Blogging is crucial for brands and businesses. One simple reason: marketers that blog get 67% more leads than those who don’t.
If you haven’t launched your blog yet, or you have one but you’re not yet serious about it, it’s time you make that commitment. And I’m here to help you.
If you’re ready to write for and launch your blog, just how do you launch a successful blog?
Many people experience a fear of the blank page, or let’s say blank blog, and try to think up ways to conquer the world, or make a dent when they hurry up to meet a blogging schedule or launch their new blog. Then the worst of the worst happens, in the blogger world (or blogosphere). With no definite direction, newbies risk the all-too common problem of floating by: becoming the next sub-par blogger with no audience presence and no ranking potential on Google. Don’t be that blogger; read our guide to start off strong and maintain a blog that you’re proud to show off to your friends, family, and most importantly, potential customers.
Your Brief But Ultimate Guide On Creating & Maintaining a Solid Blog
After years of writing and publishing blogs, and with over 300 keywords in the top 10 pages of Google, I like to think that I know how to write blogs that rank; I’ve also been the most-read guest blogger at Search Engine Journal and Content Marketing Institute. So, here’s a few thoughts from my vault.
I. How to Start a Blog
Without further ado, here are thirteen ways to start and maintain a solid blog: and to make it easier, I’m going to break them up into I. How to Start a Blog & II. How to Maintain a Blog.
1. Find YOUR Niche
Not just a niche but your niche. The one that makes you thrilled to wake up, excited to voice your thoughts on. Yeah – if you know that feeling, and you can identify what makes you feel that, you’re golden.
And narrow down here. Do you like the business niche? Okay, what kind of business? Coaching entreprenuers? OK, what age group? You like young, inspired people? Okay, that’s your blogging niche. Could you be the world’s foremost peanut butter authority or an expert on locksmith tips for an average homeowner?
Hone down, my friend, hone down. Find your niche and your viewpoint on any and everything about your topic.
And here’s a tip for those who have a niche that’s somewhat broad and maybe a bit unoriginal. It’s okay: businesses and people may have been ruminating on the topic for years, but as long as you’re able to follow the next few steps, you’ll find yourself running with the big dogs.
2. Develop a Unique Idea and a Point
Developing a unique idea is difficult and somewhat daunting, but it’s doable. Maybe you want to explore how to write a unique post in an in depth way that few bloggers, if anyone, has explored before.
The post linked to in the last sentence isn’t necessarily a unique blog topic, as many people have explored how to write a unique post before, but it is very unique in its depth and how it gives the step-by-step process the author takes to come up with an idea, writing the blog, and posting it.
Although you can also develop a unique blog post by giving broad strokes, you want it to be at least somewhat focused. A successful blog post won’t be titled “5 tips on X” and ramble for 1,000 words; you’ll get very few hits. What you can do is expand your idea and tie together seemingly disparate concepts in an interesting way.
Unique spins show that you’re well versed in your topic as well as gives your blog some SEO weight.
3. Analyze the Competition and Keywords
Figure out what the crux of your blog is and whittle it down to a key word or phrase (one to two words in most cases). Use SEMrush (see my guide here) to take a look at how often your SEO keyword is searched. If it looks good, make sure to put it in your title, description, and metadata. Also, have some minor keywords sprinkled throughout your post. This will generate a few more hits you wouldn’t have otherwise had.
After you have your unique idea and keywords, analyze what you’re up against. Search common keywords related to your topic and check out what the competition on the first page looks like.
Domain authority is a big one. If you’re up against heavy hitters and massive corporations, you may want to rethink your keywords. Again, keep it natural enough that the average person will search for it, but try to avoid going up against H&R Block if you’re blogging about tax law.
You’ll also want to be mindful of backlinks. This will let you know if you’re going up against blogs or posts with 54 viewers or 54k viewers. Needless to say, one is easier to knock out than the other one.
Finally, take note of the age of the blog. Shoot for blogs that are older and not updated or newer. Those are the low hanging fruit you want to compete against. Older blogs that are updated frequently get an air of authority about them in the search engines.
4. Research and Find Links
There are two types of links that you’ll want to use to create a successful blog: internal and external links.
Internal links are links to your own site. This will generate more hits to your site and show the search engines that people are staying on your page for longer. This correlates directly to domain authority.
External links should be chosen carefully and should be to high-ranking sites. These links, again, add up to domain authority, a higher ranking in the search engines, and more page views. Keep in mind that this should come naturally. Ideally, backlinks in today’s SEO era come through shares: you reach out to someone who has a great site, ask them to share your content, and if they really like it, link to it; or someone likes your content so much they’ll link to it. (That usually comes in time after you’re more of a known blogger.)
