Working as an Account Manager, I have the ability to track and observe trends across industries and services when it comes to Inbound Marketing and blogging. One trend that consistently holds true for blogging success is blogs that feature multiple authors within one company.
I work with clients where the blogging might only come from the communications department or the digital team, and I also have clients who allow multiple employees from all over the business to share their thoughts on their own industry. The benefits of multi-author blogs are extensive, and below I break down 3 of those benefits.
So many times clients will tell me that they don’t have time to run a blogger program. Their employees are too busy, there isn’t a point-person to manage it and no one wants anything additional added to their already-full work load. However, once they make the adjustments and put a process in place, I’ve seen unbelievable culture shifts within organizations.
Employees should see blogging on the company’s behalf as a reward - it shows that what they have to say is good enough to be publicly represented by the company they work for. Allowing employees to have a public voice about the work they do day-in and day-out can give immense pride. Further, it can be a moment of joy and success to see your name listed as the author, showcasing a budding writer.
My most successful blogging client has over 8 regular authors on their blog. They post twice per week on seven different topics and receive a lot of great engagement, including pageviews, comments, and discussions on LinkedIn. They are truly an example of a successful Blogging Campaign.
This point actually falls on both sides of the fence. For a company branded blog, you’ll have more content when multiple employees are writing. More content offers you the ability to post more often, giving your readers (and the search engines) more content to read and crawl.
On the opposite end, the more content you share, the more opportunities you give your readers to engage through comments, shares and likes. You may find that one blog author is more popular than another or that one topic is shared more than another. Whatever you find, giving a larger scope of content to your readership allows more opportunity for people to form an opinion on what you’re putting out there. It also gives your marketing team valuable data on what your prospective buyers want to see from your brand.
The more authors within your organization, the better you can express your full breadth of service offerings. I’ve had clients tell me that they can increase their overall revenues by over 40% just by up-selling current clients. However, if a client doesn’t have the opportunity to become educated on all of your solutions, they will never know to hire you when it comes time for a job to be done. Letting authors from all aspects of your business write blog posts ensures that you’re seen as the expert in all of your practices areas - instead of just one. This also keeps you top-of-mind for current and potential clients to use your other products and services.
Check out another post by Nadine about content creation:
Inbound Marketing: How to Write Content When You Don't Know How