Critical Tips for Successful Business Blogging
When it comes to content marketing, blogging is one of the most powerful options. It gives your company a recognisable voice. It allows you to share things in unique ways. It even encourages your customers and followers to interact with you, further building your brand and establishing thought leadership.
However, it’s also crucial that you go about business blogging in the right way. Just as the correct steps can strengthen your brand and bolster success, the wrong steps can have negative ramifications. So, what’s a business owner to do? Here are some of the most critical business blogging tips to master.
Be Consistent
This is probably the most basic tip out there, but too many business owners start strong and then fall off, only to wonder why no one is reading and commenting on their posts. If you’re not consistent, your audience won’t know when to show up. If you’re not consistent, you won’t rank well in the SERPs. So, how often should you post? There’s no one-size-fits-all rule here. Just be consistent. If you commit to posting once per week, do it consistently. If you post once per month, maintain that schedule.
Talk to Your Audience
Your blog is where you break down the fourth wall and speak directly to your audience. It’s your chance to give your business a more personal voice. So, unless you’re in an industry where extreme formality is the rule, write in second person (you, your, you’re, etc.). Also, feel free to use contractions and less formal language in general. In most instances, blog-style content should be conversational in tone. Leave the formality for your other content marketing collateral.
Maintain Relevance (Except When You Don’t)
Your blog content should be relevant to one of a few things – your business, your industry, your products/services, or your audience. What interests your audience members? Are there new technologies being used in your business or making waves in your industry? Is there a way to promote your company culture here? These are all great things to blog about. However, don’t be afraid to go off the beaten track occasionally. While you should try to remain relevant in most instances, there’s always room to go (at least a little) off-topic to maintain interest or to reach personas that you usually don’t target.
Make It Shareable
One of the more common mistakes that business owners make when it comes to business blogging is failing to make the content shareable. If you want your content to market on your behalf, it needs to be shared beyond the blog itself. Adding social media sharing buttons to the side or under the post and then asking your readers to share if they found the content interesting is a good way to see a dramatic increase in eyeballs on your content, but also visits to other blog posts and your site itself.
Share It Yourself
Don’t limit your blog sharing to your readers. Make sure you promote those posts yourself. A quick note and a link on your Twitter or Facebook feed is enough here. Share your posts so that your audience knows when you’ve added new content. Don’t rely on audience sharing or on people subscribing to your blog.
Don’t Be Afraid to Be (a Little) Controversial
No one wants to read the same point of view over and over again. You can stand out from the crowd by sharing views that are a little off centre or slightly outside the industry norm. This builds a personality for your brand and positions you away from your more run of the mill competitors. However, don’t go too far beyond the bounds of normalcy or this tactic could backfire.
Conclusion
Ultimately, these are just a few of the essential steps you should take to maximise blog posting as part of your content marketing strategy. Provide valuable information that cannot be found elsewhere, put your unique spin on it, and then share it. Not sure your content marketing strategy is up to snuff? Get in touch with Emarkable today.
