We all know that blogs are a must if you want to increase your traffic, increase your leads, get better search engine results and be more social as a business. Honestly, the benefits go beyond those four. I could sit and talk your ear off on the many ways blogging will help your business grow. There’s just no denying it. We live by blogging as we’ve seen the effects it has had on our business as well as the effect it has had on many of our clients businesses. Blogging works. Plain and simple.
But for blogging to really work for you, you have to know what you are doing. Of course the content comes first. If you don’t have anything to say (which I doubt) you shouldn’t say anything at all. Your content needs to be strong. It needs to educate, persuade, sell or interest your reader. If it can do all of these things then you are golden.
And that’s what this post is all about. Here are 5 ways to write better business blog posts.
1. Write Strong Headlines
The headline is the first thing that someone will see before they decide to read on. This is your first impression. Make sure it hits your reader right between the eye balls and make them feel like they would be missing out if they didn’t read on. Think about Buzzfeed and how they capture their readers. Think about what you like in an article and emulate that. Test and try different things and find what works for you and your audience. Remember, everyone’s business is different so you want to do what works for you.
2. Use An Image That Brings Your Reader In
This might not make much of a difference for your google and other search engine traffic, but it is probably one of the most important aspects of your social referral traffic. Once you start to build a following online people will begin to share your content. If your image is not good, it won’t attract a lot of attention for others to read it from social network shares. Social networks are becoming increasingly visual and image-centric. By staying afloat with this trend you are going to see an increase in traffic and more people will read your blogs. If you write good content then you are in better shape.
3. Write For Your Reader (Customer)
Don’t write for your competitors, write for your customers. I see this too often. And bloggers do it too. Sometimes we write for other bloggers and not for our audience. Put the ego aside and connect with the people who really matter, those who are going to get their wallets out and buy from you. The best way to write for your customers is to pretend as if you are talking to them in person. Another good tip is to try to make the abstract and heavily technical as simple as possible.
4. Use Short Sentences
This is more of a style thing, but the best online writers have a different style than traditional media writers. Forget the academics here and write for the web. Think short sentences and short paragraphs. Simplify things and you will do well.
5. Make Your Posts Look Good
Again this is more of a style thing, but you want your blog posts to look good. If they are formatted correctly they are going to be more inviting to the reader. A super long unformatted post can be extremely overwhelming and turn your readers off. Use bold, underline, and your correct headings. You can also break up long posts by adding extra images in there.
I hope this helps. 🙂
