5 Tips for Creating a Top Business Blog
There are literally millions of blogs out there on the Web today, and now that blogging has become the number one content marketing tool for B2B companies, millions more are being added all the time.
Yes, there’s a lot of blogging going on out there, and there’s a lot of competition for people’s precious time.
But there’s also one factor working in the favor of every business that seeks to produce a truly worthwhile blog.
What is it?
Simply this: most blogs stink.
However, if you’re serious about writing a blog that has the potential to increase both leads and sales, then give these proven steps a try.
Keep your focus.
A lot of blogs have about as much focus as a hyperactive canine. And while that’s a problem, it’s easy to see how it happens.
Many corporate blogs, especially, have a lot of fingers in the blog pie. And everyone has an opinion on what ingredients the blog needs.
Different viewpoints—and personalities—can be the lifeblood of any successful blog, but making sure those individual voices mesh into a cohesive whole can make the difference between success and failure.
Even if you only have one or two people working on your blog, you can still run into this problem, because even one person can find themselves going off on a lot of different tangents.
So make the first rule of your blog focus.
Know who you’re writing for.
Another quagmire many blogs find themselves in is a lack of clarity on who the target audience is.
This is an easy situation to get into, because it’s human nature (for most of us, anyway) to want to be liked. And businesses are no different.
After all, who doesn’t want to be all things to all people?
But, as in life, this is a recipe for mediocrity.
Wondering who your target audience is?
Chances are, you probably already have that information close at hand.
Talk to your sales department. They have more contact with your prospects than just about anyone, so they should have some good insight into the wants and needs of your customers.
Survey existing clients. Just a few carefully chosen questions can return volumes of information.
Take a look at past case studies. Success stories provide a wealth of information on what makes your target audience tick.
And don’t forget customer service. Who better to give you insight into any problems or issues your customers may be facing?
Write well.
This one may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised (or maybe you wouldn’t) at how many blogs are positively painful to read.
Now I’m not saying you need to be creating Pulitzer prize winning material.
But you do need to be producing a blog that doesn’t look as though it was written by the, shall we say, grammatically challenged.
So whether your blog is written by one person or an entire team, think about designating someone to review the content for quality.
Be consistent.
There’s a lot of debate regarding how often a blog needs to be updated in order to be successful.
Some say every day, while others say a minimum of twice a month.
My own personal advice is that you do what’s feasible for you and your resources.
If you have the people power and the time, then every day may be the way to go. But if your company is small or has limited resources, you may want to start with twice a month.
Yes, the more frequently you post, the more you’ll be rewarded by the search engines.
But the object here isn’t to kill yourself trying to get your next blog post online. Rather, you should be aiming for a consistent posting schedule that works for you.
Eventually, you may want to increase the amount of posting you do each month, but any regular posting schedule is better than none.
Keep a calendar.
Finally, to keep your blog on track—and avoid a decidedly painful case of writer’s block—you’ll probably want to consider keeping an editorial calendar.
There are all sorts of software programs available to create everything from the most basic to the most complex calendar, but an editorial calendar can be as easy as a simple spreadsheet or pen and paper.
I’ll talk more about editorial calendars in the future, but for now just remember they don’t have to be fancy.
The important thing is to just come up with a simple way to keep track of what you’ll be writing about, when you’ll be writing about it, and who’ll be doing the writing.
There may be a gazillion business blogs available on the Web today, but with just a few steps and a little dedication, yours can be one prospects actively seek out—bringing real value to them and more leads and sales to you.
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