More and more businesses are using blogs as a way to boost their business’ profile and engage with customers. The power of a business blog is actually surprising, helping everything from improving your SEO to securing better lead generation for your business. Whatever the reason your business has a blog, you need to make the most of the opportunity in front of you. Your blog has a lot of potential to do big things for your business, but you have to put the effort in. Want to make your business blog a must-read? Get some tips on how it’s done below.
Make it look good
Your blog, like the rest of your website, should have a modern, attractive design that will hook people in. While you might think that the words on the screen are what’s important, the truth is that people are into looks, and they care about what your website looks like. If it’s poorly designed, unclear or difficult to use, you’re not going to hold someone’s attention long enough for them to read a post. Take a look at the top web design trends to give you some inspiration for making your website look its best.
Create regular content
Blogging is very much in the now, and if you want to stay one step ahead, you’re going to need to keep on top of things. By posting regular content to your blog, you’ll keep readers engaged and give them something new to read when they visit your site. Aim to post 1-2 a week to keep your blog fresh, but feel free to post more if you have something to say.
Make a content plan
Making a content plan is something that every blogger should do, so in the same way that personal bloggers plan their content out for months in advance, you too can make a content plan that will drive what you create over the coming months. You can make a content plan that covers weeks, months or even a year in advance. It makes sense to plan certain types of posts at certain times of the year, with Christmas, Halloween, New Year and other big holidays providing opportunities for interesting, engaging and timely content. Get your team together to brainstorm some ideas and to start looking at the year ahead.
Remember to use visuals
Create a must-read business blog
Long walls of text are off-putting, particularly for generations who have a limited attention span and only so long before they move to the next page. Therefore, adding some visuals to your blog can be a good way to break things up and keep it interesting. Video and photos are easy to add to your blog, while infographics make useful content for businesses. You don’t need fancy or expensive equipment to create good visuals for your blog, as you can take some incredible high-quality photos using just your phone.
Use real language
Business blogs can suffer when they take on too much of a corporate angle. The jargon and long sentences do not appeal to the majority of readers, so if your blog reads too much like a college thesis, it’s time to re-think your content. There’s no shame in Googling ‘how to write better blog posts’ to develop your writing skills, and your blog will be stronger for it if you’re willing to learn. When writing blogs, it’s best to keep things simple, clear and concise. Break things up by using different paragraph lengths, ask questions and include links to other content. It might take some time to learn to write for a blog, but your perseverance will pay off.
Create headlines that people want to click
Headlines are powerful, they are what sell newspapers after all. When someone sees an eye-catching headline, they want to find out more. When creating your content, think outside the box to help create fun, attention-grabbing headlines that will make people want to click through. Avoid clickbait-style headlines designed to mislead - it shouldn’t be too difficult to design a fresh title for your blog post that makes someone think ‘what’s that about?’
Educate your readers
Knowledge is power, and the internet generation loves to know more about things, how to do things and where to get things. By making your posts informative so that they teach the reader something, you’re providing them with value and a reason to trust your expertise. Look at what other businesses are doing to engage their readers. The Freo Group is a crane hire company with an excellent blog. They post informative articles on subjects such as how to hire a crane and offer health and safety tips that are exactly what their audience needs. Think about how you can help your readers and design content that caters to their needs.
Promote your posts
Promoting your blog posts can help you attract more readers to your blog so that they can then be encouraged to look at other parts of your website. Blog posts offer valuable promotional content, so you can make a lot of use out of your archived blog to generate some interest. Some things you can do to promote your blog include:
- Use Facebook and Twitter to post links to your blogs, using graphics and images which offer a bit more detail about the content.
- Use Instagram’s ‘swipe up’ feature on your stories to lead people immediately to your blog post.
- Promote your posts using Pinterest by creating some fantastic graphic assets that will help you push your content.
- Use tools such as StumbleUpon or Medium to generate some further links to your blog.
- Post snippets or brief versions of your blog on LinkedIn and link back to the full article.
There are plenty of great ways to promote your blog that you might not have thought of, so start enhancing your strategy to help you attract even more readers to your blog.
Promoting your post on social media
Try guest blogging
Guest blogging is a great way for you to build your following online and encourage other readers to check out your blog. Guest blogging can work in two ways. The first is where you write content for other people’s blogs, featuring a topic that is related to both yours and their niche, to introduce yourself to their readers. The second is where you host blog content from other writers on your own blog. This is a good way to invite someone influential to collaborate, giving you the opportunity to benefit from their profile and encourage more readers to check out your blog. Start reaching out to people you think might be interested and start adding some guest posts to your blog.
Build up your subscribers
Having subscribers means that you already have a bunch of readers who are signed up to read your posts as they’re published. The more subscribers you have, the better, and it’s easier to increase your numbers than you think. Different ways to increase your blog subscribers include hosting competitions and promotions for signing up, which can be highly effective when promoted properly. Remember to stick to European GDPR rules when collecting data, as you won’t want to get in trouble for accidentally misusing data or using it without consent.
Ask your readers what they want
Is your blog hitting the right note with your readers? How do you know if you don’t ask them? By asking your readers about the kinds of things they want to read about, you can help design content that fits around their wants and needs. How can you go about this? There are lots of different ways from surveys to Facebook conversations that can help you find out more about what your audiences want to read, as well as what they think about your existing content.
Keep it light
There’s a lot of seriousness happening in the world, and it’s easy to see it on the news, on social media and everywhere else. With so much darkness, people deserve a bit of light, so try to keep your blog content as upbeat as possible. Humor and lists prove to be popular types of blog post, and their content is generally light in tone and easy to read.
Keep your blog content as upbeat as possible
Find out what others are doing
Want to know if you’re hitting the right notes with your blog? Why not check out the competition. See how other businesses, both within and outside of your industry, are doing their blogs to give you some ideas and to help you stay current and relevant. A bit of market research now and then can give you a lot of new ideas to take your blog to the next level. Your blog can be a valuable asset to your business when you put the time and energy into making it a success. There are many benefits to running a business blog to consider, so if your business doesn’t already have one - get started now. With the right content and a good strategy in place, you can make your business blog a must-read and use it to generate some excellent results for your business.
