Blogs for Business: 5 Tips

For whatever business you are in, writing a blog can be beneficial for showing your current and future clients what you are all about and what value you bring to the table. A few of our clients have asked us for advice regarding their company blog, which inspired the following list of 5 tips that can help!

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Tip 1 - Determine who you want to read the blog, then write to them
Every blog needs to keep in mind who it's readers are, but for business, it is even more important to be strategic about who reads it. Is your blog for retaining current customers? Attract new customers? Once you pick that group, keep in mind that you are making the blog to give relevant information to the people whom you CARE about! It's not about you, it's about them.

Tip 2 - Pick a topic and stick with it
Keeping a consistent theme will help readers remember you as a resource for information. If they can rely on your free information to add value in their lives, they will remember you when it comes time to consulting you on whatever paid product or service you provide! The theme could be anything, as long as it has a purpose and meaning to the people you intend to read it.

Tip 3 - Write about something you like
One of our clients recently asked "How can I get my co-workers to contribute to the company blog?" and one answer is to make it fun! If the subject you have picked is entertaining for those writing posts, their enthusiasm will transfer into better and more prolific writing. It's a fine line to walk, but a successful blog both is useful to your readers and satisfying to the writers.

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Tip 4 - Encourage reader participation
The biggest benefit of having a blog is not to distribute information, but rather the ability to engage readers directly on a given subject. It's essentially a free focus group online. The most obvious way to accomplish this is to respond to them if they comment on your post. You might also pose questions in your posts for readers to answer, or occasionally offering prizes of some sort.

Tip 5 - Tell everyone about your blog
Blogs work a lot better when they have readers. You'll have more motivation to write and readers will have more people to interact with. Getting to this point is the hard part. You have to put the link TO YOUR BLOG on every bit of promotional material you have. Tell people about it, Tweet it, post on Facebook, comment on other blogs, and/or whatever brings more traffic to your blog.