6 must-have elements for a successful business blog
While writing a business blog takes time, time is not the main reason small business owners abandon their blogs.
People abandon their business blogs when they run out of ideas and direction when the blog doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.
In this post, you’ll learn to fill your business blog with purpose so this doesn’t happen to you.
Why do you need a business blog?
Before we get to how to maintain a business blog, let’s go through what’s so good about having one.
1. A business blog lets people and search engines know you’re still in business
Businesses without a range of ever-changing products are at risk of seeming invisible. People who visit you can’t be sure you’re still in business, especially if design trends have changed and your site looks dated compared to competitors.
Another problem is that without a blog component to your website, search engines don’t have a need to index your pages as much so your ranking in search results suffers.
A regularly updated blog is a sign of life; reassuring people you’re still around and open for business.
2. A business blog leads new potential customers to your website
Blog posts are a social animal. When you publish new posts to your business blog, they get pinged out to RSS services, and optionally, your newsletter subscribers and social networks too. Search engines get notified your website has new fresh content and they rush over to index your post.
Image: DemandMetric
If your article has been well optimised, you’ll find more traffic starts coming to your site because you’re being discovered under certain keywords in search engines. It also gives people a reason to share you in their socials.
You don’t get this buzz with static pages — nobody shares a sales page or a contact page, but people are happy to share well-written informative or fun content.
People don’t want to read the same brochure every day, but we all love news. Blog posts are news.
3. A business blog showcases your knowledge and credibility
A business blog gives you a way to talk about your specialities in your own voice, without the degree of formality you normally see on a regular static page. You can answer common questions and talk about projects and topics that don’t fit on a sales page.
Image: DemandMetric
You can weave in personal stories, revealing snippets of your life to present yourself as a real live person that people can relate to.
Over time, a blog builds trust and authority in a way that’s much more powerful than static sales pages on your site. People hear your voice, learn your values, and get an idea of what you are like to work with.
Build your business blog with purpose
A business blog is a valuable part of your website and a great marketing tool. Now you want to structure it in a way that gives it an ongoing purpose supporting your business.
Tip 1: Stick to a single topic per post
Blog posts are so easy to write, and instant to publish that the quality control around them may not be as tight as it is for your static pages.
For example, you’re reading this page for tips on writing your business blog for the long term. It would be disjointed and confusing if I threw in bits about social media marketing, guest blogging, plus ten marketing lessons from the last Star Wars movie.
Image: DemandMetric
Focus on making each post well-structured, self-contained, and relevant to the reader.
Watch out for blogging overwhelm. This happens when you have so much to say about something, it gets exhausting keeping up with yourself. Don’t write everything around a topic. Isolate the threads of your subject to make blogging manageable for you and helpful to the reader.
Tip 2: Understand who you are writing for
I’m a writer, and I’m also a writing and marketing coach.
People who hire me to write don’t want to learn to write themselves, but my blog reassures them I know what I’m doing.
Others read my blog because they want to learn. I love to teach so it’s a win-win.
My articles fit my business, but more importantly, they give readers what they came for.
My coaching-based approach would not work for a tailor whose clients don’t want to sew their own clothes.
A tailor’s business blog might be about fabrics and drapes and styles. He could post pictures of his creations and talk about cuts for different figures. The tailor has readers who want to look good in their clothes and he likes making people look good. It’s a win-win relationship and the blog will stand the test of time.
If you’re worried about the commitment, you don’t need to do the writing yourself. 62% of companies in the US outsource their content marketing.
Tip 3: Use your voice to match your service
Your writing voice can be formal or informal, chatty or factual. The closer it is to the way you naturally speak, the easier it is to keep writing regularly.
However, there are two exceptions:
Don’t offend your customers or use a style of language just because it’s cool or everyone else is doing it. If you wouldn’t swear to customers face-to-face, there’s no need to swear in print.
Use words and examples your clients can relate to, especially if you’re targetting certain demographics. You might have to introduce words and spellings to your vocabulary that you wouldn’t ordinarily use.
Image: Wednesday Genius Instagram
Writing in a voice that fits you and your audience makes your business blog posts engaging and enjoyable to read and write — and hence maintainable for the long-term.
Tip 4: Remember you’re blogging for business
Blog posts are less formal than static pages but don’t turn them into a brain dump or stream-of-consciousness ramblings because this kind of approach to a business blog leaves readers unsure about what you do and how you can help them.
Structured business blog posts flow from point to poin, encouraging the reader to move forward and feel satisfied they got what they came for.
Adding personality through voice works better than over-sharing random happenings that add no value to your business. Some people use stories to make a business point or lead to a call-to-action — do it intentionally and it’s a powerful copywriting technique.
Make editing an essential part of the blogging process to catch out irrelevant sections and oversharing. This way your business blog remains on-point and has long-term potential because there’s a purpose every time you sit down to write.
Tip 5: Learn SEO and content marketing techniques
Writers need readers and you’re going to get disillusioned when it seems you’re shouting into a black hole and even your echo can’t be bothered to reply.
Content marketing and SEO helps readers find your blog through a variety of different channels, including organic search and social media.
When you are deliberate about keywords, search engines start understanding what your site is all about and, over time, your site develops authority as it gains more inbound links.
Tip 6: Don’t stress too much about the topics you choose
Some bloggers abandon their business blogs because they don’t know how to choose unique topics and go into a mental freeze about what they can say that hasn’t been said before.
But it’s not about having a unique topic. Whatever topics you write about, know that a thousand other bloggers are talking about them too.
Don’t worry so much about the topic, focus on what your business does and know it’s your tone, perspective, and objectives that makes the difference.
You won’t resonate with everyone, but the strategies in this article will help you draw in more of the people who enjoy your style of business.
Your business blog can’t collect dust and grow stale if you start with and maintain a clear objective to justify the time you’re putting into it.
Once you know what you want your blog to do for you, you’ll find the things you talk about are a blend of client needs and the time/resources you have to write.
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