9 Top Tips for Business Blogging
It’s no longer enough for a business to simply set up online, share some things on Social Media and expect people to bite. There is an entire package of activities required to get the best out of your efforts. Business blogging is an important part of a successful business’ inbound marketing package, but it is something that needs thought and attention.
Not sure where to start with Business Blogging? Here are our 9 tips for Business Blogging.
1. Publish GOOD content
It can be tempting to blog for the sake of blogging but we recommend planning ahead and producing the type of content that people will be engaged with. Well written, well thought out content always goes further.
2. Provide your target market with useful content
People like to read things that are useful to them. Think about your own Facebook timeline. The things that typically catch your attention are things you are interested in and things that will benefit you in daily life.
If you are a business selling to the farming industry it is worth your while creating content that advises your target market on what they do; tips for making their job easier, lists of tools they would benefit from, latest technology developments in farming and so on.
3. Do Interviews/Webinars
Hootsuite often interview their employees and release YouTube videos to advise their audience on how to get the most out of their product and out of social media in general. This is a great way to display your expertise and to provide something intriguing and shareable for your target audience.
Doing a simple webinar (an online Seminar) on a subject you specialise in will also serve your brand well. These can then be embedded in a blog post.
4. Invite Guest Bloggers
Not only is this a timesaver, it is also a great way of including links on your blog and getting backlinks to your site on the guest posters’ website. It is also a positive way to build relationships with industry peers and clients.
5. Guest Post Often
Just as it is beneficial for people to provide extra content to your blog, it makes sense for you to guest post on relevant websites. Whether it’s clients or community organisations, or even relevant blogs it can be incredibly beneficial, again for backlinks, but also to portray yourself as an expert in the industry and draw more attention to you and your brand.
6. Stop Talking About Yourself
It’s easy to write a blog post from your perspective and depending on the context that can be an intriguing for readers. Generally thought it is not what your target audience wants to see; they want professional, engaging advice or amusing content.
If you are writing about your professional experiences, products, services, in house news and so on, people won’t see the value in your content. As with companies that only post promotional content on social pages, people get bored and very quickly go blind to content and even unfollow you.
7. Ask questions and blog about it
Use social media to ask your target audience what they want to know about, or alternatively, find out what they are asking querying on social media in general by searching relevant terms.
Answering the questions that people are already asking is a sure fire way of getting people on to your website, reading your blog, and exploring what you have to offer.
8. Keep tuned into your industry and comment on it
By using tools like Hootsuite it is easy to keep on top of relevant topics. This information provides you with more than just something to tweet about; it also gives you content for your blog. If there has been a recent development in your industry write a helpful and informative commentary piece on what it might mean for business owners.
9. Be organised!
The final and most important point is to be organised. If you don’t have a calendar of themes and blog topics prepared in advance you will most likely forget all about blogging; there is nothing more unprofessional looking than a blog section on a business website that hasn’t been updated for months.
You can keep things simple and use an Excel Spread sheet or Google Document to plot out topics and proposed blogs, setting reminders in your calendar to prompt you to write them. Alternatively you can opt for a more interactive way of managing your blogging tasks and use Trello, giving all blog contributors access to it to feed in ideas and assign blog posts.
There is no denying the value of blogging for business, however we understand that with so many other priorities it can fall into last place on your to do list. If you would like to learn more about how blogging can enhance your business get in touch with emarkable on (01) 808 1301 or email info@emarkable.ie
