Corporate blog writing lets a writer step into the name of a company or brand, creating posts to promote or inform readers and entice possible customers. Corporate blogging isn’t sales copywriting, but instead content that keeps customers and readers coming back to a site or blog because they crave more. Here’s how corporate blog writing works.

What Are Corporate Blogs?

Corporate blogs still promote companies or products, but is different to sales content or short copywriting. Corporate blogs have regular posts, which readers should find interesting, share, and come back for.

United Locksmith has a blog for learning about locks, keys, and mechanisms. It’s useful to readers. But actually, it also promotes the company.

The Will It Blend? YouTube series used crazy ideas to sell blenders: in controlled environments, items like iPhones went through Blendtec products – and the company paid for this.

Personally, I wrote for a credit blog, taking out a payday loan myself in order to explain the process to MyCreditStatus readers.

There’s always promotional action in corporate blogs, but the writing has to be subtle, interesting or informative to the audience.

Getting Noticed

You can’t do all your promotion and reaching out via about social media.

The corporate sphere involves businesspeople, but also trade publications and business federations. Get seen, and become memorable. Groups, often focused around specific industries, have to notice your presence if you’d like anyone to hire you.

Attend functions and meetings, join appropriate internet groups, see if there’s a Discord or Reddit for the topic. There’s a Reddit for everything, including /r/engineering and /r/copywriters. The Society of Professional Journalists hosts conventions, and there are thousands more like it.

Cultivate a presence by linking up with contacts, and asking them what’s new. Read a lot of press releases and speak to the people mentioned in these (and often, the ones who wrote them). Build your network with constant interaction.

Moneyweb and The Investor were pivotal markets for me. Articles were syndicated elsewhere (and syndication continued). This way, I got to know many media contacts I still keep in touch with. Without a first step, none of that would have been possible.

Most Are Ghostwritten

Most blogs are either ghostwritten or published as part of the company’s team.

As a result of the ghostwriting factor, corporate blogs might not come up first when people search your byline, if they show up at all. Instead, use testimonials or examples on your own website to prove your history as a corporate writer.

Several articles on MoneyPantry are mine, ghostwritten. Unless I said it here, would you ever have known? That’s how a lot of corporate writing works.

Writing From Interviews

Sometimes, a company’s CEO might have something to say and not know how to say it. That’s when they call writers. Ghostwritten blog posts and press releases can be based on interviews with company subjects.

A 15- to 20-minute interview can produce an 800- to 1,200-word article. Ask questions, and probe once you find something they’re passionate about. This is how you land strong corporate quotes.

Invoices for Business

Getting paid by larger companies isn’t the same as receiving your money via PayPal. Invoices have their own department, which usually ask for more specific information. International transfers, for example, need a Routing Number. Eventually, you’ll learn these numbers by heart.

All companies have their own process, and their own paperwork. Respect whatever it is.

Corporate payments are cleared by accounting departments. Always send details to the right place, or you will have Reader’s Digest make out a check to your pseudonym. Be able to give clients several payment methods, such as PayPal versus Wise.com.

Contracts

Corporate blogs aren’t once-off article sales, and writers should want to enter into longer contracts with their companies. Negotiate a rate, number of posts, and time period. Bring a long-term arrangement up in conversation and see what the client says. Sometimes this leads to a regular job, like the BBO Prime Daily Blog I wrote for several years.

When your writing contracts run out, companies don’t have an obligation to renew them. Therefore, have contracts with several companies at once, and start signing clients before your other contracts have come to an end. Just make sure they aren’t competitors.

Bio: Alex J. Coyne is a journalist, copywriter, and bridge player. Samples and exclusive content can be found at his website.