A simple way to do this is to leave a thoughtful blog comment on someone’s high-quality blog that’s relevant to your topic, and leave a link to your blog. Something like: Hey, Joe! Thanks so much for this helpful piece on content marketing. I’m going to try to work on scoring my headlines according to your tips in #8 now. Would you like to read the blog I wrote as well on a similar topic, How to Create Headlines for Your Email Campaigns? {link}
5. Outline a Structure
This post would be an unreadable mess if it were a simple stream of consciousness. Rather than write how a person would say all this in a casual conversation, there was a deliberate outline and structure that went into it.
The structure of this blog post is as follows: introduction, a step-by-step process for your first blog post that can be used for subsequent blog posts, and a guide for maintaining a successful blog.
Make sure that your reader can digest each point in its entirety before you go on to the next one. Just because a strangely laid out narrative structure worked for the movies Memento and Pulp Fiction doesn’t mean that it will work for your blog.
6. Write
By this simple “write” I mean that you should put your outlined ideas down how they come out naturally. Just let them flow and don’t worry about the details.
When you’re writing, be mindful of the word count. Short form blogs are all well and good if you can pump them out by the bushel full but longer posts can gain hits too. For instance, this post is roughly 2,000 words long. That was decided before pen hit the page (or fingers hit the keyboard in this case).
7. Get Visual
Once you have your basic structure pinned down, get some images. They break up your blog into easily digestible pieces, illustrate the point further, and look fantastic.
Think of a longer Wikipedia post like “Philosophy.” It doesn’t necessarily need pictures; it’s an abstract concept. That being said, it has pictures of famous philosophers because it breaks up the post and looks nice to the reader. A successful blog post will have a smattering of images throughout.
8. Proofread
After you write and find images, take a day away from the post. Come back to it with fresh eyes and really get into the nitty gritty of your post. Reword awkward sentences. Check for flow. Deliberate every comma. Ensure the post reads well and is flawless in spelling and grammar.
As you become a bit more successful with your blog, you’ll find that it’s nice to have a new set of eyes take a look at what you’re writing. This is beneficial in a few ways.
The benefits of someone not being emotionally invested in the content can’t be understated. They’ll take an objective eye to the project and won’t hesitate to cut out the fat and correct your mistakes.
Another massively important benefit to an outsourced writer is that you, as a writer, will learn things about writing that you never thought about before. This will make you a better writer and your blog more successful.
II. How to Maintain Your Blog
Maybe you wrote your first post and it was a runaway hit. Or maybe you wrote your first post and it got a few hits, but you want to keep writing either for the love of the game or to create a successful, unique blog.
It takes work on your part. Blog posts don’t grow on trees.
9. Pay Attention to & Answer Comments
If your post gained enough traction to have a significant amount of comments, take a look at them. Find out what is being discussed or what common threads go through each user’s input.
They’re telling you what they want to hear. Take those ideas and run with them for subsequent posts, even if they’re not your next ones.
Then, answer those people to encourage them to keep reading and commenting.
10. Write Down Ideas
Keep a notebook of your ideas, whether it’s virtual or physical. Note the word “a” in the preceding sentence. You won’t want your blog ideas written down on a dozen restaurant napkins, in three notebooks you used for college, and inside of a book you were reading last year. You want them accessible at any time and easy to find. I use a Google Doc.
Ideas don’t need to be limited to blog titles or subjects. Anything that catches your fancy might be used in a future blog. As they say, it’s the little things that matter.
Every week or two you should take an inventory of the ideas. Pick out the good ones and ignore the bad ones. Keep the “bad” ones around; they may be helpful in the future.
11. Motivate Yourself
Motivation is a tricky one. Everyone has different motivations in life and different motivation techniques work for different people.
One piece of advice that will motivate you from the start is to pick a niche that interests you and you’re passionate about. If you’re not at all interested in Ancient Rome, don’t blog about it just because it’s a topic you can choose from. If you love what you’re writing about then it’s easier to motivate yourself to write.
One way you’ll find yourself lethargic, scared, and unmotivated is to set your bar too high. If you’re thinking that you’ll make a living off of three or four blog posts, you might set the bar low for yourself in terms of writing content. Make the expectations realistic so you aren’t quickly burnt out.
Another way to stay motivated is to get inspiration from others! I hold weekly Skype sessions where my team and I “brain-dump” on new topics. It’s fantastic for new ideas!
12. Find, and Maintain, a Schedule
The holy grail of writing a successful blog is figuring out how often to write your pieces. This was briefly touched on before but it bears going into more detail.
