What Should My Business Blog Be About?
OK, you’ve decided that it’s time to look into the idea of producing a blog for your business. You’ve heard how business blogs can be very successful promotional tools in the modern world. We look at choosing a subject for your business blog and how to avoid the biggest mistakes in blogging.
What should my business blog be about?
This is a question I am asked quite a lot. The first place to start looking for answers is to ask “How will I turn visitors to my business blog into actual profit?”. After all, there’s no point in a business blog if it doesn’t generate business.
Reasons For A Business Blog
Let’s take a quick look at the benefits of “blogging for business”:
A blog style website can be added to easily and grow into a large archive quickly.
Blog content can help your customers solve their problems.
A blog can market you and your business as experts in your field.
Good business blog content can earn links to your website (links are currency).
Search engines love blogs (more technical explanation some other time).
Now we have the basics of why a blog might help your business online, we can think about those blog visitors who will turn into customers.
Non Sales Based Content
A business blog will be most successful if it doesn’t revolve around sales . This might seem like inefficient marketing but the truth is you are not going to 10,000 visitors per month to your website looking to read about how great your Blue Widgets are. No, really you’re not. (Excuse the sarcasm but this is conversation I have had with so many clients…..)
What can drive repeat visitors, links and buzz to your business is unique content with perceived value to your potential customers. Something that they are looking for and need. Oh, and it must be an enjoyable experience.
The subject matter and style of your business blog can be anything, but it must reflect your target customers and their needs. Working out who your best visitors might be, how they will search/find you is not always easy but it is the key to the success of a business blog.
News items on a business blog are fine, if they must be of real value to your visitor. How many people sign up an e-mail newsletter that simple tell us about the latest product lines. Anyone that actually does that is a seriously committed customer anyway. A 900 word piece on your new photocopier? No, thanks.
Still, what should my business blog be about?
The easiest way find individual topics for a business blog is to answer questions that customers regularly ask (just like this article). It’s wrong to assume that, just because you have answered their question on your blog, they won’t contact your business. In fact, the reverse is true. People want to do business with those that have already helped them.
The Biggest Mistakes in Blogging
The unique qualities of your business blog are what keep visitors returning, other site linking and new searchers finding. When looking for subjects for your business blog, it might be easier to consider what you should do to avoid the biggest mistakes in blogging:
- Stay on Topic – Your business blog should always focus on your chosen subjects that are highly relevant to your business. Blogging about your cat or the view from your office window is, I suggest, of no interest to your customers.
- No Rants – As well as staying on topic, keep it “corporate”. A blog is a fantastic way to present a more personal side to your business, but ranting about parking /the tax system/the government is a complete turn off.
- Make it Easy – Short, bite sized portions that are easy to read. This stops your hard earned visitors clicking away before they get to the end of the first paragraph. 700 words is plenty.
Choose A Theme For Your Business Blog
To recap. Work up a strategy for turning free blog visitors into paying customers by considering who your customers actually are. Consider if those visitors will see the value in your blog, enough to keep them coming back.
And avoid the biggest mistakes in blogging.
