Back in 2007, corporate blogging THE VALUE OF CORPORATE BLOGGING IN 2015

Transcription

1 Back in 2007, corporate blogging 2007 THE VALUE OF CORPORATE BLOGGING IN 2015

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3 Corporate blogging is just not happening yet in most markets.. It was this one observation, from 2007, that inspired this follow-up research on the impact of corporate blogging in In his 2007 research on the value of corporate blogging, Mark van der Wolf found that less than 5% of companies worldwide had a corporate blog. The aim of the research was to assess the business benefits of corporate blogging: analysts partners investors public government media applicants hrm pr lobbying coverage recruitment morale networking blog community insightreputation marketing messaging seo efficiency leads sales prospects employees crm customers 3

4 The 2007 paper concluded that: While corporate blogs contribute to many business objectives, they excel in none when their impact is measured against their cost. The power of a corporate blog therefore lies primarily in its broad scope and the amount of objectives it influences. In addition, a blog can of course do something that other tools can t interact on a one-to-many basis with multiple parties and (because of that) engage in the conversation. The observation that other tools can t interact on a one-to-many basis shows how much has changed since the year Twitter was launched. For every 72 Facebook friends you have in 2015, only one was already active in As we will discuss later, the rise of social media is one of the biggest changes in (corporate) blogging in the last eight years. Corporate blogging is now part of a wider discipline; content marketing. This is now considered a formal business discipline in its own right, according to the Content Marketing Institute. Today, the plethora of communications channels and social media platforms continues to grow, with brands struggling to cut through the noise in an almost saturated content market. 4

5 We decided to repeat the blogging research in 2015 to find out: 1. How has blogging evolved since 2007? 2. Do marketing managers value the impact of blogging in 2015? 3. Has corporate blogging increased since 2007? How many businesses are blogging today? We compared the same list of 245 companies that were researched in We revisited their websites and found that: 20% ceased to exist (mostly due to acquisitions) 38% of the remaining businesses have an active corporate blog In 2007, only 5% had blogs. Based on the latest findings one could conclude that corporate blogging has increased almost eight fold in eight years: from 5% to 38%. Increase in percentage 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% And there s more. 5

6 We also interviewed 372 senior marketers worldwide and asked them: Has your organization been involved in blogging over the past 6 months? Almost four out of five companies, 79%, responded Yes! When asked where were these blog posts published?, marketing managers answered: 9% 27% 31% On our website 31% On multi-author blogs (e.g. industry or lifestyle blogs) 33% On LinkedIn Pulse 27% 33% On sponsored blogs 9% Six out of ten blogging businesses do so at least once a week: 2% 10% At least once each working day 10% 39% 1-5 times per week 49% 39% 1-4 times per month 39% Less than once a month 2% The main traffic drivers for corporate blogs are: 26% 31% 41% Social media 41% Search 31% Organic 26% 6

7 The impact of corporate blogging In terms of how marketers measure the success of corporate blogging, there is no single key performance indicator (KPI) that stands out. Respondents chose, on average, two to three different KPIs. Interestingly, the most popular KPIs were engagement metrics, with the more lead generation focused metrics (i.e. number of leads, RSS subscribers, subscribers) among the least popular: KPIs used to measure success in order of preference Engagement on the blog (comments) Engagement on social media Inbound links Search engine position Number of leads Traffic RSS subscribers subscribers Number of blog posts In 2007 we assessed the impact of blogging on five business areas: PR, marketing, sales, CRM and HRM. We decided to take a different approach this time, to better reflect current practices. We distinguished between three target groups deemed vital in PR and online marketing campaigns: 1. (Future) clients 2. (Future) employees 3. External influencers We distinguished between different stages of the client relationship (1). Before someone is converted into a customer, they go through different phases of what is referred to as the customer journey. First, you will need to make sure that your audience knows who you are and what you have to offer (brand awareness); then, once you are seriously considered you need to distinguish from competitors (brand preference or 7

8 consideration). The next phase is about actually closing the deal (conversion), followed by investing in customer service to build a relationship that lasts. When it comes to (future) employees (2) we distinguished between two stages: employer branding (aimed at potential future employees) and employee morale (geared at existing staff). The impact of blogging on influencer relations (3), finally, has less to do with stages, but with a fragmented target group. Influencers can be anyone whose opinion is important to the organization and has an impact on its reputation, ranging from journalists, bloggers, researchers, analysts, politicians, investors and influential social media users and clients. Corporate blogging is often considered an effective tool to engage with these influencers. Impact on business goals We asked respondents to rate the impact of blogging on these following business goals: Brand awareness 0% 40% 25% 25% 10% Brand preference 0% 20% 57% 16% 7% Conversion 1% Great impact Considerable impact Some impact A little impact No impact 21% 52% 23% 4% Customer relations 36% 43% 18% 2% 0% 8

9 Employee morale 1% 34% 46% 16% 3% Employer branding 0% 45% 36% 15% 4% Great impact Considerable impact Some impact A little impact No impact Influencer relations 41% 36% 18% 3% 0% Great impact Considerable impact Some impact A little impact Overall, respondents highly value the impact of blogging. No single category scored lower than 90% when we combined the answers great, considerable or some impact. There is no business goal that stands out positively or negatively here. Similarly to 2007, blogging is believed to impact the business as a whole; prospects, clients, (future) employees and external influencers alike. 9

