Is Your Blog Doing Its Job?
What is the point of a company blog? Why should you invest the time into authoring an article each week and posting it to your social media sites? If you are unable to answer these basic questions, then it is time to reassess your blog and redesign your content marketing strategy. When done correctly, blog articles posted to your website and promoted across various platforms have the ability to increase readership, generate leads and boost your company brand. Unfortunately, just writing a good article is not going to get the results you are looking for. Even the best blogs were not created overnight, so you must invest time and energy into engaging with your audience in order to create a thriving blog.
Strategy First
Without proper planning, you are never going to achieve your long-term staffing firm blogging goals. Take the time to sit down with your team and create a cohesive content marketing strategy. Make use of market research to determine what your target audience is interested in, and include articles that speak to those topics. Devise ways to highlight your staffing services through your blog articles, and always link back to your website landing pages. If you are not already using one, be sure to include a user-friendly content management system (CMS) in your strategic planning.
Identify with Your Audience
One of the first steps in your content marketing strategy must be to conduct market research and get to know your target audience. Without identifying who your audience is and what is important to them, you have no hope of achieving your staffing firm blogging goals. It is important to invest the time now rather than wasting time and resources producing articles that have no relevance to potential clients and candidates. Tell your staffing firm’s story and draw readers in by explaining who you are and what you do. Introduce them to your team and differentiate your firm from the competition. Allow potential clients and candidates to peek inside your company and better understand your company culture.
Take Notice
In order to generate interest in your staffing firm blog and drive new traffic to your website, you need to constantly figure out ways to get your target audience to sit up and take notice. Make sure that your article titles include targeted keywords and you are incorporating long-tale keywords into your text in order to attract the attention of search engines. Add eye-catching, high-resolution images to your social media posts that encourage users to follow the link back to your website. Monitor online industry forums and insert links to your blog articles when they serve to answer a question posed by a member. Remember to not overdo it and make a nuisance of yourself or you will be doing more harm than good to your staffing firm brand.
Brand Building
Build your brand by adhering to your editorial calendar and regularly posting informative articles. Establish your staffing firm as a thought leader by monitoring industry forums and providing insightful feedback that leads back to your blog posts where appropriate. Remember that your blog articles, and the way they are written, is a direct reflection of who you are as a staffing firm so it is important to always project a professional image. Periodically review your website and social media profiles to ensure that they contain up-to-date, relevant information. In order to build your brand, it is essential that your blog content and corresponding social media posts are always thoughtful and never disrespectful to your audience.
Tracking is the Key
The only way to tell if your blog is doing its job and you are hitting your staffing firm blogging goals is through analytics. Google Analytics allows you to monitor any peaks and valleys in your website traffic. Analytical data from social media sites provide valuable feedback on types and quality of interest generated by each post. Do blog articles on one particular topic tend to generate more visits to your website? Are some topics not boosting engagement with your audience? Does it have to do with the time of day that you are posting to your social media accounts? Would other platforms be more beneficial to your efforts? Refer to your tracking analytics on a regular basis and make adjustments to your content marketing strategy along the way.
Key Takeaways for Is Your Blog Doing Its Job?: 
- Create a cohesive content marketing strategy
- Get to know your target audience and allow them to better understand your staffing firm
- Generate interest in your staffing firm blog and drive new traffic to your website
- Build your brand by filling your editorial calendar with informative content
- Carefully monitor analytical data to determine whether your blog is doing its job
About S.J.Hemley Marketing
S.J.Hemley Marketing is a marketing and sales consulting firm focused on driving tangible results for professional services firms. Brand matters, but not without ROI. With over 20 years of sales and marketing experience within staffing and recruiting, we have helped to drive successful branding, sales training, lead generation activities as well as defining marketing strategy for top organizations.