Creating content is a huge marketing opportunity for companies, with many businesses realising the benefits of having their own blogs. No longer just a hobby for aspiring writers, blogs are helping businesses raise their profile, build relationships with customers and prove their expertise.
If you already have a company blog but are struggling for ideas, these six companies can help inspire you with their approach. Here is an insight into how blogs are pushing these companies to the top of their field, and how you can use them as a template for your own business.
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1. Mace – The Thought Leader
Mace has a rich and interesting blog, with articles on BIM, increasing tendering costs, and Brexit in just this month alone (Feb 2018). They have even steered away from using the word “blog” on their site and instead chosen to name the section “Perspectives”.
Most of their articles have a quote from their team, which is a clever way to showcase their staff’s expertise. It also helps cement them as a thought leader in construction, with their predictions, comments, and analysis of a broad range of industry topics.
Do It Yourself
Mace has a broad range of topics, which could be difficult to keep up with if you don’t have a large team in many different sectors. Instead, focus on the latest developments in your field, what the implications are for your sector or the future, and how it will affect the wider industry.
Should clients be preparing for changes? Will your partners need to work with you differently? How will your products and services evolve to meet new demands or leverage new technologies?
2. Lanes Group – The Social Engager
If you follow some of the Lanes Group staff on LinkedIn, you’ll notice that they are always posting updates and articles. But their posts are beyond the “Look at the award we won” types of posts, they are often asking questions, stating their opinions, and engaging with their followers.
Their “#binner or #flusher” posts on LinkedIn attracted a lot of attention towards the end of 2017 and sparked some interesting comments about what can’t be flushed.
Continually getting useful or interesting posts in front of your customers gives them a reason to connect with you and learn more about your company. This is a great way to build trust with your network and potential customers, as well as keep your company at the forefront of people’s minds. When I think of blocked drains, I think of Lanes Group first.
Do It Yourself
LinkedIn is a quick and easy way to start publishing posts that can be shared quickly with your network – and your network’s network. There’s no need to get your website updated; just write your article on LinkedIn and publish it. (To do this, use the Write an Article button under the area you would normally post an update.)
There are downsides to this, in that LinkedIn can distribute, annotate and place advertising on your posts (see the Guidelines), but on the other hand, you’ll get higher views from using their platform to publish your posts. If LinkedIn is your main social media channel, this can be extremely beneficial.
3. Hi-Way Services Ltd – The Company Newsletter
Hi-Way Services’ blog reads more like an internal company newsletter. While a blog should focus on more than just your latest products and awards, Hi-Way Services does a fantastic job of blending their news updates with useful nuggets of information such as the impending change that will require Cat C HGV licenses as a compulsory qualification for drivers of rigid vehicles. This information is useful to their readers and demonstrates their expertise.
There is also a real focus on the staff at Hi-Way Services, from the operatives getting the aforementioned licenses, to leavers and even former staff. All this serves to give you an inside look into the culture and ethos of the company, building trust and credibility with their readers – two major reasons for having a blog.
Their readers could be customers, but they could also be potential employees. If you were researching a company to work for, seeing their emphasis on staff in the blog may leave you with a positive impression of working for them.
Do It Yourself
Sharing your news is important of course, and your achievements and successes are worth sharing with your readers. But let your readers see the culture of your company by posting about what your staff are up to, and why they are doing what they do.
Is there new legislation or standards that you are planning for or implementing? What problems do your readers have that you are solving by developing your latest products? It’s an excellent way to prove your knowledge and show your customers and prospective employees who you are.
4. Stanton Bonna – The Up-and-Coming Video Marketer
You can hardly look at any social media sites these days without seeing videos everywhere. But this latest trend in marketing is particularly suited to our industry, where a video can explain so much more than words – and often, is more interesting for your readers (or viewers).
Stanton Bonna has started including videos on their blog about how their latest products work and why, but also useful videos from others like British Precast’s video about how precast drainage products are made.
If you’re a drainage engineer or contractor – Stanton Bonna’s target audience – you’ll probably find this a) interesting, b) informational, and c) useful for your CPD and keeping your knowledge up to date. And all this means that Stanton Bonna’s website is likely going to be one of the first that they visit when they are next specifying products on a project.
Do It Yourself
There is so much knowledge available on the internet, and chances are you probably know where to look for the latest information and developments in your niche. Start curating and sharing helpful content from others (as well as your own) and you’ll start to build a following with your readers, who may eventually turn into clients.
And if you can make that information easy to access and interesting with videos, there’s a far better chance of your audience sticking around to view it. There’s plenty of research that confirms that people prefer watching videos to reading text, and that viewers are more likely to remember what they saw over what they read (just Google "video vs text"). Cue: the perfect way to make your company memorable.
5. Tarmac Blue Circle Cement – The Problem-Solver
This blog is exactly what a reader is after and a classic example of content marketing – articles about how concrete is being used (interior sculptures, anyone?), how to make time for DIY, how to get over procrastination and actually do the DIY, and what jobs to complete before winter sets in.
What this blog does is think about all the potential problems, concerns, and issues that their customers face, and then write helpful articles to address those concerns. There’s the odd mention of their product – and why they’ve changed bag sizes to help people like me who wouldn’t dare lift a 25kg bag, no matter how much manual handling training I’ve had.
The result is, if I want to use their product for one of my projects, I’m likely to keep visiting their site for ideas, tips and inspiration. The trust and credibility is there, and I’m happy because the content is useful to me.
Do It Yourself
This is probably something you are already doing, but maybe not publicising or sharing with your audience. As an industry, we are already problem-solvers by nature; that is why your company provides the products and services that it does – because you’ve seen a problem and done something to fix it.
All you have to do is get that down on (virtual) paper. Why are your products designed the way they are? What are you modifying about your services to better serve the needs of your customers? What other issues do your customers have that your knowledge can help with?
Whoever you are reading this, I know that you will be constantly striving to make your offer the best it can be for your customers – so tell them about it.
6. ALLPLAN – The All-rounder
ALLPLAN’s blog is a mix of featured projects (interesting content), helpful advice (solving client problems), and the expert opinions on the latest developments in BIM (thought leadership). This keeps things fresh for their readers and gives them a reason to keep coming back to see the latest posts.
Do It Yourself
You don’t have to be at the forefront of emerging technology like BIM to make this approach work for you. You can always start with one area, such as solving your customer’s problems, and then branch out as your blog develops and your readership grows.
You could even ask your audience what they’d like to see more of, and tailor your articles to the responses you get. The important part is that your content is useful or interesting to your readers in some way.
Putting It Into Practice
These companies have made the commitment to publishing useful content for their readers in one form or another. Which approach resonated best with your company?
It takes time, effort and commitment to create content and share it with your audience. But the benefits are enormous, and without a blog, you could be missing out on a number of opportunities.
To put it another way: if you could spend £200 a week (4-5 hours of an employee’s time) and guarantee more customer engagement that would (eventually) lead to sales, would you spend the money?
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