Business blogging is a great way to reach your audience, improve your search engine rankings and position yourself as a leader in your industry. But creating a successful blog doesn’t happen overnight (unfortunately!) it takes hard work, a great plan – and a bunch of time!

Top tips for business blogging success

1. Blogging is a long term game

A great blog is going to be a big (and amazingly worthwhile) investment. You’re not going to publish one post and suddenly find 100,000 new people on your site. A blog isn’t a quick fix, but if you can stick with it, over time you’ll be creating something awesome.

2. Work the headline

Your headline is SO very important. It doesn’t matter how amazing your content is, if you’ve got a dud headline nobody is ever even going to read it. Your heading is your click bait and you have to use it in a way that will entice people to read on. So don’t be obscure or clever – be clear about the content, and give people a reason to click through. 

3. Be consistent

You don’t have to blog every single day, it’s much more important that you are blogging consistently. So make a plan, and stick to it. Plan to blog once a week? Twice a week? Pick your days and make sure you have content appearing on those days. That way you have a much better chance of becoming part of your audience’s weekly routine.

4. Be generous

With your knowledge that is! Being an industry leader means showing the world that you know a whole bunch about your industry. Don’t be afraid to share your knowledge! You don’t have to let them know your trade secrets, but don’t be stingy with your information either. You have to add value to your reader.

5. Have a plan

Create a content schedule and plan in advance what your posts will be about so you’re not sitting around scratching your head and thinking of ideas an hour before your blog is ‘due’. If you’re super organised you can take advantage of a blog scheduler and schedule posts in advance.

6. Break up your content

Whether you use pictures, subtitles, lists or post in point form; you need to make sure you’re not just dumping a huge amount of information onto a page. When readers see a big blog of text their eyes glaze over. Help them keep moving by incorporating white space and making your content easily digestible. 

7. Know them better than they know themselves

Creating a successful business blog is all about becoming a leader, and in order to lead effectively you need to know your followers. Find out as much as you can about them and get into their mindset to figure out what they want from you.

8. Get inspiration from your audience

Find out what your audience wants to read about by tracking which topics on the blog are most popular over time. Or better yet, just ask them! Reach out on your social media platforms to find out what they want.

9. Ask for their email

Encourage readers to give you their email address and subscribe to the blog. Even if you’re not sure exactly how you’ll use the emails yet, it’s still extremely valuable to have that list and it means that in future you’ll be able to connect with your audience without tackling any online roadblocks – like search engine rankings or Facebook business page rules.

10. Write a great call to action

Want people to subscribe to the blog? Follow you on Twitter? Take a look through other posts? Become your BFF? You have to tell them! Write a great CTA at the end of every post. Make sure you test out different requests and styles to see which people are responding to.

11. Give stuff away

Whether it’s an eBook, a coffee voucher, or a trip to Paris – everyone loves a freebie! Giveaways are a great way to drive subscription traffic, increase your audience and build loyalty – all while having a little fun.

12. Make it Worth Sharing

Before you hit publish on every shiny new blog post ask yourself this question ‘would anyone share this with a friend?’ and if the answer is NO, then you’re not ready to publish and you need to hone the content until it is something that someone would share. Then, you need to make it easy to share by have all those fancy sharing buttons right there.

Want to know more about business blogging or digital marketing? 121 can help – simply contact our creative team today!