Your schedule should be directly affected by how much you plan to write per piece.
If you’re writing brief, pithy posts about current events, you may want to write a few pieces per day. This is dangerous territory, especially for those who have full time jobs. If you’re only putting out 300-500 word pieces once a week, you likely won’t have people sticking around on your blog for too long, hurting your domain authority. Read my post on why evergreen content (which is long-form, very thorough content) matters so much.
Newer blogs or blogs that have short, but original content can be updated about once every day. This is still somewhat trying, but it can be done if you’re taking a few hours to write every day and laying out blogs a week or two ahead of time.
Some people decide to post certain topics on regular days. For a fashion blog this might mean posting “Wardrobe Wednesdays” or “Monday’s Workday Apparel.” For these types of blogs, a few postings a week will suffice since they are frequent, but regular.
Finally, longer blogs can be written and posted around once a week. Don’t take the risk of posting bi-weekly or monthly since readership might decline and people might lose interest in that long amount of time.
In the end there is something to be said for experimentation in this area. Successful blogs tend to follow a set schedule and a few rules, but there is some flexibility in posting frequency.
I publish to our own blog three times weekly: the third post on Fridays however is created by Rachel, our Social Media Specialist, and is a recap of our Twitter chat #ContentWritingChat. On guest blogs, I publish an average of 10 blogs/weekly. I know – I write a lot!
13. Want to Stay Committed? Get Blogging Backup
I wouldn’t be here without my writing & design team. I seriously feel like I have the world at my fingertips with the resources I have here at the writing agency I’ve built.
And while I realize not everyone has the luxury of owning an Express Writers, I also know it’s easy to find some accountability partners, or simpler yet, a writing solution backup. Whether that’s just ordering a blog from time to time.
Remember, blog posting doesn’t just mean you need to be writing and posting 365 day a year. Quality over quantity. But, don’t disappoint your audience. Blogging does mean a serious commitment of both time, effort and actual published pieces; if you’re not blogging at least twice a week, I don’t think you have the opportunity to really build a sure audience, especially as you’re new. If you’re not blogging at least once a week – you, my friend, are not a serious blogger.
But as you get further into the world of blogging, get regular readership, and find a few blogging buddies, you’ll find it easy to ask for a guest blog or two. Guest blogs are great for a few reasons – just remember to get a high-quality guest on your blog, or it’s all worth crap (really). First, the owner of the blog gets some much-needed rest while still providing content. Second, the owner of the blog gets a bit more recognition since the guest will link to the post on your blog. Third, the guest gets some exposure to your readership and a few more hits because of it. Finally, the reader is exposed to a blogger they may not have heard of before and may come to love.
Conclusion
Reality: my thirteen steps listed above are not easy and blogging isn’t a quick way to drive business or earn a living. It takes tons of work, dedication, and creativity to gain traction. I have over 600 blogs on my site in the last 4 years to earn my 300+ keywords in the top 10 positions in Google. (Say whaaa?)
However, I can tell you right here, right now that blogging can be a massively rewarding undertaking in and of itself, for your brand, business, credibility boost, and lead generation.
Also, blogging gets creative juices flowing, allows you to integrate with social media, causes you to see the world in a new way, and provides an insight into what drives people. Not only are these things useful for businesses, they’re beneficial for the individual who wants to get out there and start a successful blog. Need a blog, several blogs, or a monthly package? Check out our services!
It’s gotten to the point where you’re wondering if you’ve got something worthwhile to say.
If you’ve had this thought, even though you don’t know how to put it in action yet, I have good news–you’re headed in the right direction.
It’s not just about reaching a lot of people. If you can reach millions and your content is useless, your Return On Investment (ROI) will be so low it doesn’t justify the time spent writing.
There are some crucial things you can start doing right now, in the fundamentals of your blog writing process itself, that will turn around and bring you more readers and more success. Get on the road to better blogging today with a few simple, but key, tips.
15 Keys to Start Using Immediately And Get on a Path of Better Blogging
You’ve got to have a good mix of value and reach, but finding that mix is daunting. Following is a list of fifteen ways that have proven successful in helping blogs reach a wider audience and becoming a better blogger, overall.
1. Outrage, Uplift, Mystery: Emotions in Headlines Matter!
Whatever you’re writing, it needs to catch the eye and be emotional. Upworthy established a formula proven successful in the increase of clicks. It is comprised of creating headlines that alert customers of an “outrage” they can resonate with, uplifting them with the possibility of a solution or some other fulfillment, and establishing mystery throughout. Here are examples of headlines that use this formula:
You Won’t Believe The Discount Opportunities This Weekend, Or The Secret Coupons
Don’t Be A Victim Of Internet Scamming Through Hidden False Flag Social Media Campaigns
Is Our Government Losing Its Mind? Insider Tips On Corporate Savings
Note how each of these hits the reader in a relatable way at the beginning of the headline. Then, each title gives the reader a possible “uplift” (opportunities, don’t be a victim, tips). Finally, none of these titles give away enough information to let the reader move onward without clicking.
