
What is there as an extra? In “The Red Bulletin,” there are also links to typical Red Bull videos about cliff jumping, extreme climbing and the like, and to the podcast of the same name, in which athletes also regularly have their say.
The Red Bulletin impresses above all with breathtaking photos.
Of course, we at LocalUp don’t want to put ourselves in a row with the corporate blogs of the big brands mentioned. But why is our blog still a good example of a corporate blog? For one thing, because it gives you a good idea of the development of a corporate blog, from its beginnings to the present day. For example, careful observers will not have failed to notice that the blog was initially written by several employees and is now written by just one. This is not because the blog now gets less attention, on the contrary. While LocalUp employees used to write for the blog in addition to their actual jobs, there is now an extra person whose main task is the blog itself. Whether this is the right approach for your company, you have to find out for yourself.
Furthermore, you can observe on our blog how, for example, the cover images of the blog articles have changed over time, insofar as they have not yet received an update. Based on the topics, you can understand that we do not write about just anything, but focus on what interests our customers in our industry.
We also use internal linking, but also use linking to other websites, which not only adds value to the readers, but is also good for SEO.
At the beginning of each article you will always find the most important facts in a nutshell, and there is a navigation bar on the side so readers can see what to expect in the article and jump straight to the part they are interested in if necessary.
We also like to use our blog topics, among other interesting content, on our social media channels, such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
In the meantime, we at LocalUp have opted for 3D graphics as our cover images.
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