Writing a blog that people want to read

If you’re serious about your business, then a business blog can be a cost effective and straightforward way to promote yourself. It’s a great way to access new customers and show your authority in your industry.

Blogs are not only a great way to communicate with your readers, but the more content you have on your site, the more pages you have indexed by search engines. This becomes hugely beneficial when it comes to your site ranking in the search engines and driving more traffic to your site.

So here are a few tips to propel you on the road to blogging success for your company:

1) Grab yourself an ‘Attention Grabbing Headline’

A blog headline is one of the most important parts of any blog content and it’s the reason why people will read your post.  Make sure your headline is eye catching and compelling and try to use trigger words that will grab your readers attention and want them to read on.

For instance, we could just have called this blog post ‘Blog writing tips’, but it probably wouldn’t have had as many people reading it. (We think ‘Writing a blog that people want to read’ is still straight to the point, but will garner a little more attention.)

2) Images and videos

It’s true: A picture is worth a 1,000 words, so I’m a big fan of incorporating visuals into a blog.  Images and videos will not only improve the appearance of a blog but will bring colour and movement to the page, grabbing readers attention.  It’s also been suggested that readers become more engaged with the post and are more likely to share it with friends and colleagues.

3) Picking your subject

If you’re stuck about what to blog about then take a look at your target market and try to get inside your readers minds and figure out what they value. Use your blog posts to share news, make announcements and relay interesting stories and links. Don’t forget blogs are meant to be informal so use your blog to show the human side of your company (the good bits at least – don’t go all sweary or political as this could lose you more readers than gain them).

Your company blog is a great way to communicate with your employees if you’re a reasonable sized company, as well as to recruit NEW employees if you’re looking to expand. Expressing to other people your company’s culture, mission, principles, policies and benefits may well get you noticed by hard working, committed potential employees who can be an asset to your company.

A word about the search engines

It’s worth bearing in mind that, you being you, (an expert on your industry), you’re naturally going to be incorporating keywords and phrases that are important in your field, so don’t go trying to stuff keywords in there. Google’s clever enough to figure out the meaning of what you’re writing about so don’t go chasing rankings in Google with your blog. If your blog is helpful and readable, then people are going to come to your site because of it anyway. And Google’s going to like the increased visitors and rank you accordingly.

4) Spreading the good word with Social Media

Writing a good blog posts is important, but then you’ve got to get people to see it and read it. Use social media like Twitter and Facebook and tweet and broadcast your blog post each time you create a new one. A simple request for a like or a retweet can do wonders for your readership levels.

And as a huge amount of blogs are on WordPress, it’s probably worth looking at a plugin that will automatically post your blogs to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter once you’ve made them live. The SNAP (social networks auto poster) is one such tool, but there are others out there that do the same thing, and which are a bit more light-weight if all you want to do is post to Twitter and Facebook.

Then everything went quiet……

A well populated, up to date blog really shows that your company has a pulse, BUT…. if your last blog post was from December 2012 and you’ve done nothing since, then get rid of it.  If you’re not the type of person who absolutely must get their opinions out there, and you’re having to force yourself to do a blog post, then maybe blogging just isn’t for you?  Or, consider getting a company like Bluehoop Digital to blog for you.  We specialise in the creation of content for websites, and we can ensure that you have a regularly updated blog that reflects your company in the best light to potential clients and customers.