Writing a blog for business doesn’t really seem all that hard. You just write, right? Wrong. There’s much more to writing a blog than incoherently throwing your thoughts into a word processor and posting it to the Internet. If you want to write a blog worth writing, make sure you know how to enhance it for business.
How to Write a Blog the Right Way
Get Your Strategy in Order
It may seem glaringly obvious, but before you sit down to write a blog, the first thing you’ve got to do is pin down your strategy. Decide who it is you’re writing for. Are you writing for people who are already your customers? People who you hope will become customers?
After you’ve determined who your audience is, consider how the blog you’re writing can help them. Sure, you’re writing from the perspective of a business, but you don’t want to beat your reader over the head with salesy language. By writing blogs that help your reader in some way, you establish your brand as one that’s trustworthy.
The Writing Process
While it’s important to articulate valuable information to your reader, it’s just as vital to keep them engaged. The best way to do this is with clever writing. While your blogs don’t have to be literary masterpieces that paint vivid pictures in the imaginations of your readers, try not to sound like a five-year old, either. With a strong introduction, close attention to spelling and grammar and a bit of word variation to avoid staleness, you can keep readers interested.
There’s a possibility that your readers will be inherently skeptical. Sometimes, even if you try your hardest not to use your blog to sell your product or service, customers will be suspicious simply because they’re reading a blog written by a business. To gain credibility and reduce reader mistrust, incorporate quotes from industry experts, as well as relevant data and research. Show your readers that you’re trying to help them.
Appealing Structure
Blog posts come in all different shapes and sizes. It’s impossible to point to any one blog format and label it the best, but there are a few best practices that many popular blogs have in common.
By using bulleted lists, subheadings, short paragraphs, bolded words, images and anything else that makes the page visually appealing, your blog will generate a sense of easiness to read. Of course, these measures should be used only when appropriate.
Get your Blog on the Map
Your blog won’t be of much use to your business if nobody ever reads it, so you have to do your best to increase its visibility. While you’re writing, there are a few ways to optimize your blog for search engines, which will make people more likely to find it as they browse the Internet.
Most importantly, make sure to optimize your blog for a keyword that’s relevant to what your customers consistently search for on the Internet. Including links within the text, both to other pages of your website as well as other websites, boosts your SEO and also helps you gain credibility as an author. The right content management system will help you make your blog search engine-friendly as you write.
It may not be as easy to write a blog as you think it is. But, like anything else in the realm of inbound marketing, a bit of practice mixed with some trial and error can help you become an expert.