Now, one thing I’d bet we all hate is the “click-bait-that-doesn’t-deliver” title. You know, the ones that get you to do a thousand clicks through a ton of ads before you can get anywhere. Don’t be that person. You can be honestly outrageous without outing a cold lie about what your content delivers.
So, a couple do’s and don’t’s here:
Do: Be authoritative, challenging, fun, and even shocking in your title–as long as your content delivers on what the title actually says. (Give them those coupons and the coupon code. Give them actual examples of those bad social media campaigns. Show them a list of 10 great insider tips–not something that’s common knowledge.)
Don’t: Mislead. Click-bait title with no content that actually delivers on what you’re offering in the topic. (10 Ways You Can Actually Find Your Soulmate Today, for example, is pretty hard to fulfill on.)
We also have a free guide with over 120 power words for better headlines: get it here.
Playing around with that tool and utilizing guides with power words can get you great results.
I worked on the headline of this very blog for about 20 minutes to get this score from the AMI tool:
2. Is Your Blog Mobile Friendly?
Simple, but key. Half of all consumers conducting a search locally on their smartphone followed their search with a visit to the store within 24 hours, while only 34% did the same on a computer tablet. As smartphones become regular features of society, blogs that are easy to navigate on them will naturally increase in readership. When writing a blog, don’t forget to keep the mobile angle in mind.
3. Utilize Good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Techniques
3 out of 4 people (75%) who conduct a search on a search engine won’t scroll further than the first page of results. This means that if your blog doesn’t show up within that first page, it is 75% less likely to even be seen. You’ve got to have it optimized for a search engine, and SEO techniques like keyword inclusion are a great way to do that. You shouldn’t go overboard with keywords, but the right amount will very likely increase your readership. Writing a good meta description for every blog is also a key of SEO blogging. Also, beyond outrage, uplift, and mystery, have a title that is likewise optimized with your keyword.
4. Aim Your Blog At The Right Audience (Share-ability)
It’s all about opportunity cost. You want the greatest opportunity for the least cost. That means you want to aim your content at an audience who’s likely to share your blog. If you give your content value and properly engage this audience, you stand to see circulation in a way that’s wider than any solo efforts could produce (Moz).
5. Do You Have Share Buttons Visible on Every Blog Post?
Not only that, but share your blog on every social media platform yourself. Making sure your share buttons are visible is important to give every reader a chance to share with their network. Twitter has nearly the entire population of the United States in worldwide users monthly making posts, Facebook has about one billion users that are active, while Google+ and LinkedIn both have constituents that transcend 300 million. Between the four of them, that’s 1.871 billion potential readers—though certainly some crossover between the platforms is to be expected. The point is, you’ve got at least a billion possible readers out there through social media, just waiting to check out your blog. Increasing readership through social media is really worth your time. A lot of people in the above-listed networks share content they agree with. If you get yours trending, the potential for cost-free marketing is high. I’ll give you a secret here, too: I’ve found huge engagement through sharing my content within private social media groups (I’ll talk about that soon).
6. Use Google Analytics to Review Your Content
Using Google to analyze the effectiveness of your blog is a quantifiable way to identify trends and successful practices; plus it’s free, and can save you a lot of time.
7. Reach Out and Be a Guest Blogger
Getting an established blog to host your posts can put your blogs in front of a diverse, established readership that is more likely to offer a high ROI-quotient than solo marketing. Find blogs that are of high quality and resonate with products and services you’re purveying. Contact people who run the site and see if there’s a way you can do a guest post.
8. Never Refrain From Humor
Next to sex, you can’t beat humor. According to authors Noah J. Goldstein and Robert B. Cialdini, as well as Steven J. Martin (despite his humorous involvement, it’s a different one than the SNL alum), a cartoon strip that isn’t offensive sent during negotiations is integral to generating higher levels of trust. This is quantifiable to the tune of 15% higher profits.
9. Offer Truly Useful Content
Another simple key. Design your blog not just to sell your products or services, exposit them, or market. All these things are definitely useful to your audience and potential clients; but the blog that goes above and beyond in a relatable way will have more readers. Give the reader something they can sink their teeth into. Something that affects them directly, and is useful in their daily lives. If you’re selling a lawn service, maybe relate a memory about an extremely well-groomed garden that has affected you throughout your adult life. Then maybe offer some reasons why neglecting to groom a lawn can keep such memories from coming to others. The more useful your content is, the more likely it will be shared.
