Blogging. It’s not a new internet buzzword but it’s certainly been a persistent one since its inception. Many called it a bubble continually on the verge of bursting but, well over ten years later, it’s still one of the only ways to create a distinguishable identity and authorship on the internet, which social networks struggle to achieve with their standardised format.
But what value does it have to your business? Well, besides its ability to create a dialogue with prospective customers and keep up-to-date with industry development, it also promotes trust and top-of-mind awareness with them, as well as realigning negative perceptions people might have of your company or industry.
Below are some general tips on maintaining a successful business blog:
Have Clearly Defined Goals
Blogging for the sake of some kind of web presence or its arbitrary marketing value won’t get you anywhere as you aren’t pursuing anything definite. Rather you should always be aware of what you’re trying to achieve with your blog and make sure that it’s actually possible. It can be clickthroughs, conversions or just traffic. The important thing is accounting for some type of metric.
Stay Engaged
Once you’ve gathered some followers they will want to see regular content updates, Otherwise they will forget about you.
The industry standard for business blogs is fairly loose but most agree on a maximum of 3 posts a week and a minimum of at least one a month, to keep followers engaged. Although, it’s better to prepare an interesting piece of content for users, that takes more time, than to just post for the sake of keeping the blog current.
Make content Friendly and Valuable
Try to remember that your market and you see your product/ service from a completely different perspective. So always try to be informative and interesting with you content, without assuming too much knowledge on their part, and ensure you address questions and interests clients would typically have about your product.
Readers like to connect with a person rather than a company. So try to be personal and flawed in your posts instead of making them sound like press releases. Discuss the obstacles you (the company) have faced and things that excite you in the industry.
Make Sure it Contributes to SEO
Blog posts are a great place to enhance you ranking. Some SEO issues to watch out for with your blog posts:
* Include popular keywords for your industry.
* Link to other interesting posts and authority figures in your industry.
* Ensure you have social buttons for easy sharing across social networks.
The key to success with your blog though, is analysis. Always watch the effect your posts have on certain Analytics figures and test and adjust accordingly. After a while you’ll start to master what people find compelling and what kind of content and marketing achieves your set goals.