Blog Management: The Main Components and Challenges of Maintaining a Successful Blog

It's hard to overstate the value of having a successful, well-maintained, active blog on your company website.

It goes beyond the fact that search engine algorithms favour sites with fresh, regularly updated content; blog posts are (or should be) a form of branded content that's genuinely appealing to people ? content that the company's target audience(s) will learn from and enjoy consuming and sharing. This, of course, can only help to boost your organic traffic and leads as well as improve your brand reputation and awareness as your readership, audience and loyal followers increase.

So, what are the essential building blocks of a successful blog? And if blogs are so important and effective, why isn't every company just, well? doing it?

Our short guide will cover three main components of a successful blog: precise conceptualisation, high-quality content, and a consistent, regular publishing frequency. We?ll also look at the challenges facing content marketers when it comes to maintaining a blog that gets results and, finally, explore the benefits of outsourcing blog management.

A short guide: The ingredients of a successful blog

1)   Conceptualisation: Material that will connect with your readers

Figuring out exactly what to post about is the key aim of the conceptualisation stage. And here, ?exactly? is the important word.

Choosing titles and topics that are loosely (or even closely) related to your field -- even if they do offer scope for plenty of juicy semantic keywords -- will not be enough. The conceptualisation of your blog's titles and topics must be precisely guided by the audience(s) you want to reach and the purpose of the content.

The Content Marketing Institute suggests first brainstorming a long list of potential topics and then narrowing and amending the list based on four points: the content's mission, the target reader, the business goals, and the content objectives.

The posts need to be not only industry-specific but also good carriers for the brand voice, a suitable agent for the company goals, and well matched to the needs/interests of the potential readers.

What's more is that this content must match the blog posts published by the direct competition in terms of quality and level of insight, but it must also be completely fresh and new ? analysis of the competition's posting activity is vital here.

2)   High-quality SEO content: Words that will give your brand integrity

Knowing the importance of publishing frequency, you may be tempted to get as much content out there as fast as possible, regardless of whether that content is of a good quality or not.

This isn't advisable.

Poorly written content will not be read, enjoyed and shared as much as high-quality editorial. It will not act as the best representative of your brand voice, and it will probably not be perceived as trustworthy, meaning people won't feel the need to give it all that much attention ? all in all, low-quality content will be less effective, meaning lower ROI.

This is why working with industry-savvy, specialised copywriting professionals is a smart move.

3)   Publishing frequency: Getting into a rhythm

We?ve said it once and we?ll say it again now: when it comes to publishing frequency, the general rule is that the more you post, the better. When it comes to SEO, the Google crawlers like new, fresh, relevant content and will see a blog that's regularly updated as a significant plus for your site when it comes to SERP rankings. It also offers more material for your readership to get involved with.

Does this mean posting every day? Not necessarily. PROBLOGGER explains how companies have moved away from frantic daily posting and now tend to post a couple of times a week for the best results. Furthermore, a case study conducted by Fronetics reported that a company doubled its sales leads in just one month by increasing its blog publishing frequency from one to two posts per week.

In any case, establishing a set publishing rhythm is advised. Loyal readers should know when to expect the next instalment. Find the best time to post, and publish at this point every week.

The challenge: Why effective company blogging can be tough

Behind a successful blog is a large amount of editorial planning that begins at the initial stages of precise conceptualisation and continues through the phase of well-managed content production up to the point of publication.

Staying on top of a frequent publishing frequency (one or, ideally, more blog posts per week) while still ensuring that each title/topic is well-conceptualised and the quality of the content is excellent ? this is labour intensive, hence why not all companies (especially small or mid-sized ones) are at the top of their blog game.

Creating a clear editorial plan for your blog that you and your content team can follow is a good way to ensure that your blog is on-point and your posting dates are met. But the time and personnel you need to do this is still more than what a lot of companies can spare.

So, let's also look at another option?

Why outsource blog management?

Outsourcing the copywriting of your blog posts can certainly free up time for your in-house staff (and ensure professional-level editorial) -- but it's possible to go a step further than that.

Full-service, white-label, all-inclusive blog management services can allow you to maintain an effective, traffic-boosting blog that features frequent, well-conceptualised and well-written pieces, with very little time- and staff-investments from your side.

greatcontent can now be your perfect partner for Blog Management services; our all-inclusive packages will take care of:

• the conceptualisation of your blog's topics and titles;
• the creation of an editorial plan, including publication dates, titles, SEO data and more;
• topic-, SEO-, and image-research;
• content production management;
• editing and proofreading;

and other tasks that you would usually have to dedicate to your blog maintenance efforts.

Get in touch to find out more about how we can manage your blog, saving you valuable time and resources.

Text: Robyn Summers-Emler
Image: unsplash.com