Compendium exhibited at a few conferences last week, and as usual, we had a lot of questions about content creation. In addition to, "Who's going to write the content?" another popular question was, "What kind of content is right for my company's blogs?"
Well, it depends, and there are no big secrets here. Just like any other marketing activity, corporate blogging is conducive to testing.
The only way to find out what kind of content is appropriate for your blog visitors is to test a few different kinds and see what engages people. For example, there's the "In Your Face" approach that includes blatant, shameless promotion of your organization, (there's probably a better name for that, as it may have some negative connotations associated. The truth is, it may work depending on your business).
There's also the soft sell approach (for retailers, this may mean integrating customer reviews, and for BtoB folks, this could simply mean weaving some information about your company into what you are writing about). And there's the educational approach, which tends to lead to broader information-sharing. Oh, and of course there are hybrids here, so it's possible to have some educational content accompanied by soft sell statements about your organization.
I don't usually call out Compendium clients here, but I think My Health Care Manager does a nice job leveraging the educational aspects of their blogs (and their high average site time means that visitors certainly are engaged with what they are reading). Examples are all around you, but to figure out what's best for your organization, testing is your best bet.