10. Long-Form Content
Dichotomously, despite the short form writing which attracts mobile phone readers, long form content actually gets more shares—ten percent more, in fact. (Read my recent post on how to create long-form content.) One of the reasons for this is that a reader is more likely to become invested in a long-form post and share its content. The key is to have both short and long form posts. Be sure your long-form posts are optimized for mobile viewing, and that you’ve got a short list or takeaway to summarize the long post inside at some point (10 key takeaways, etc.).
11. Visuals, Visuals, Visuals
More pictures doesn’t automatically equate to more readers, but having at least one image on your blog post more than doubles both Twitter and Facebook Shares. Branded images that have the topic + blogger’s identity are more and more becoming the norm, replacing crappy, standard old stock imagery.
12. Hit All The Emotional Chords
Humor was touched on earlier because it’s easier to facilitate than awe, but as the graphic from Buzzsumo demonstrates, by far awe is the most popular emotion, followed by laughter, amusement, other, and joy.
13. Establish a Regular Publication Schedule
Add content to your blog predictably, so readers can incorporate you into their routine. I can’t tell you how much a regular schedule is key to consistent rankings, too. Google knows to eat up new content from you, and will regularly (use long-term key phrases to win at blogging). I blog 3 times weekly, over 1000 words each post, and our rankings have been increasing since 2014 when I seriously committed to that many blogs. We have over 300 keywords in the top 10 spots of Google. (Read our blog post on how we gained 300 spots for more on our content schedule.)
14. Boost Old Blogposts That Are Relevant
An old post already has hit its peak of readers, but sometimes an old post becomes relevant again. Think of the economy. Certain stocks go up, and they come down; and different blogs over the years could prove useful in identifying trends. If you’ve written a past blog that suddenly becomes relevant again, blast it across social media with a new blurb citing your clairvoyance. It’ll help build trust and awe, and if you’ve got a colloquial amount of charming snark, you might even get a laugh.
15. Analyze and Try, Try, Try Again
Okay, you can’t try everything, but you can go after a number of different tactics and see which ones work the best for you. The old adage, “you don’t know unless you try” is as true here as it is anywhere else. Don’t be too risky, but don’t be afraid to take risks either; after all: “fortune favors the bold.” Don’t forget to analyze and track your results.
Successful Blogging Doesn’t Come Overnight (Or Does It?)
Now that you’ve got some useful tips to help you get started, try a few out and see if you don’t start getting more readers. You may not have success overnight, but then again, with the viral nature of the Internet, you just might.
Need great blogs (or maybe a blogging plan)? Let us do the heavy lifting (*cough* writing) for you! Shop here.
For one, many people misunderstand the purpose of blogs. Blogs go far beyond the mundane – they’re used for everything from showcasing personal writing to offering actionable tips that can help people solve problems and make their lives better, raise brand awareness, and in many cases (like ours) drive a huge percentage of online leads to their business.
10 Key Reasons to Start Blogging For Business (Now)
To me, blogging is like the surety of an umbrella on a rainy day. As long as we consistently blog (along with a formula of high quality content + promotion of what we create), we keep our SEO rankings up and thriving, and our visitor numbers flourishing. No matter how “rainy” the day gets, these leads will come in. If you’ve ever considered starting a blog for your business, here are the top 10 reasons you should do it right now.
The Power of Content Today (Case Study) – Published back in July 2015, this is still relevant to our post today. I discuss how content is the cornerstone of online marketing.
Seriously, though, how do people typically find your website? If they come to it via paid aids, it’s likely that you’re spending a lot of money that you don’t have to. If this sounds like your situation, it’s probably wise for you to start dividing your time differently.
Instead of spending tons of money on paid ads, you can start blogging, beefing up your social media presence, and optimizing everything you do for SEO.
Here’s why it works: if you don’t blog, your website is a little stagnant. It’s likely that you don’t have a ton of pages and, of the pages you do have, very few of them are updated that often. In a setup like this, you don’t have many pages indexed in Google, which means that you’re only marginally visible to people who may be searching for a company like yours. This, in turn, means that one of the only real ways to grab traffic for your site is to pay for it. When you blog, though, all of this changes.
Every time you write a new blog, you provide a new page to be indexed in Google. By creating content that your readers and customers love, you ensure that people can find your page. Plus, when you share your blogged content on social media, you create an entirely new outlet for traffic and social shares. (And content is HUGE for Google. Their recent 160-page doc, which we analyzed, discusses how their standards rely on the quality and expertise of the written content.)
