When it comes to the task of marketing effectively, gone are the days of “one size fits all”. In today’s globally competitive marketplace, consumers are educated and take care when making their decisions on what to buy, and especially who to buy it from. Today, buyers are looking to build lasting and healthy, long-term relationships with their suppliers. The internet gives modern buyers the chance to fully research every potential supplier, and every potential product or service before they make contact or meet with them.
Keeping both your customers and prospective customers, and perhaps even employees, up to date with the latest trends in your industry, company news and events, as well as issues or concerns that address the needs, or potential needs, of your company’s target market is vital to succeeding in this highly competitive marketplace.
As a result, many businesses set up a setion on their website to post this information – with some it’s in the form of a news page, with others it’s in the form of a blog. But whats’s the difference between a blog, a newsletter and a company news page?
Company News Page
A company’s news page on their website is a regularly updated feed of latest news stories about the company and offers interested readers a profile into the company, what it’s about, what they do and aim to achieve. This is a great tool for revealing who your company is and to introduce prospects, and inform interested customers as to you are and what you have to offer. News pages on a company website will provide information about the company and its practices and informing customers about major upcoming changes and future projections. News articles can include:
- New contracts won
- Sponsorships
- Events
- Charity work
- Human interest stories – the results of the company 5-aside football team or team events
- New products or services
- Awards and accreditations
Newsletter
A newsletter is usually a roundup of several news stories, and can be published as an email, a website page or pdf, or as a physically printed document. They are great as a tool to inform those who share an interest in your business as to its inner workings, employees and key staff, events and partnerships – all that long-term kind of jazz. Published on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, in a marketing context a newsletter is a great way to communicate all of your most recent company news in one place, for those that missed the individual stories.
Blog
Blogging has become the centrepiece on which the world of content marketing now revolves. Blogging is a platform to publish content that will be of interest to your potential buyers – think of it as your own company magazine. The biggest difference between a news page and a blog, is that the company news articles are all about YOU – your business and your news. A good blog should be purely focussed on your CUSTOMER, giving them useful information and interesting stories that do not simply promote you and your business but are designed to entertain and inform your potential customers.
A blog can include:
- ‘How to’ articles
- Industry news
- Answers to FAQs
- Comparisons of different products or services
- Reviews of products or services
- Useful resources
- Thought leadership/opinion pieces
- Case studies
A blog will usually allow comments on each article or story, and allow subscription so that readers can get the latest articles automatically via email or an RSS feed.
Having a company blog will allow you to create interesting content that is designed to drive traffic to your company website, thus increasing the opportunities to bolster sales revenue, while at the same time, feeding customers the information that they are interested in hearing. Regular updates on an ongoing basis will keep customers and prospect continually curious as to what the company is doing and what it will be doing next. If you're struggling on what to write for your company blog here is a great article - What Do I Write in a Company Blog? 10 Great Small Business Blogging Tips.
Conclusion
If you are looking to create a solid and proven content marketing strategy, then blogging is without a doubt the way that you should start going about it. Blogging allows companies to produce informative articles that are specifically tailored to their target audience. Aside from the information that your customers and prospects will be receiving, their propensity to share that information with their community, through various social media channels, will serve your company well in the creation of a greater prospective audience and will inevitably lead to larger, long-term revenue streams.
The investment in the creation of a company blog is will undoubtedly show returns, not only financially, but through the continued loyalty that is brought in via the conversion of prospects to leads and to eventual customers, ensuring continuity of your business and its offerings.
Aside from the above-stated benefits, a blog will allow your company the bonus of real-time customer feedback. This information will prove vital to providing customers and prospects with products/services that are tailored to their needs and the needs of their community. Being able to cater to your customer’s specific needs is the ambition and the goal of any business that is seeking long-term success and sustainability. Newsletters and news pages have their place in the theme of full-spectrum content marketing, but blogging is the way to let them know what you have, how you do it and is a way of ensuring your clientele that someone is listening to their needs and answering them.
