How to Make Your Corporate Blog Work for You, Plus WordPress Themes to Help

In my dictionary, “corporate” means boring and a corporate blog therefore, means a boring blog. After all a corporate is all about profits, finances, business plans and annual reports. Not really interesting stuff to read.

But as an author in the WordPress space, I constantly seek out interesting websites. And as I come across a number of corporate blogs, I realize that some corporates are putting their blogs to good use in different ways. They are reaching out to every kind of stakeholder, without getting too promotional. They’re addressing investors, employees, customers, suppliers and many social concerns. And I now see that corporate blogs can be great tools to further corporate objectives. In this post, I’d like to share with readers what I’ve learnt about corporate blogs.

Usually, readers do not actively search for a corporate blog, so it’s important to provide a link to the blog page on the corporate website. Or, if the company has a number of blogs, it can create a common landing page for all of them as in the case of Dell.

First and foremost, it’s good if the content on the blog has a connect to corporate objectives. Companies and businesses can of course look at content beyond their own products and services. But at the same time, they must always keep the purpose of their blog in focus, set goals and try and find the sweet spot between product focus and people focus. It may take a fair amount of marketing research to set goals, to identify target audiences and design content to suit audience preferences. But the long term payoff can be increasing traffic and new leads.

Easy Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Corporate Blog

Here are some of the ways in which you can use a corporate blog.

1. Share information in a transparent way

This builds trust with any person who deals with the company. When people know you better, they are more willing to deal with you.

It’s not a good idea for a corporate blog to have just one author. Instead, take insights from staffers, from all persons involved in the organization – from the CEO right down to the newest teen intern. This way, you can get across different perspectives and be more credible. Share details of the post author, so readers can understand the context of the content better.

2. Explain Company Philosophy

So readers get what drives you as an organization and what motivates you. The origin of the company, it’s growth story, how it was many years ago, what factors shaped its philosophy can all make for an inspiring read. It’ll help to create awareness for the company, its products, services and brand.

3. Highlight the company’s involvement in the community

Show readers how the company is fulfilling its social responsibilities. Highlight the company’s involvement in local community development, cultural activities, sporting events or explain how the research/ product/ services of the company can better the lives of ordinary people. Over time, you’ll acquire a reputation as a company with a heart.

The website of Coca-Cola scores almost on every point on how a corporate blog should be. It’s content heavy, but well organized. The corporate values of the company is brought to the fore by highlighting the company’s engagement with real people. And the blog stays true to it’s tagline – refreshing the world, one story at a time.

4. Explain the benefits of a product or service

While your company’s website can showcase products and services, a company blog can explain them to users in a more personal way. Without getting too promotional, you can inform customers of new products and explain whether it’s right for them. Examples of how they are being used by others, tips to care for the products, how to carry out minor repairs – all this information can be helpful to customers. An FAQ section in your blog can explain routine questions that may arise in a reader’s mind.

5. To dispel negative notions or to address an urgent issue

If there’s any adverse information circulating about your business or product, you can reach out with clarifications via your blog. You can explain a situation or why you’ve adopted a particular course of action. Address concerns in a direct manner, admit to mistakes honestly and if corrective action is required, let readers in on your plans.

6. Establish yourself as the authority in your area of expertise

You can do this by addressing users’ concerns or offering advice to them. Ask them to write in with their queries or direct them to suitable alternate resources that are apt for them. Become their go-to place for advice in your industry or business niche.

Caterpillar’s blog doubles as a forum for exchange of ideas by users of Caterpillar products. It offers excellent community support in the B2B space. In a B2B company’s blog, it also makes sense to highlight your customers’ success with your product.

A technology company that uses it’s blog most effectively to showcase their expertise in a niche area is Rackspace. A would-be customer will be highly impressed by the blog contents.

7. It’s the perfect place to showcase your key employees and other stakeholders

Reveal the human face of the organization, the people in your company who make things happen. It’s also a nice way to show your own people that you value them.

Walmart’s blog carries all the important ingredients for a hugely popular shopping website. At the same time, it’s their stories of human interest is that helps it to standout. You get the feeling that these are real people talking straight to you and that makes a difference.