2) Blogging can help you make conversions
Once you’ve begun to drive traffic to your site via content, you’ll need to find a way to convert that traffic, right? Enter the power of the blog. Because every page you write is a new page that Google gets to index, every page you write is also an opportunity to create new leads and help those leads convert into subscribers, sales, or shares.
Blogs work best for conversions when you focus on including a high-quality CTA at the end of every blog post. By doing this, you tell your viewers exactly what you want them to do and help ensure that nothing is lost in translation. It’s really that simple.
3) Blogging helps establish you as an authority
What’s one of the most important aspects both of ranking well and drawing in new readers, done with blogging for business? If you answered “authority” you’re right on. Page authority is incredibly important and it’s not something you can buy. The only way to create authority on the web is to create content that is genuinely useful, helpful, and interesting to readers.
Nowadays, the majority of people (about 81%) conduct nearly all of their product research before ever speaking to a company or its customer service representatives. One of the primary places that people turn to conduct this research is the web. When you build and maintain a business blog where you publish valuable, educational, helpful content, you can be the person who provides the answers to questions your would-be customers ask during the research process. By doing this, you establish your company as a leader in the industry, as well as helping ensure that when the customer is ready to purchase, they’ll come back to your site.
4) Blogging for business is a long-term plan
There are many marketing tactics that produce short-term results. While those things can be effective to drive huge bursts of traffic, they’re seldom cut out to be a long-term solution. Blogging, on the other hand, is designed for the long-term.
When you sit down to create a blog, you create a valuable piece of content that long outlives your efforts and your investment in it. By generating shares, drawing views, and producing conversions, each blog you write has the potential to draw traffic long beyond the day it is published. In fact, HubSpot reports that upwards of 70% of its monthly traffic and 90% of its overall leads come from blogs that were published in previous months, some even as long as a year ago.
5) Blogging is low-cost, high-return
Have we mentioned that blogging only costs what you want to invest for writing and imagery? The ROI is way, way worth the small investments. Blogging is both one of the cheapest and one of the most effective ways to drive traffic, views, and attention to your business website and, while it has the potential to produce a huge return investment, it doesn’t cost anything to get started.
6) You don’t have to be a tech expert
Blogging isn’t a pastime reserved only for the uber-techy. Instead, it’s a simple, accessible move that virtually everyone can make. Platforms like HubSpot and WordPress are designed to be hugely people-friendly and not require outstanding design skills. While it’s all well and good to know HTML and CSS, you certainly don’t need to have these things mastered when you start your blog.
Just remember to get a good writer who knows what he or she is talking about in your industry, and you’re set.
7) Your blog provides you with a source of content gold
Content creation is tough, isn’t it? When you have a blog, though, you supply yourself with fodder for all of your other social media platforms, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and all of your marketing copy like emails, newsletters and eBooks.
A blog provides an important source of original content and helps you stay on schedule in terms of content creation and distribution. This is especially true when you hire a team of writers to handle your content creation for you.
8) Blogging keeps you on your toes
If you’re not creating content, there’s an argument to be made that you’re not keeping up with the times. Because blogging requires content, it makes you perk up and pay attention to what’s going on in your industry, including where new developments are coming from, who’s winning at the game, and what’s helping other marketers succeed.
Keeping an ear to the ground in these topics will help ensure that you’re on the cutting edge of your industry and will help you provide your users with awesome content that they find illuminating and helpful.
9) Blogging is a great place to tell your brand’s story
Nowadays, consumers want brands they can relate to and support fully. There’s no better way to produce this for your company than to tell your brand’s story. But how do you tell your brand’s story? There are many ways, of course, but ta blog is one of the best.
When you have a blog, you can dedicate time to developing a unique POV that helps you further your brand’s mission, stand out from the crowd, and provide important insight for your users. This, in turn, promotes bonding with your customers and keeps your brand fresh in their minds.
10) Blogs provide insight into your customers
Once you start posting blog content and people begin to interact with it, you’ve gained yourself a valuable look into your customers’ behaviors, preferences, and sharing habits. By analyzing your blog analytics, you can learn more about what your readers read, click, and share, which allows you to plan your marketing efforts better and to better cater to your unique users. All of these things are important to attaining business success and, when done well, can help you ace your marketing and produce better conversions and more sales.
Conclusion
When it comes to blogging for business, if you’re not doing it, you should be. Creating a blog for your business is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to boost your SEO, gain more leads, make more sales, drive more traffic, and stay on the cutting edge of your industry. Plus, blogging is a fantastic way to gain inspiration and have fun in your industry.
