Business owners and managers recognize that business blogs are a great tool to grow their business and position themselves as trusted advisers in their industry. In the report Marketing Benchmarks from 7,000 Businesses, inbound marketing software provider HubSpot found that businesses that blogged 15 times or more per month got 5 times more web traffic than companies that didn't blog. So what tactics do companies that successfully blog for inbound lead generation use to grow their businesses? Here are some tips you can implement today to optimize your blog for inbound lead generation.

Manage Your Blog Like an Editor

Businesses that blog for inbound lead generation manage their blogs like editors. Manage your blog like an editor - create an editorial calendar that schedules keyword-optimized blog posts according to your targeted blogging frequency and make sure that deadlines are met. Every blog article is a new web page that sends a signal to Google that you're producing good content about your industry. Assign someone that understands your brand and company voice to edit each blog article for consistency.  When blogging for inbound lead generation, create an editorial calendar and stick to it.

Think Like Your Customers and Educate Them

Many companies that blog for inbound lead generation are initially challenged with coming up with new topics for their scheduled articles. They overcome this challenge by answering the questions that they commonly hear from customers. Don't you think that the problem you solved for a customer would be interesting to your other customers? A good way to develop a list of potential blog topics is to ask your customer service team about the questions they are most frequently asked.  If you have a Frequently Asked Questions section on your website, expand on each one of those question in a blog article. Really good blogs answer their customers' questions before they're asked. They know their customers so well that they are able to project how changes in the business environment might impact them. They ask and answer the questions before the customers think of them.

Promote Your Blog Posts in Your Social Media Channels

Companies that blog for inbound lead generation promote their blog articles on their social media networks regularly. In addition to promoting your great education content to a larger audience through social media, social media shares of your content are viewed by Google as a vote for the quality of your content. Reach out to influential people and brands in your industry by sharing their content through your social media channels; they will likely return the favor.

Make Sure You Have Calls-To-Action on Your Blogs That Link to Landing Pages

If you're blogging for inbound lead generation, this is the most important tip of all! Here is a description of the inbound lead generation process:

Image courtesy of HubSpot

The definition of an inbound lead is when someone exchanges their contact information (usually an e-mail address) for your valuable content offer (typically an eBook, webinar or video.) If you don't have a call-to-action in your blog article that links to a landing page, you will not generate leads - it's impossible. You should also include calls-to-action in your blog's sidebar.

Summary

As mentioned above, blogging is a great way to increase traffic to your website and to generate inbound leads. It's also a great way to position your company as an authoritative voice within your industry and to promote your brand as a trusted adviser. It's important to manage your blog like you manage your businesses. Set goals and objectives and manage your blog within the framework or a robust inbound marketing program and you will achieve success.