A well maintained engaging blog is a real asset to a business. It can position the author as an expert in his or her field, help create trust for the business in the minds of consumers and can lead to increased revenue. We spoke to social media speaker Adam Franklin from web strategy consultants Bluewire Media about how to use a blog for business advantage.
The first thing is to make sure the blog is interesting to read. This means devising posts that have genuinely fresh content, or in which you can express opinions that challenge your audience. The writing style needs to be dynamic and punchy so people actually want to read your posts.
Adam says it?s also essential for a business blog to include a call to action at the end. ?The idea is to use the blog to attract readers to one of your offers with the blog. Think of it as a 500-word teaser to encourage readers to download an e-book from your web site, or sign up for regular newsletters or take advantage of other special offers.?
Blogs are problem solvers
?Blogs are all about inbound marketing. People use the internet and social media to help them solve a problem so what you write needs to address a real need the reader has,? he says.
Executed well, a great blog will help position you as a thought leader and industry expert and will help drive traffic to your web site. According to Adam web sites with an associated blog attract 55% more traffic than those without a blog.
?It also generates trust and allows readers to get to know you. And if they get to know you and like you they are more likely to buy from you,? explains Adam.
Social media prowess
To make the most of your blog you need to make it as easy as possible for people to follow you on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn by including buttons that link through to these platforms on your blog.
In fact a blog is a great way to make the most of your Twitter and Facebook accounts as you can use tweets and posts to make a comment that directs the audience back to the blog.
?A good blog will also attract backlinks and is a way to improve your web site rankings in search engines,? says Adam.
Quality not quantity
Although there?s no hard and fast rule about how often you should post, remember quality wins out of quantity every day. So if you don?t have something interesting to say, don?t write a blog post.
Adam says it?s also essential to spend time working out a catchy heading to attract people to the blog. There?s no point spending time writing a fascinating blog if you don?t have a compelling title to back it up.
Another tip is to break up the text with sub headings as people often skim read blogs and sub heads allow you to catch the reader?s eye.
Finally, says Adam ?don?t forget you?re writing for a human not a search engine. Writing a blog that?s stuffed with keywords to make it easy to find on search engines will often turn the reader off. Write for people first.?
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