Blast Through The Most Common Business Blogging Obstacles

Julia Borgini

By now you’ve heard all the stats about business blogging…

• Nearly 40% of US companies use blogs for marketing purposes.
  
• B2B companies that blog get 67% more leads per month than those who don’t.
  
• Companies that blog have 55% more website visitors.

In fact, that’s probably why you started a business blog a few years ago. You wanted to jump on the bandwagon to make sure you enjoyed all the benefits of having one. Except that’s not what happened. Your blog slowly got bogged down by internal bureaucracy to the point where its ground to a halt. The last post published on your blog was from last year.

No matter the size of your organization, this is what invariably happens with a business blog. Red tape gums up the works and stops you from reaping those conversion and traffic benefits I mentioned earlier.

Here are a few of more common business blogging obstacles, along with the solution BLAST that will free up your blog and get it working again.

Blogging is not officially part of your job

This is usually more true of smaller companies, but large, enterprise-sized ones fall victim to this as well. Blogging just simply isn’t part of anyone’s official job description. It’s tacked on to someone’s responsibilities, so that when their main work takes priority, the blogging falls to the way-side.

Solution BLAST

Remind your boss and management team of the ROI of blogging, and why it’s important to do it every day. Talk to management about shifting responsibilities around so your main writers have time to devote to the blog. Make it a part of their official job description. [insert stats from 2014 Hubspot State of Inbound Marketing report]

Too many people involved in reviewing posts

Between your editor, legal team, SEO marketers, and management, there can be a lot of people involved in reviewing each post before it’s published. Of course we know that reviews are critical to a high-quality blog, however the process should be smooth and not hold up publication.

Solution BLAST

Instead of your immediate boss who does the final review, perhaps get a trusted colleague to do the review. That way you’ll foster team collaboration and alleviate the log-jam for your boss. Convene with Legal once a quarter to go over your editorial calendar to make sure there’s nothing they’d be worried about coming up.

Your content is all over the place

It’s hard to keep your posts in line with branding and marketing guidelines when those change regularly. However a business blog with posts that are consistent in tone, style, and message is far more powerful than one that’s not.

Solution BLAST

Create a style guide with your manager, marketing, and SEO teams, so you’ve got all the right fonts, keywords, ideas, and marketing message ready to go. Refer to the guide as you write, so you’re on-side with everything right from the start. Have stakeholders review the guide on a regular basis to ensure you’re up to date with the latest changes.

There’s no clear publication schedule

Another symptom of an unorganized business blog is one with an erratic publication schedule. At the start you probably published regularly, and your readers came to expect new content from you in that timeline. But then things got in the way, and you posted only once in a while. Now you’re lucky if you can get a post published once a year. At this point there’s no reason to continue, as you’ve lost any and all readers you might’ve had.

Solution BLAST

An editorial calendar that’s owned by someone in the organization (preferably someone involved in the blog itself.) Establishing milestones and deadlines can help you prepare the topics you’re going to write about, ensuring you’ve got good coverage throughout your calendar. It can also help you keep track of what you’ve written about, avoiding duplication. It also keeps you honest, as you’ll know exactly when content is due. Housing the editorial calendar in a central place also ensures that everyone involved with the blog has access to the schedules, topics, and milestones. No one can complain about low-visibility now!

Back to you

What obstacles have you faced with your business blog? And what Solution BLASTS did you use to overcome them? Share in the comments below.

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