Writing Technical Weblog Posts for Engineers and Industrial Professionals

Writing technical weblog posts will not be the most well-liked subject of dialogue for a lot of producers and engineering corporations. In my expertise, industrial running a blog is an underused content material advertising and marketing tactic for a lot of of those corporations.

The 2 most typical objections that I hear are:

1. Writing recent and related content material often for industrial running a blog is simply too consuming and we simply don’t have the in-house assets
2. We’ve been running a blog for a while now, however haven’t see measurable outcomes (leads, gross sales alternatives and so forth.)

Each are legitimate complaints, however don’t throw within the towel but as a result of the advantages of technical running a blog far outweigh the trouble it takes to maintain it stocked with new posts.

Advantages of business running a blog

You’re most likely already aware of the advantages of running a blog, however let me provide the key factors simply in case:

• Search Engine Optimization (search engine marketing)
• Drive extra site visitors to web site
• Generate higher high quality leads
• Model consciousness
• Thought management
• Educating your viewers
• Incomes belief
• Creating true aggressive differentiation by highlighting your experience
• Setting the desk for gross sales

As you’ll be able to see, the checklist is fairly lengthy. Need proof?

(Supply: DemandMetric)

Yet another…

• Entrepreneurs who prioritized running a blog obtained 13X extra ROI than corporations that didn’t in 2019 (Supply: HubSpot).

I perceive if you’re slightly skeptical about these stats since they’re a bit normal and never particular to industrial running a blog.

Examples of profitable industrial blogs

As they are saying, “the proof of the pudding is within the consuming” or in the event you want the shortened model, “the proof is within the pudding.”

Let me offer you three circumstances of very profitable industrial blogs. Within the first two, I personally know the 2 males who made running a blog a key a part of their firm’s content material advertising and marketing technique and within the third instance, the corporate was a shopper and I used to be a part of the staff that wrote weblog posts.

Indium Company Weblog

Emerson Automation Consultants Weblog

Uson Leak Testing Weblog

I can inform you it wasn’t straightforward since I’ve first-hand data of their journeys earlier than tasting success with industrial running a blog. They’ll additionally readily inform you that the trouble was effectively value it.

I’ve been running a blog since 2008 after I launched Industrial Advertising and marketing Right this moment for branding and thought management of my very own firm, Tiecas. After publishing over 300 articles, we largely depend upon this weblog for search engine marketing, high-quality inbound leads and build up repute as an industrial advertising and marketing skilled.

The disconnect between expectations and actuality in industrial running a blog

I do see a disconnect between what corporations anticipate from their blogs and the fact of this industrial content material advertising and marketing technique.

It’s not a fast repair for gradual gross sales, and neither is it a one-off marketing campaign. Profitable industrial running a blog takes a staff effort, it takes time and sure, it takes cash. That’s not a simple promote to the higher administration.

You need to take child steps and present them proof of idea with the positioning statistics similar to site visitors, customers, common time spent, and the variety of pages considered per session. Begin there, after which transfer on to the variety of high of the funnel (ToFU) leads generated (Content material downloads, registration for webinars and possibly even contacting your gross sales staff).

Use the total energy of business content material advertising and marketing to nurture ToFU leads and convert them into certified gross sales alternatives to your gross sales staff to shut and rating wins. Implement Advertising and marketing Automation and a CRM system so you’ll be able to observe the entire journey of each lead and measure ROI and show running a blog’s affect on gross sales. That is can even provide help to higher align Gross sales and Advertising and marketing. Now you’ve attained industrial advertising and marketing nirvana!

How usually must you publish industrial weblog posts?

This can be a frequent query, sadly there isn’t any definitive reply. It actually is dependent upon many components together with competitors for search engine marketing, your trade and target market.

I’ve learn analysis research that present that the natural site visitors goes up considerably in the event you publish new posts 2 to 4 occasions every week. This chart is from HubSpot.

The subsequent chart reveals the affect of weblog publish frequency on web site site visitors. I noticed this chart in a publish printed by Michael Brenner on his weblog.

Most industrial corporations I’ve talked to, couldn’t keep that top a frequency. I’ve produced good outcomes for my purchasers with publishing two new posts a month, each month for at the least 6 to 9 months.

What must be the size of weblog posts?

That is one other query with no particular reply apart from to say, “Relies upon.” I’ve seen phrase depend vary from 300 to five,000 phrases. It was once you wanted a sure size to get the proper key phrase density for search engine marketing. The final rule of thumb was a key phrase density of 0.5 and three%. Whereas it’s nonetheless vital, it’s a considerably outdated concept, so take that recommendation with a wholesome pinch of salt.

My recommendation, write to your human readers in thoughts first and let the major search engines observe. Use the variety of phrases you’re feeling it’s worthwhile to use to convey your full message with out proscribing your self to some imaginary phrase depend. Then ruthlessly edit your draft till you’ve taken out all pointless phrases and sentences.

Attempt to hold your posts to at the least 600 phrases lengthy, combine it up with longer posts of 1,000 to 1,500 phrases sometimes and you probably have one thing longer like 5,000 phrases, flip it right into a pillar publish or break it up into smaller elements with a hook on the finish to your readers to come back again for the subsequent installment.

Challenges of writing technical weblog posts which are partaking

As I mentioned originally of this publish, industrial corporations do have authentic complaints about industrial running a blog. Most corporations simply wouldn’t have the in-house assets to put in writing new blogs posts constantly and often. Both that or they don’t seem to be prepared to decide to the money and time as a result of they don’t seem to be but satisfied.

Needless to say writing good posts is way more than simply copywriting. It is advisable to do your key phrase analysis, interview in-house Topic Matter Consultants (SMEs), draft copy, have your posts reviewed by your SMEs, publish, and promote. You need to repeat that course of each time it’s worthwhile to write a brand new publish.

Earlier than you’ll be able to create posts, it’s worthwhile to spend time to develop a running a blog technique, determine your viewers (personas), perceive their challenges, and provide you with express calls to motion. Passive studying of your posts gained’t provide help to.

In case you are going through the identical challenges, you aren’t alone. See this chart from the report Manufacturing Content material Advertising and marketing 2020 printed by the Content material Advertising and marketing Institute.

After listening to the challenges confronted by my purchasers, I not too long ago launched a brand new service, Technical Weblog Put up Writing for Industrial Firms. Check out it and see if this could possibly be an possibility for you on the subject of writing technical weblog posts that engineers and industrial professionals will discover related and interesting.