The popularity of business blogging has risen significantly in recent years. But what many may not realise is that this is an audience-driven change, with around 70% of people preferring to find out about a company through their blog content rather than via advertising according to research by Startup Bonsai.
In a world of constant technology and social media use, business blogging is the key to finding and retaining your audience. Getting them interested in your brand is the best way to get them to buy your product or invest in your service. But how do you create a successful business blog? Read on for tips and advice on how to keep your blog bringing in clients.
Define Your Target Audience
Before you start writing, determine who your ideal reader is and what kind of information they’re looking for. This way, you can target your blog titles and topics towards that audience. This ensures that your blogs will reach the correct people and will bring in a consumer who you are more likely to achieve a sale from.
Plan Your Content Strategy
Create a content calendar and plan out what topics you’ll cover, how often you’ll publish new content and who will be responsible for creating it. When it comes to business blogging, consistency is as important as quality in terms of maintaining engagement and boosting consumer awareness of your brand. A content strategy can help you to post continuous and consistent content which adds to your reliability and means your posts are more likely to be widely discovered.
Use a Conversational Tone
Avoid using overly formal language and write as if you’re having a conversation with your readers. Whilst you should aim for informative and reliable content to build a reputation for trustworthiness, using a more accessible, friendly tone also helps to build rapport. Rather than feeling lectured, your audience should be intrigued or excited by your content.
Write Engaging Headlines
Your headline should grab the reader’s attention and make them want to read more. No matter how great your article is, nobody will read it if the headline is boring. Make sure it explains the content of your article but also that it is catchy and intriguing, especially for your target audience.
Make Your Content Visually Appealing
Incorporate images, infographics and videos in your blogs to make your content more engaging. Consider colour schemes, fonts and text sizes when it comes to creating a visually interesting page that will encourage an audience to keep reading.
Use SEO Best Practices
Incorporate keywords and meta descriptions to improve your search engine rankings and make your content more discoverable. When searching for content or advice, people don’t tend to scroll very far through search results, so it is up to you to ensure your blog posts and content is at the top of search engines.
Encourage Interaction
Encourage readers to leave comments and engage with your content by asking questions or soliciting feedback. More interactions with your posts can help to increase the credibility of your site. As well as this, those who interact with your brand are likely to become more personally invested and remember you for longer.
Promote Your Blog
Share your blog posts on social media and other relevant platforms to reach a wider audience. With users across all demographics, social media is the best way to spread content quickly and reach a huge range of audiences. You can use hashtags and other methods to help reach a wider audience and ensure that your content reaches your target demographic.
Provide Value
Make sure your content is informative, educational and valuable to your readers. This can help you to build a rapport with readers by showing that you are a trustworthy and helpful source. This way, they are more likely to interact with your brand again and to rely on you for products and services.
Be Consistent
Stick to a regular publishing schedule and keep your content consistent in terms of tone, voice and style. This is key to staying memorable and building rapport with an audience. A consistent tone ensures the reader feels comfortable and almost as if they are talking to a friend when they read your blogs.
Be Relevant
Provide valuable content for the audience you are targeting to ensure you hook the right people. Try to think like a customer and use keywords that they are likely to search for. There are a lot of tools that can help you identify keywords that can make your content more discoverable.
Answer Customer Questions
Once you have reached an audience with your product or service, they are sure to have questions. Reach out to your support staff to find out what customers frequently ask, then build articles around these common queries which can go into much detail and demonstrate your dedication to addressing consumer concerns.
Build a Connection
Write with personality in order to make your audience feel more connected to you and your brand. Especially when running a smaller business, building a more personal connection can help build the trustworthiness of your brand and endear potential clients to you.
Find a Unique Angle
Talk about topical news and stories with your own perspective. There is plenty of news coverage from popular outlets – to stand out, make sure you use a fresh perspective. Focus on how this news affects your company or your target audience specifically to provide more valuable content for your readers.
Consider Article Length
Create longer articles to generate more organic traffic. Articles with around 2,000 words or more tend to do better in search engine results, give you the opportunity to create further backlinks and are shared more often on social media.
Final Thoughts
It can feel overwhelming trying to abide by all of these tips, but they can provide significant benefits to a business. Start business blogging today and see how much you can increase your brand awareness and conversion rates.
