BLOGGING BEST PRACTICE: Here are seven inspiring examples of business-to-business blogs from the smaller end of town

It’s no secret that a useful, content-rich blog can be super-effective in building visibility and credibility (not to mention traffic, leads and sales) for a business, whether it’s large, medium, small or micro.

Consider these compelling statistics (sourced from HubSpot via Writtent.com):

Companies that blog 15 or more times per month get 5x more traffic than companies that don’t blog.
Small businesses (1-10 employees) tend to see the biggest gains in traffic when they post more blog articles.
Companies that increase blogging from 3-5 times/month to 6-8 times/month almost double their leads.
B2B companies that blog only 1-2 times/month generate 70% more leads than those who don’t blog.

With so much content (READ: dross) cluttering up the social web, it’s an absolute joy to stumble upon a well-written and maintained online content hub produced by a business that truly ‘gets’ the power and nuance of this blogging caper.

7 examples of small and medium-sized business B2B blogs

With this in mind, here are seven brilliant examples of small and medium-sized businesses in the B2B space that are blogging with passion, purpose and strategic intent.

N.B. I’ve tried to include an array of blogs from different industries, ones that are not ‘the usual suspects’ such as Convince and Convert, Copyblogger and Content Marketing Institute which are well known globally because they’re very much at the top of their game. I’ve also tried to focus on companies that are blogging versus individual thought leaders who are ‘caning it’ in this space e.g. David Meerman Scott, Jeff Bullas et al.

1. BUFFER

Any small company blog that can turn out massively chunky, valuable posts like this one deserves to be on a list such as this!

Buffer is a brilliant app that helps you manage multiple social media accounts at once – personally I use and recommend the product! The company’s super-useful blog initially established its content around social media because its audience is made up of community managers, PR and social media marketing teams.

With an opt-in subscriber list exceeding 20,000, the Buffer blog covers:

Social media tips and strategies
Productivity tricks and hacks that will make you more efficient today
Scientific studies to improve your online marketing and effectiveness

However, in recent times the company has broadened the scope of its content to include several other channels including BufferOpen (“Our journey to greater productivity, more transparency and a happier work culture”) and BufferOverflow (“A blog about development, APIs and being an engineer at Buffer.”).

Here is an example of the utility provided by Buffer on its blog: How to Become a Columnist: The Ultimate Blueprint for Guest Blogging and Syndication.

If you want to know what business blogging best practice looks like, look no further than the Buffer blog!

2. GILD

Recruitment software company Gild produces a blog that features content of interest and relevance to its core audience – recruiters and HR professionals in the tech space, for example:

A feature of the Gild blog is Gild 5-Minute Monday, a regular series of curated short posts that provide bullet point hyper-links on a particular topic, sourced from around the web.

3. MAILGUARD

Australian-based cloud security provider Mailguard regularly publishes a blog that not only provides useful information around issues such as phishing scams but also effectively demonstrates the company’s knowledge and expertise in the email and web security arena.

Here is a snapshot of the articles Mailguard produces:

All up, a pretty solid and consistent effort. From where I sit, it’s the result of a purposeful approach to blogging.

Well batted Mailguard!

4. INFLUENCE & CO

Influence & Co, in its own words, “tackles the world of thought leadership and content marketing from all angles”. A relatively new business, the company helps companies position their key leaders as industry experts.

A good part of the growth of Influence & Co can be put down to its multi-author blog; it’s jam-packed with information, tips and advice around creating content to develop thought leadership positioning.

Here are some example posts:

This business blog is top-notch and a great example to follow!

5. THE ID GROUP

While the ID Group’s ‘Owned media Mindset’ blog is essentially written by one person (the company’s owner, Mark Masters), it’s a wonderful example of what can be achieved with focus and passion.

A feature of the blog is an interview series with content marketing experts and thought leaders, called ‘Talking Content’.

Mark is a prolific content creator and while he loves writing on the subject of content marketing, there is another reason why he blogs: It’s great for business!

Mark’s blogging activity also led to him scoring a publishing deal and writing a book (‘Content Revolution’). How cool is that?

6. OPENVIEW VENTURE PARTNERS

OpenView is a Boston-based venture capital firm with a focus on high-growth software, internet, and technology-enabled companies.

OpenView’s Labs content hub strives towards producing “the best content in the areas of product development, customer success, sales, marketing, finance and operations, HR and recruiting, exit strategy” and more.

The blog’s authors understand their key audience (the startup community) and write articles with a laser focus that address issues and pain-points experienced by emerging entrepreneurs. This is a sign these guys know exactly what they’re doing!

In addition to thought leadership material from the OpenView Venture Partners’ team, the blog also features tactical tips, tricks, and lessons learned from some of the tech world’s most highly-regarded entrepreneurs, executives and managers including:

Scrum founder Jeff Sutherland
MarketingProfs Chief Content Officer Ann Handley
ExactTarget co-founder and former CEO Scott Dorsey
Legendary entrepreneur (and Lean Startup movement creator) Steve Blank
EchoSign and Storm Ventures founder Jason Lemkin

Check it out!

7. WP CURVE

WP Curve is a fast-growing company that provides 24/7 support for businesses running WordPress websites. Helmed by entrepreneur and author Dan Norris (his excellent book Content Machine was released recently), WP Curve produces a blog that’s super relevant, helpful and useful.

Importantly, the WP Curve blog does not create content about the back-end technical aspects of WordPress (which is its business); rather – and this is what I like about the blog – it focuses on the needs of the company’s audience (entrepreneurs who run bootstrapped virtual enterprises) and thus publishes articles like:

The articles deliver utility and value to a well-defined designated audience, and they do that better than most. The content is meaty and relevant and as a result this blog is fuelling the growth of the WP Curve business.

Read the book, be inspired!