Most businesses today understand that a blog can be a great tool for driving traffic to their website. But they also find that blogging itself takes time and effort. And creating and consistently publishing an effective blog can be a real challenge on a number of levels.
Blogging Basics for an Effective Business Blog
The days of periodically posting some random thoughts from the company president and hoping to get blog views is ancient history in Internet time. In fact, today we know that companies that blog 15 times or more each month get five times more traffic that companies without a blog, according to the HubSpot Marketing Benchmarks from 7,000-plus Businesses report.
And while page views and reader comments are great, the ultimate metric is making your business revenue. Blogging by itself is not the answer for everything in your marketing efforts, but it can serve as the solid foundation of your inbound marketing strategy.
Basic Tips for Better Business Blogging
Writing posts that people love to read is an obvious one, but it's not that easy. How you develop, write and organize your blog content helps to attract readers to your blog posts.
The following tips will help you create well-written posts that are easy for readers to follow and understand. This will help to make them loyal readers of your blog and, eventually, customers or clients.
#1 Get Blog Post Ideas
To consistently develop content for new blog posts, you need to collect ideas.
And because inspiration often happens when you are away from your office, you should make it a habit to save ideas for titles, topics and even paragraphs using tools like Evernote, or Google Drive as you think of them.
#2 Structure Each Blog Post
Make sure that the structure of your post is easy for readers to follow and will hold their attention:
- Start with an engaging opening
- Break up the body of your post with sub-heads and sections
- Use bulleted points for information and directions
- Add visual interest by using images and graphics
- Close with a question, a call-to-action, or some actionable takeaway
#3 Keep Your Language Clear and Simple
Unless you're writing a literary blog, your readers are not likely to stick with a post that is overly wordy and complex. Writing simply is not the same as "dumbing down" your content - clarity and simplicity can still convey complex topics and do so compellingly.
#4: Make Your Title Compelling and SEO-friendly
The title of your blog post must be SEO-friendly and appealing. In addition, it should be simple and easy for readers to grasp. Make sure, too, that your title really reflects what's in your post and that your post delivers what your title promises!
#5 Be Consistent
While frequency is important, perhaps more than the number of blog posts you publish each month is the long-term consistency of your posting.
According to HubSpot, blogs have been rated as the 5th most trusted source for accurate online information.
Blogs tend to have a personal touch to them and for this reason, they become trusted source of information. Your blog serves as a great opportunity to extend your brand and showcase your personality. By consistently and regularly posting quality content and valuable information, your company will be held as a trusted authority in the minds of your readers.
And here's three more bonus tips to improve your blog posts (from SocialMediaExaminer.com):
- Use short, reflecting and challenging phrases.
- Don’t repeat the same word too often.
- It’s better to blog about one brilliant idea instead of many small ideas. Divide your lengthy posts into a series of chapters you can publish regularly throughout the week.
Get Expert Help For Your Business Blogging
An additional tip for creating and publishing an effective business blog is to get outside help. Inbound marketing agencies, such as BroadVision Marketing, can offer expertise and tools that the typical business owner or marketing manager may not have.
It often helps to have an professional marketer's perspective to assess your content marketing strategy. Acquiring the insights and assessment of a third-party professional can be an investment that will bring a quantifiable return.
BroadVision Marketing offers all this and more. Get your Free Complimentary Inbound Marketing Session to help you make an informed decision or call BroadVision Marketing at 707-799-1238.
And if you want a jump on your business blogging improvement efforts, click on the big orange button below and download your free Business Blogging guide:
