How to write a blog for your business

Marketing your business is probably high on your agenda and getting the word out on the street should be one of your main focuses. But the way the world is sold to has changed over the last few years. Content marketing and social media marketing has arrived, and one of the greatest tools for your website’s marketing is a business blog. You may have heard that blogging for business is important, but have you stopped to work out the best way to go about it? We love to give blogging for business tips, so here are our best ones just for you!

How do you write a blog for your business that works?

Blogging is an informative and interesting way to sell your business online. With short but quality posts you can educate your audience and also position yourself as an expert. Imagine that? You can self-publish your way to as expert in your field with your website!

As with anything in business (and in life) the effort you put in usually correlates with what you get out. Blogging is no different and a good business blog should be updated regularly and offer true value to your readers. Don’t fall into the trap of filling your website with hastily-cobbled together tripe and expecting it to work.

Here are our power tips to make your blog shine…

Offer value:
Offering value is not only important to your readers and your reputation but it’s also a key signal that Google looks for. Want more readers AND more traffic? Offer true value in your content with expert advice, tips and knowledge in great blogs. 

It’s a blog not a news feed:
A blog is a blog and a news feed is a news feed. I’ve lost count of the number of businesses I’ve come across who say they’re blogging but they just have a news feed on their website.

Putting out an RSS feed of news from your industry can have its place – but it’s not blogging. Blogging is your opinions and your advice. In turn each blog is unique and offers extra value over recycled news from other people.

Less is not more but too much is a bore:
Real people read blogs, but Google will serve them up to them in the search results, so you have to please both. Google wants quality and value and readers want it all in easy-to-digest bites that they read on the go. As a rule of thumb you should write between 400 – 1200 words. Anything less is not seen as valuable by Google, and anything more can be too much to read within the average two minute attention span online.

Get to the point!:
Don’t waffle. In the first paragraph you should tell your readers what you’re going to tell them. In the body of your blog you should then tell them what you want to say. The conclusion is where you sum up what you’ve told them. Like it or not, readers of your blog are in it for themselves and if you don’t hurry up and give them what they want they’ll disappear.

Be social:

Social media should be at the core of your blogging campaign and that means sharing it on social as well as making it easy for your readers to share. Post your blog on all your social outputs (more than once or twice on Twitter). Make sure you have prominent social share buttons on your blog posts so happy readers can share it on their social outputs – it carries way more social proof. (You can share this blog with the buttons at the top!)

Add a call to action:
You will attract traffic to your website so don’t waste the opportunity to convert them. Add your call to action at the end of your post, convert them to your newsletter or tell them about an area of your site that they may find useful. Make sure you place something meaty and simple to click. Linking to other content early can work well. Calls to action don’t always have to be at the end, so experiment to see what works for you.

Research your keywords:
If you want to attract a certain type of traffic then you’ll need to know what they’re searching for and be the answer to those questions. You should target your blog towards people looking for advice and help. This is why ‘how to’ blogs are high on the reader stats and search results. Try to put yourself in the shoes of your potential customers and think about what they’ll be looking for. That’s what they type as a search query. This is NOT usually the name of your product or service, so think from their perspective.

Make it come alive:
Unlike most written content in business, a blog is the social part of your company and you should make it feel like a community. Comments are a key ingredient of your blog. They’re seen by Google as a sign that your website is social and interesting to others. Later in a blog’s lifetime they can give fresh signals to Google that the post is still there. Get the interaction going.

A picture paints a thousand words (and breaks up the copy)
Separating large blocks of words will help make the content feel more digestible to your readers. By drawing the eye down the page, the post will feel shorter with less effort for the reader. Ensure you name your images for Google too.

Great headlines sell newspapers
Capturing your readers in the search results or on social media is just the same as a newspaper capturing your attention from the newsstand. Bold and powerful headlines that capture the imagination or the emotion of the reader will win. Think about what your ideal reader wants. Write about it and add a compelling headline to seal the deal.

Less is NOT more
There’s a common theme amongst popular blogs – they’re updated frequently. To gain traction and traffic to your site you should be publishing as often as you can. We try to post here at least once a week but some of the most popular blogs post daily! The more (quality) content you can give the better. Try to schedule in your blogging as this will help focus your attention on it.

So where do you start with your business blog?

Having a plan will focus your attention and efforts to blogging. Keep a diary of ideas as they will come when you’re least expecting them and you don’t want to sit down to write a blog with an empty head.

A blog should be on your main website as that will drive traffic to the actual place you want it. You can get more content with less effort from you if you offer guest blogging too. Just make sure that it’s relevant so you don’t fall foul of Google’s latest update on guest blogging.

To sum up (for the skimmers!)

• Offer value as Google and your readers will thank you for it.
• A blog is not a news feed. Blogs offer value and advice not sales and boring business updates.
• Don’t write too much or too little. Google likes more than 3-400 words per page but the average online reader wants a two minute post. 400- 1200 words is where it’s at.
• Get to the point quickly. Tell your reader what your post is about – it’s not a novel.
• Be social. Share your posts on social media and don’t forget your social share buttons on your posts so others can too.
• Add a call to action to show your products and services or capture reader’s emails for future posts and offerings.
• Research your keywords. Put yourself in the shoes of your reader. What do they type into a search engine? Put those words in your blog.
• Make your blog come alive. The comments on your blog are a great place to build more interest. Open them up and don’t forget to comment back.
• Add pictures for more interesting posts and help the reader’s eye draw down the page.
• Write a compelling headline – sell your content!
• Write often and write well. Most of the best blogs are quality daily posts – keep posting!

So there you are – just some of the great tricks we use in our own posts and our client’s blogs. If you’re still stuck for ideas you may find our recent post on business blogs useful. Feel free to ask us a question in the comments below.

Still not convinced you can do it? Maybe you don’t have the time. We can do it for you! Just visit our business blogging services page.

Thanks for reading. Please share this post if you found it useful – sharing is caring 😉

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