By seeking to create great content on a daily basis, you put yourself in the ideal position to learn, expand your horizons, and make new connections, which is great for your company and for you as an individual!
About 15 years ago, it was virtually unheard of for businesses to have their own blog. At the time, blogs were mostly diaries in disguise (Livejournal, anyone?), and very few companies had even heard of the concept of blogging for business. Content marketing was anything but a topic of conversation, and some small businesses lagged behind on having any type of web presence at all. As the concept of having a company website became more and more prevalent, keeping the website updated and maintained became another battle. It became clear that having a company website was anything but a fad, and businesses soon had to incorporate ideas of standing out from their competition online. The web was a blank canvass for upcoming business blogs, and the competition was about to explode throughout the new millennium.
Fast forward: it’s now almost 2015. While not every single company possesses a blog these days, many of them do. It’s interesting to see companies that have a smart blogging strategy in place, and those who aren’t too dedicated to managing their own blog. If companies aren’t currently blogging, the typical reasons include:
Not enough time
Fresh out of ideas
Don’t know where to start
20 Techniques To Blow Up Your Business Blogging
If you manage a company blog and you’re experiencing one or all three of these set backs, today is your lucky day. I’ve been around the blogging block a time or two, and I can tell you what kind of techniques work for creating, managing, and writing your very own blog. The following tips will enhance your online presence while having a blog that’s easy and entertaining to read for your customers. After all, isn’t that overall goal?
1. How’s That Headline? Did you know that 80% of customers will read your headline, but only 20% will actually read anything beyond? Think of all that hard work you put into your blog, only to have your customers click the back button. Writing powerful headlines is an absolute must for generating any kind of engagement. Think about it from your own point of view: if this blog post was entitled “20 Ways to Write a Nice Blog Post”, would you ever click on it? If I were a betting woman, I would definitely bet no. No one likes a boring read. Put some thought into that headline.
2. Verbs, Not Adjectives. While adjectives have their place, using verbs in your blog has the potential to create some very compelling copy. Some of my personal favorite verbs include:
Dazzle
Compel
Astonish
Bewilder
Captivating
Conquer
Delight
Discover
Putting verbs in your headline or copy inspires people to take action. Taking action leads to conversion. What does this mean? Verbs are power words for your blogging strategy. Not to mention, they are pretty fun to write with. Give it a try.
3. Spark Some Emotion. Notice that all of my favorite verbs are related to some form of emotion. If you want to write a strong blog, you’re going to have to write something that sparks some form of emotion: preferably a positive one, since most people aren’t going to respond too well to negative emotion.
Connecting to people on an emotional level gives them something that they can find as relatable. If you can get your customers relating to your company or product, that’s a big part of the battle. That’s when they become emotionally invested, and that is exactly what you want.
4. Become an Inspiration. Isn’t it great to feel motivated and inspired? Help your customers feel the same. While inspiration can come in many forms, use your sources to better your community or the life of a person in need. If you have an interesting background of how you came from poverty and built your business from the ground up, people will want to hear your story. Depending on your industry, you can take this in many directions. You can inspire people to get healthy, get an education, or even seek treatment for an addiction.
5. Write Longer Posts. Sorry folks, but two paragraphs are not going to cut it. In fact, three or four paragraphs probably won’t take you very far, either. Studies have shown that long content (think 1500 words minimum) performs and converts better than content that’s considered short. Your audience is looking for engagement, and long (well-written) content is a surefire way to get your audience thinking.
You’ll be spending some extra time at the keyboard, but it’ll pay off in the long run.
6. The Presentation Factor. Have you ever received an e-mail that was literally one giant block of text? That e-mail could have contained the secrets of the universe, but the presentation ruined everything. And it was such a great topic!
When you’re writing your blog, it’s important to establish exactly how you’re going to present the information. If you are currently using the one-huge-text-block strategy, it’s time to start thinking in punctuation and paragraphs. Be careful on how you present.
7. Playing with Paragraphs. Paragraphs are mandatory when it comes to almost any kind of content writing. As a general rule, most paragraphs are about six sentences long. I like to play with paragraph lengths and keep them around 100 words if at all possible. When I hit around the 100-word mark, I then divide the paragraphs up using sub headers.
8. Standout Sub Headers. Yes, your headline has to be top notch. However, that’s no reason to skimp on your sub headers. Use the same techniques for writing strong headlines, and incorporate those into writing your sub headers. Your sub headers are typically in larger or bold font compared to the rest of your text, so think of them as additional opportunities to grab attention. Sub headers need some love, too!