A corporate blog is a great way to reach out to potential future employees as well. When job seekers can see clearly the potential benefits of working at a company, attracting top class talent becomes easier. Checkout Rackspace below.

8. Share future plans

About the industry in general and the company in particular. Whether you’re discontinuing or introducing a product or technology, future trends in the industry, ethical concerns, environmental impact – let everyone know about it here.

GE Reports is a good example – the technological advances of the company are showcased here, but the impact that this will have on ordinary folks is also explained. The human element is kept in focus.

9. Take readers along with you on the journey of developing a new product

If the product is going to take time to hit the market, keeping readers informed of what’s happening behind the scenes and building up to the product launch is an effective way to keep potential customers interested.

YouTube’s blog gives you an inside track of the thinking within the company.

10. Surveys and reviews

Invite readers to be a part of a survey or to review any product or service or to write in with suggestions. This is a great way to gather feedback. It can generate interest in your product and help to improve the product and bring it in line with expectations.

Playstation blog has an active community that keeps interest levels high.

11. Relate personal experiences that other readers can relate to

Actual testimonials from readers or users can be helpful. Get interactive on the blog – for instance, if food is your business, ask readers to write in with recipes and declare a gift hamper for the winning recipe. Share tips like how to pack a lunch box or to keep food fresh in the refrigerator for long. Involve readers in all possible ways.

The Best WordPress Themes for Corporate Websites & Blogs

Now that you have all the tips your need to get your corporate blog content on track, why not use an amazing WordPress theme too? There are literally thousands of great corporate and business style WordPress theme to choose from, but here are a few of our favorites that you might want to try.

Total Drag & Drop Multipurpose WordPress Theme

If you want to build a seriously awesome business website you can’t go wrong with the popular and powerful Total WordPress Theme. The theme includes a beautiful blog complete with post formats, easy styling options for customizing the post and entry layouts and tons of customizer features for colors, fonts and more. But that’s not all – Total features an extended version of the popular Visual Composer page builder so you can point, click and drag & drop hundreds of page elements to create your perfect homepage, about page, staff, portfolio and more. There are even tons of awesome pre-build website templates you can quickly install with the demo importer so you can have your website up in minutes. What’s not to love?

Corporate Free Business WordPress Theme

Corporate is a free (as in $0) WordPress theme created right here at WPExplorer. The free professional theme includes custom post types for a portfolio and your staff in addition to an awesome homepage (complete with featured slider, homepage services and recent portfolio posts) and full blog. Corporate is a great way to build your business site without having to invest a lot of time or money, since the easy features and post types mean you can just pop in your content and be done.

SimpleShift One Page Business WordPress Theme

SimpleShift is a beautiful and professional WordPress theme with a clean single page layout. This theme was designed to make creating a landing page for your business simple – just like the name. The theme features a responsive design, support for the WooCommerce e-commerce plugin, unlimited color options, parallax scroll effects, custom widgets and much more.

Powered Free Corporate Blog WordPress Theme

Powered is the perfect free theme if you just want to build a corporate blog. This is a great option if you already have a business website setup, or if you feel your business would be best promoted through content (promotions, reviews, news, etc.). Powered is a professional blog built out with options for layouts, custom logo, Google fonts, social media and more. Checkout the demo to see it action!

In Conclusion

In a world where a search for anything starts on the internet, a company cannot afford not to explore every channel to reach out to the public. Take a hard look at your customers, brand and focus, understand what you want to mean to them and write for them. Start small by trying to answer the questions that any person may have before they even want to engage with you. Make blogging a part of your social media marketing strategy. And for more tips on blogging generally, you may refer to this post.

A blog is a place where you need to try and establish a connection with the reader at a personal level. It’s not the place to list out all the achievements of the company. Sure, it’s important to list those, but take it to some inner page that readers have the option to click and view. Avoid an in-your-face screen with product advertisements and corporate logos that show up all over the blog.

A blog is no place to be stiff and formal, leave that to the company website. Instead, switch to a conversational style of writing and let images do the talking. Involve real people to impart an authentic feel to the blog. Vendors, Customers, Suppliers, Employees, Managerial staff – a corporate blog is the place to let them all speak for the brand.

Hopefully you’ll give some of these tips and themes a try. Let us know what works for you or if you have any questions in the comments section below!