10 The evolution of blogging firsthand A research document is not complete without testimonies of eyewitnesses. So we approached influential long-time corporate bloggers with the following question: If you had to name the biggest change in corporate blogging since 2007, what would it be? Gini Dietrich, founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich and author of the PR and marketing blog Spin Sucks If I had to name the biggest change in corporate blogging since 2007, it would be that today there is so much information out there about how to do blogging the right way. In 2007, hardly anyone was doing it and there wasn t an easy way to update your content or add images or optimize your posts. There wasn t a tool like Yoast that taught you how to do your own optimization. WordPress excited, but it hadn t come into its own yet. Social media didn t yet exist for distribution. And no one was teaching you how to do it. You had to forge your own path. Today you have access to so much education that it s almost impossible to fail at blogging. Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Founder of The Next Web My first thought was about the shift of amateur to professional blogging. What I mean is that 10 years ago blogging was something that amateurs did, and something that you could do as a company to appear more personal and authentic, which are other words for acting like an amateur. Now amateurs use Twitter or Facebook in the same way they used blogging platforms in the past. These platforms are easier to use and don t have a barrier to entry as blogging had. Blogging, or just publishing stories online, is now a more professional hobby with higher standards for quality, but maybe some of the culture left from those early days. 10

11 In 2007, blogging -- and web content in general -- was still a novelty. It was much easier to build an audience and attract attention because of the low level of competition. Today we live in a world of exploding information density and the challenge is not just creating exceptional content, but getting it to move through the web in a way that creates value. Content is not the finish line like we thought in It is the starting line. Mark Schaefer, college educator, marketing consultant, and author of four social media marketing books including Social Media Explained David Meerman Scott, bestselling author of ten books including The New Rules of Marketing and PR Since 2007, I ve visited nearly 50 countries and have had in-depth conversations with thousands of people who are creating content for their companies. All over the world blogging is mainstream. But the word blogging sells the idea of content creation short because it has connotations of frivolousness. But when executives are reminded that content is a valuable asset that drives people into the buying cycle, it doesn t matter what term we use - the information companies publish ranks in the search engines, helps to sell, and brands an organization as one worthy of doing business with. 11

12 The biggest change in corporate blogging is that it is now called content marketing. Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher The biggest change in corporate blogging is realizing the business value of a blog. Blogs have always been a great way to tell a story and to have your stakeholders engage with you. Although, the storytelling is still prominent, companies are also realizing the blog is an excellent way to drive potential leads. By using interactive and compelling the content in different media formats, you ll attract hungry audiences. The results can be a major lead driver for your company. Deirdre Breakenridge, Chief Executive Officer at Pure Performance Communication and author of five books on PR and social media 12

13 If there s one thing that has drastically changed since 2007 with regard to corporate blogging, it s stakeholder expectations. In 2007, interacting with stakeholders on a one-to-many basis was still a novelty and something most companies felt they could do without. Not so in Today, stakeholders demand engagement; the question no longer is if you re going to get out there, but how and when. As a result, a corporate blog is almost must nowadays for any organization that has a story to tell longer than 140 characters. Mark van der Wolf, author of the 2007 research paper The Business Value of Blogging Morgan McLintic, EVP at LEWIS PR Corporate blogging has eclipsed its personal twin over the last ten years. Whereas in 2007 the majority of blogs were personal from thought leaders to aficionados today organizations are expected to have a blog. The personal blog, while still in good use, has been eclipsed by small format, faster platforms from Twitter to Tumblr. The corporate blog is now the workhorse of an organization s online presence designed, driven and expected to lead to conversions. It s the focal point of their community, a place for news, opinions, anecdotes, insights, statements, and culture. It may have one voice or many, it may be loud or speak quietly, it can be broad or focused, but the challenge, then as now, is one of relevancy. How can the corporate blog stay relevant and so interesting to the audience? It may be harder to cut through all the noisy listicles than it was ten years ago, but relevance always wins. 13

14 Conclusion So, how has blogging evolved since 2007? The 2007 research concluded that blogging had not yet taken off and that the impact on business goals was very broad. Well, it s safe to say that it has taken off, not despite the rise of social media but probably thanks to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Marketing managers believe that blogging impacts their business in various ways, but find it difficult to quantify the impact. Technology has made it easier for organizations to start blogging, but it has gotten harder to stand out especially in the longer-term. Finally, blogging is much more of an inbound marketing tactic than it used to be in Regularly posting fresh and relevant content on your website benefits your SEO much more than it did eight years ago. Blogging is a popular tactic for any organization that aims to build a relationship with its target audience based on the premise of being interesting and useful; which is often seen as the opposite of interruptive marketing tools like takeover banners and YouTube pre-rolls. 14

15 About us LEWIS was founded in 1995 by a former journalist and, since then, it has grown to over 500 employees based in more than 28 offices across the US, EMEA and Asia Pacific. Its regional headquarters are in London, San Francisco and Singapore. LEWIS is known for delivering bold digital communications campaigns that enhance revenue, value and reputation for global brands. Digital communications services span PR and media relations, social media marketing, search engine optimization and digital content production. Contact us Websites: Blog: content@lewispr.com For additional resources or more information about our services, please subscribe to our newsletter or contact the LEWIS team via the website. Copyright LEWIS Communications all rights reserved. 15

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