Just got off the phone with a corporate blogging client that has been with us for about 5 months and posted 13 times on their blog. The conversation was pretty frustrating - but definitely brought to the spotlight that the customer didn't understand the value proposition of an organic content strategy.The client was open and honest - they do pay per click, Twitter, and some other online marketing efforts. The blog is written by a part-time employee and the time the department has the employee is key. They only have certain hours to use the employee, so they have to prioritize appropriately.
In looking at Pay Per Click, they understand how much money they are spending, the traffic that is realized on it, and the instantaneous return on investment. With Twitter, again, they realize the time spent and the number of visitors who come based on the tweet. Cool - they are measuring and recognize the value of those mediums.
When the client analyzes the blog, they utilize the same methodology - this is where the logic goes awry. Measuring the time the blogger took to write the post and then calculating the instantaneous traffic derived from the post is not accurate.
PPC and Twitter are temporary. They happen and then they're gone. A blog post is forever. I still have posts that are several years old that rank well and provide traffic to my blog. Sure - if you've got a great following - recent posts will drive the most traffic. That's why we want our clients to post as frequently as possible.
Posting regularly educates web crawlers and search engines that they can come back regularly for great content. It's no surprise that when we look at the web crawling statistics, in Google Webmasters for our clients, clients who regularly post are crawled more frequently and ranked quicker in the search engines.
Today's traffic to your corporate blog isn't just about today's post. It's about yesterday's post, the day before, the day before, etc., etc. You're building up authority and reputation and you're compounding the interest of searchers.
When you stop talking, people move on. Having a consistent blogging strategy educates readers that they can continue coming back for the content they value on the topics they value. Post frequently and, not only do search engines return, so do clients and prospects! (Ironically - this is my first post in a while, so I'm guilty of not following my own advice.)
More blog posts doesn't simply provide more search engine results, it also helps build up your domain as a source of relevant content for readers, searchers and search engines. As well, the ripples of those posts begin to travel further and further into the blogosphere. You're building influence over time.
So what is the value of a blog post?
In fact, the value of a blog post changes each day. As you write more, the value increases. When you stop writing, the value decreases. Post every day for a year, calculate the amount of traffic you obtained from your blog (each year, that traffic will increase), calculate the dollar results, and divide the number of blog posts by that amount.
If you blog once a day and your company does $1 million dollars in business resulting from your blog, each of your blog posts is worth $4,000.
Could that change your priorities?
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