Writing a business blog that keeps people engaged comes with several positive effects. It may help your company develop a position of influence in its respective industry, make it easier to build momentum on social media and allow you to learn more about your target audience, particularly if you write content that encourages people to give feedback. The advantages are great, but even the most well-intentioned bloggers can experience writer’s block before they start.
How can you write material that’s relevant to your business and interesting enough to resonate with the audience?
What about figuring out which topics relate to your company and how to best present them in ways readers will understand?
Are you afraid of publishing content that’s too similar to articles readers have already seen?
Here are five tips for blogging like a pro business blogger.
1. Use Your Blog to Educate Readers
People usually aren’t receptive to blog posts that are purely promotional. Instead, they want to read posts that provide them with information they can use in their everyday lives. When crafting content for your business blog, keep that reality in mind.
Instead of simply writing a post and then publishing it, aim to regularly engage with people who comment on your posts. Taking time to provide clarification and answer questions sends a strong message that you care more about only making a sale. This post on Moz is a great example of how an author regularly communicates with people who comment.
Use your blog as a launch pad for your reputation as an authoritative source. It could help you understand what readers want to learn about. If you notice several questions about a particular topic in the feedback, you might want to consider using that topic for your next post.
2. Be Comprehensive When Appropriate
Perhaps there’s a wide variety of topics you want to cover on your business blog, and it seems like a hindrance to focus on a few things. In that scenario, it’s okay to take an extremely comprehensive approach to the things you cover. For example, if your company sells camping equipment, you might write gear reviews and instructional posts about how to care for the products you sell, and publish videos of people using your products and describing how the items make their lives easier.
Take a look at the Small Business Trends blog to see how the main categories are listed across the uppermost section. It also highlights which topics are trending. This easy-to-understand format allows people to focus on the topics they care about most, without getting overwhelmed.
Comprehensiveness in the scope of your content may feel a bit out of your reach at first, but if you want to eventually manage a popular business blog, it may be necessary.
3. Break Up Lengthy Content to Make It Easier to Read
Huge blocks of text discourage some readers, causing them to click away without giving your content a few seconds of their time. Sometimes it’s appropriate to write a long post on your business blog, but sprawling length alone doesn’t necessarily mean people won’t read it. When you write a lengthy post, make the content easier on the eyes by strategically using bullet points, short paragraphs, numbered lists and pictures.
This post from a recovery center provides tips on spotting drug abuse in the workplace. It’s an in-depth topic, and it would be impossible to thoroughly cover the subject in a short post. The author made the content extremely accessible by creating white space to make it more approachable. When you follow that lead, you’ll prove that a reading a long post isn’t always a laborious task.
4. Describe What’s Worked for You
Although you’re conscious to convey a certain image when writing your blog, it’s not always wrong to show a little vulnerability. Don’t be afraid to document some of the high and low points of running your business. Give readers information about the techniques you’ve tried and the outcomes you’ve seen.
Zappos Insights blog authors, for example, deliver genuinely helpful content with a personalized slant. There’s a blog about the experiences that came with Amazon buying Zappos in 2009, written with a great deal of first-hand experience. There’s also a blog about company culture, written by an employee who proudly wears Zappos-branded apparel in public.
Try writing some of your posts in ways that make it clear you’re eager to give readers a peek into the inner workings of your business. Allow them to take inspiration from the things you’ve done. Make them feel valued because they think you care enough about them to share your experiences.
5. Write Shareable Content
If you want to write original content that people want to read, write about common problems or challenges individuals face. If your business can offer ways to conquer pain points, aim to present the information in fresh takes that are full of personal perspectives. Audiences are more willing to share content across their social media networks if it offers a new perspective. You can simplify the sharing process by embedding clearly visible social media buttons within every post.
Consider this post from ClearVoice. Notice how it uses an authentic, relatable voice. Each tool is discussed, so readers immediately understand the best features and the social media problems it might help solve. Each post includes social media sharing buttons across the top, making it easy for readers to share with friends and colleagues.
You surely have valuable insights to share — insights that will empower your readers. Publish crisp blog copy that keeps them coming back for more. It takes practice, but the more you write, the easier it becomes to determine what your readers crave.
