Writing a business blog consistently, regularly, and with authority is one of the hardest challenges in any ongoing social media campaign. I should know, I’ve been doing it since 2005, and sometimes it’s hard to keep it fresh.
Business blogging can seem, at times, like an unwelcome distraction from the day-to-day priorities of managing a business, keeping the sales pipeline looking healthy, dealing with customers and clients, and the myriad of other marketing activities which need attention both online and offline.
But a well-managed, well-written and well-delivered business blog can give many rewards – and not just financial.
Here’s six ways to boost your business blog and take it to the next level – particularly useful if you’re struggling to keep writing effective blog content to tight deadlines alongside your other commercial imperatives.
* Write about useful things
One of the key features of a successful business blog is the ability of the author to provide consistently useful content. Remember that readers come back because they find the blog beneficial. It gives them something they can’t get elsewhere. Make sure you’re writing about useful things – like I did here a while ago. This remains one of my most popular blog posts.
* Write in other places online
Another great way to boost your business blog is to write elsewhere on other sites, and attract relevant, targeted traffic back to your blog. This increases comments, social media engagement and keeps your blog outward-looking. I wrote ‘The Seven Personality Types on Social Media’ on www.socialmediatoday.com recently. The results were staggering for my blog.
* Write about annoying things
One way to pull traffic back to your blog is to talk about things which annoy, upset or frustrate you – as I did here with Kwik Fit, when their shoddy mechanical service threatened my life back in 2010. I’m not advocating being contraversial for the sake of it – leave that to the bad PRs out there. Voicing your opinions on your blog is essential, to give your audience the real you.
* Write about your experiences
One of my favourite ways to keep a business blog fresh is to write about life experiences – as I did here recently. It engages an audience, gives them an accurate flavour of what it means to be in the author’s shoes, and helps deliver a valuable story to them. Remember, a good business blog should also pass on wisdom, humour and expertise. Your experiences can provide this.
* Write about people you admire
Or – even better – let them do the writing for you. Guest blogs like this one are a great way of building positive business relationships, giving your audience a different kind of insight, and allowing a trusted business contact to get in front of your valued blog audience. Everybody wins. This kind of reciprocity is what good blogging is all about.
* Write about your customers
A brilliant way of ensuring your business blog is staying fresh, vibrant and interesting is to write about your customers – or to let them write about working with you. Either way, it gives a huge amount of useful information to your readership. Take this part of the Bristol Editor site, for example: packed with positive client testimonials from social media consultancy. Pure gold.
