In the early days, blogs were simply personal journals, where an aspiring writer would share their innermost thoughts with whoever might happen to stumble across their site. Today, a new blog is created every single second and it’s no longer just for personal use.
Business blogging is becoming increasingly popular. Previously skeptical business owners and marketers are seeing the benefits of using this interface to communicate with potential clients and to network as well. And indeed its benefits are numerous, but only if it’s done right. So just how can you make blogging work for your business?
Write Frequently
If you only update your blog once a year, nobody is going to subscribe. Your blog should be updated frequently, ideally a minimum of once a week, in order to keep people interested.
Write on Interesting Topics
Yes, it’s a blog for your business. But that does not mean that every single post has to be directly related to your company. How many people would particularly care to read about how you replaced your cleaner this week? Or how you placed a stationary order? There are limited amounts of company news that you will come across and while major developments should always feature on your blog, try to mix it up a bit. If your company is an online marketing company, for example, write about developments in online marketing in general. Discuss social media platforms and the news relating to the industry as a whole. Write around your industry and not just your topic.
Give it the Human Touch
One of the biggest benefits of a blog for businesses is that it creates a more personal means of communication between the business and the consumer. It makes the business seem far more approachable. But an overly formal blog may alienate clients. It should be personable and be clearly written by a human. It’s often better to nominate just one or two people to update the blog, to give your readership a chance to familiarise themselves with your writer(s) and their styles, thus giving them an opportunity, to some extent, to get to know them. If someone different updates the blog every single day, then there’s not consistency and no real chance for your readers to form a ‘relationship’ of sorts with the writer.
Keep it Simple
Don’t over complicate your blog posts. If your blog is there as a means of communicating with and informing consumers and potential consumers about your company and what you do, then these are the people you should bear in mind while writing it. Nobody particularly cares to spend an hour translating a blog post from dictionary speak to plain English. So write in plain English to start with. There’s no need for overcomplicated language.
What’s in it for your readers?
This is a question you should ask yourself before you post anything you’ve written. The Internet is full of blogs. Why would someone read yours? A good business blog has masses of potential for companies of all sizes. But blogs done badly can actually have a detrimental effect, so the importance of getting it right cannot be underestimated.
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This post brought to you by Stacey Cavanagh
Stacey Cavanagh is a guest author from Tecmark SEO Manchester which specializes in driving high-quality traffic.
Stacey has written 1 awesome article(s) for Kikolani.
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I also have a blog about fence products (for my online fence store) and it can be difficult to keep topics, but I try to write about products, news in the fence industry, etc…
I have found that on business blogs, posting everyday is not needed (if you have that much to write about then do it!) but post regularly is needed. Be consistent.
Speaking of which…. I think it has been a couple of weeks since I posted on my fence site!
Keith´s last blog ..Follow Up To Pagerank: It Really Doesn’t Matter
@Keith
This GUY must be a BOT he is on every Great blog in the universe LOL
I love to see a blogger working it
actually I’m the stumble and RT Bot passing through
Blogging itself is my business. Nice post and nice site @http://www.tecmark.co.uk/ that was me who discovered your site on Stumble even though I don’t use it anymore I still thumb up EVERYONE
I really don’t like business blogs for many reasons but found your writing clear and highly beneficial for those people making lame business blogs but any blogger can apply the same to their own sites.Thanks
Peace
John Sullivan´s last blog ..Are they really uber ?
I agree, everyday not necessary but I agree with the blogger that a couple of times a week is definitely necessary to keep interest open and to increase the number of subscribers.
I recommend blogging for anyone who comes to me for asking for advice about business marketing on the internet but i hate to see poor business blogs. It just looks like the business people dont want to make the effort.
Josue Habana´s last blog ..Stupid Question Alert
I should go back through some of my older blog posts and make there is something in each for the reader.
Just added that as a todo item on a current project. While going backwards won’t help those articles all that much, the tediousness will ensure I get it right the first time going forward with new articles.
Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Your Next Killer Technique for Telling Compelling Stories (It’s easier than you think)
The point “Giving It the Human Touch” should definitely be highlighted to all writers behind company or business blogs simply because a lot of businesses try to use blogs as another way to reap search engine traffic by ‘writing for robots’. Although this may bring you the traffic in the short term, visitors, once exposed to content that they can’t understand, will leave your blog, which takes away the bigger opportunity that your business blog could bring.
Wayne Liew´s last blog ..Weekly Biz Buzz #10 Improve Your Newsletter, Pre-Outsourcing Questions, Customer Service Trends for 2010
Some great points here. I’ve found that by updating my blog about once a week and commenting frequently on other blogs and forums it has greatly improved my positioning with the search engines. My main concern is staying ahead of my local competitors when certain keyword phrases are searched. When I do update I focus on quality content free of errors to show professionalism. There’s nothing worse than reading a post full of misspellings. I think that’s one of the fastest ways to get a potential customer/client to lose confidence.
Aaron´s last blog ..Life or Death Fitness
Blogging for business is not a bad idea, but the main point is how I treat our blog for marketing our blog. Write article by putting some affiliate link is not the end of blog marketing.
We should have to care to our reader, what they want actually from our blog and should have to build trust with them.
chandan´s last blog ..Search work at home opportunities at digital point forum
excellent tips, but as for “interesting topics”, the problem is people tend to stay way to far. If it is after all a blog made to market your business, be very careful here.
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..PLEASE COMMENT – Have You EVER Used The Added Feature Of My Subscribe To Comments Plugin??
A lot of businesses use blogs. Its very effective. Writing regularly and being unique can help your business. Blogs are a best tool to communicate with customers and get feedback. Blogs can also be used to test the market for the product you are to release. Blogs are a must of businesses these days. A very informative post. Thanks for sharing this with us.
These are all great tips but the “write frequently” is the one I might stress. If your company blog is rarely updated it makes it look like your whole company is slow and behind.
spot cool tech´s last blog ..Best Spot Cool Stuff Tech & Gadget Posts 2009
Good points. I think the real key is “what’s in it for your readers.” For a business blog the awareness of putting yourself in the position of the people reading your blog is perhaps most important as the blog content reflects directly on the business just like any other form of marketing or advertising. If you are not publishing something that your customers will find useful or valuable then publishing more frequently isn’t going to make it more useful.
Mike @ Computer Tips´s last blog ..Netbook Computer Sales Continue to Explode
Yaa nice post i think Bogging is the most spy way to express yourself or impart information in your own distinct style of delivery not only attracts a lot of interested visitors but also increases the chances of subscriptions.
SEO Company´s last blog ..How do I reset the admin password for Urchin on my Windows server
Yup great post i think Bogging is the most spy way to express yourself or impart information in your own distinct style of delivery not only attracts a lot of interested visitors but also increases the chances of subscriptions.
SEO Company´s last blog ..Dynamic Parameter Handling in Google Webmaster Tool
More and more Business start creating a blog and even setup a twitter account to keep the customers and potential customers. The main challenge is to keep up with providing regular blog posts that provide benefits to customers ( both current and potential ).
“What’s in it for your readers” is the most important point as if the business only blog for marketing without providing a real value to customers, the readers will leave the business very soon. Providing educational information such as “how to” or tips rather than simply new product or service launch to customers will improve the customers/prospects confident about the business and in return it may convert the prospects to become customers.
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This was a tough one for me to share Kristi, haha only because I have so many of my business competitors that read my blog it was written so well I didn’t want to give away secrets. Great piece and I shared it because I wouldn’t be following my blogging creed if I didn’t.
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yaa great article i also doing blogging and i love kikolani art of blogging, in my way blogging is an abbreviated version of weblog, which is a term used to describe web sites that maintain a continuous history of articles.
One thing you HAVE to drive into the business owner’s head is that the blog needs to be personal. Yes, you’re going to be talking about business but there needs to be a human element behind it – it’s the reason why people read blogs.
If you’re just blogging about how great your company is, no one will care. On the other hand, if you highlight customers and share great info for them to use, they’re going to love it.
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