Get Results from Your Business Blog
Tips Used by Top Bloggers to Succeed at Blogging
Blogs are a powerful tool for interacting with prospective and current customers. They offer immeasurable benefits for increasing brand loyalty by establishing a community of loyal followers. Unfortunately, because of the time and energy to start and maintain a business blog, many blog initiatives get dropped before they have a chance to succeed.
Interestingly, aside from creating compelling content, there are several tools that are often overlooked by business bloggers. These tools, if used correctly, can provide the motivation and inspiration for creating more compelling content. The best thing is that these tools are readily available with the blogging software so no additional work is required.
Marketing the Business Blog
Businesses start blogs to market their products. But they all-to-often forget that they need to market their blogs. Submitting the blog to other directories and using social bookmarking and networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Technorati, etc. can be very helpful in promoting a blog. Providing a link from the home page and promoting the blog in offline marketing materials and newsletters is another way to build blog prominence.
One of the problems with business blogs is that they are started by business people, not programmers. These people grow nervous at the mere mention of things like RSS, tagging, trackbacks, pinging and permalinks. By ignoring these things, blogs wither and die in isolation from the eyes of the public.
Using trackbacks, referring to other blogs (often), and listing favorite blogs and websites within the blog can increase traffic, which leads to comments, which can provide positive motivation and rich fodder for content.
Designing the Business Blog
Business blogs should follow the look and feel of the corporate website. At the very least they should include the corporate logo, colors and name. In addition, the author's name and tagline should be incorporated where possible. Personalizing the blog with one or more photographs of the author can go a long way to creating the right feeling for the blog.
If the blog is authored by multiple people, there should be a signature line at the beginning or end of each post so that readers know who authored the post. RSS subscription forms and email notification forms should also be incorporated into the design to make it easy for readers to subscribe. Care should be taken in category selection so that readers can easily find the topic they are looking for. Comment boxes and trackback features should also be obvious. Finally, be sure to include links to the products and services offered so that customers can find them when they want them.
Creating Compelling Blog Content
Business blogs should be updated two-to-three times per week. Content should be clearly focused and should map to the keywords being used on the main site. Headlines should map to keywords for the individual blog and the copy should be broken down using sub-heads and bullets to make information clear to the reader. Here are more tips for content:
- When it comes to copy length, shorter is better. Going long on this type of content won't serve anyone. Readers don't have time for long posts. They want information in easy to read format and they want it quickly.
- If the topic can't be covered in a brief post consider posting multiple times and linking the posts or creating a landing page with more information so those that are interested can find the material.
- The body of blogs off the perfect opportunity to increase inbound links for the site. Link to other blog posts as well as to other pages on the main site.
- Get ideas from comments on previous posts.
- Personalize the content. Include stories of pets and family trips so readers get to know the author. Celebrities understand that the more people know about them, the more they want to know. Let the reader feel connected to the company by sharing personal details.
Finally, remember to be professional. Spell check is no substitute for thorough proofreading. Edit and edit again.
Any business considering launching a blog should take the time to learn the features and steps that will ensure success. Treat the blog like other marketing efforts and remember that consistency is the key to success.
Business Blogging Success
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