9. Always Use Images. Try to include an image with every blog post, even if it’s just one. Images break up the monotony of text-headline-text-headline. Keep in mind that some people are visual learners, and graphics can help relay your information in different ways than text alone. You don’t have to hire a photographer, but it’s nice to have some unique images to go along with your blog post.
10. But Refrain From Super Generic Stock Images. Let me be clear and say there’s nothing wrong with using stock images at all. However, remember that there are batches of stock images out there that almost every other company is using. If you have to resort to bad stock images, use them sparingly. Just remember that you might come across another company using the exact same photography as you. Try to stay unique in every aspect of your blog that you can.
11. Remember Who You’re Talking To. As you craft your blog post, it’s easy to forget that you’re not talking to your word processor: you’re talking to people. Write as if you are having a conversation with another person on the other side of the screen. Expect people to comment and reply back. Once your blog is published for the real world to see, people will likely have something to say.
12. Use Your Competitor’s Blog as Inspiration. Whatever your competitor is blogging about, you can do it better. Don’t outright steal their ideas, but use their blog posts as an edge. If you read their blog post for the week and it feels like there are gaps in their information, take advantage of this opportunity and fill the holes with your own unique blog posts. Chances are, this is information that your customers are already looking for. Many companies will hold back on giving away too much information because they think that their customers will take the valuable info and run. This isn’t always the case; giving away valuable information for free makes you an authority. Customers will buy from authoritative companies.
13. Don’t Overcomplicate Your Message. Blogging is not meant to be a mysterious and super complex marketing strategy. Blogging is about giving your brand a voice and reaching out to customers who are looking for relevant information. You can easily break down your thoughts by using bullet points, short paragraphs, and images. If your blog is easy to digest, you won’t have to worry about readers grasping your message.
14. Plan Ahead. Planning ahead for your upcoming blog can help save a ridiculous amount of time. If you’re normally hard-pressed for ideas, take an hour or two per week to dedicate solely on discovering great content ideas for your blog. It’s so much easier to sit down at your computer in the morning knowing exactly what topic you’re writing about that day. Staring at a blank screen waiting for an idea is a one-way ticket to writer’s block.
15. When You’re Tired, Take a Break. It’s a common sense technique, but don’t push to write more when you’re burnt out for the day. Personally, my quality of writing takes a drastic nosedive when I’m running out of steam. Some people may thrive on this, but it’s important to realize when you’re at your max. Step away from the computer for a while and even take a catnap or go outside for a walk. Your creative juices will come flowing back when you’re feeling refreshed.
16. Answer Questions. Customers are coming to your website because they’re looking for information: most times, that information is coming in the form of a question. Try to make sure that every blog post answers a question in one way or another. Answering questions for customers adds educational value, which in turn helps you build your brand.
17. Tread Where Competitors Won’t. This technique is one of my favorites. I personally love tackling topics that competitors will not (or have not) addressed. For example, if you work in an industry where price is typically not revealed until late in the buying process, write a blog post addressing this issue. Better yet, write a blog post that gives price ranges for your products. You’ll be surprised at how much traffic you can generate by blogging about taboo topics in your niches.
18. Be Consistent. Consistent blogging is best practice for establishing a regular publishing flow with your customers. If you write your blog on Monday morning and publish it after lunch on a regular basis, your audience will come to expect your regular publishing schedule. This is beneficial for customers who might be scoping out your blog for deals, promotions, or new products. Try to pick a day that works for you and stick with it.
19. Leave Them Hanging. OK, so only a little bit. Building anticipation through your blog is a great technique for getting your audience to come back for more. This is especially true if you’re offering a free product, making a big announcement, or you’re about the spill the beans on something juicy. You know the feeling you get when your favorite TV show leaves you feeling like you’re at the edge of a cliff? It can be frustrating, but you know you’ll be back for more next week.
20. Don’t Try to Be Everything to Everyone. Catering your blog to everyone under the sun isn’t beneficial to anyone. Blogging isn’t about throwing everything you’ve got at the wall and hoping that it sticks. You want to write to a specific audience so you can maximize your traffic and conversion rates. Even if you’re a company that sells paper plates, don’t try to boil an ocean with a one-size-fits-all blogging strategy.
These techniques have personally helped me throughout my blogging career, and it’s helpful to refer back to them whenever I’m in a pinch.
If there’s anything that you take away from these tips, always strive to remain relevant and helpful to your customers.
Remember: if you build your blog around addressing your customers’ needs, you’ll always come out as a winner in the end.
Image credit: alexskopje / iStock
Download your Free copy of From Start to Finish: A Guide On Creating & Maintaining a Solid Blog