Note: This post was previously published on genuineMIX on February 19, 2013. Since that site is no longer with us, I wanted to repost it here. Please ignore if you’ve already gotten these tips!
Last night I spoke to a group of female entrepreneurs in Seattle at this month’s CRAVE Chat. I was invited to talk to them about my experience with blogging, how blogging can help their business, and answer any questions that they had. Here are some of the things that I told them, plus a few extras for you.
Having a blog for your business is a great GREAT thing to do for lots of reasons.
- It’s a dedicated place to promote your work, services, or products.
- Publishing fresh, relevant content on a regular schedule will drive more customers to your website.
- It allows you to show your company’s personality.
- You can make it an education destination – a place where you can show your customers what you know and they can learn from your expertise in your field.
- Plain and simple – the more content you have the more links your business has on Google.
Now that we’ve gone over why you should absolutely have a blog for your business, here are some of the worst business blogging offenses I’ve ever seen. Some of this applies to the way businesses are using their social media channels as well.
Problem: All of your blog posts are about what you want to sell to your customers, what’s on sale, buy buy buy.
Solution: Yes, you have to (and should) promote your products or services. But if you’re doing it all the time, potential customers aren’t going to come back and search engines aren’t going to have much to say about you. Find something else to write about that’s still related to your business. Teach your customers something. Showcase your expertise. Share some behind-the-scenes stuff. Think about what else you have to offer your customers besides your products or services.
Problem: Your blog looks ugly.
Solution: Even if you’re not in the design business or you don’t sell pretty products, good design is crucial, especially with the boom of visual marketing platforms like Pinterest. If you can’t create your own blog design and can’t afford to hire a graphic designer, go with a clean, simple template that works with your brand identity. Let your logo shine as the graphic detail, and let your blog post images be your eye candy. Your website or blog is the equivalent of a storefront window display. You want it to look professional and entice people to come in.
Problem: Your blog posts read like they were written by robots.
Solution: Just because you’re blogging for business doesn’t mean you need to be bland. Share some of your personality, especially if you own the business. Get a little bit personal, if you can. Creating an emotional connection with your customers can go a long way in building brand loyalty.
Try to write how you talk. If you could stand to brush up on your writing skills, take a workshop at a local community college or an online course. Take a look at your competition and see what they’re doing on their blogs (for research purposes and to inspire your own ideas, not to imitate them).
Problem: You don’t use images in your blog posts.
Solution: Use them. Often. Pinterest is a huge traffic driver, especially to businesses that lean toward the creative, visual side. If you sell products, make sure you have awesome product photographs. Use some creative photo styling techniques to make them interesting. Not every photo you ever publish needs to be super professional, but don’t use photos that are low quality or out of focus. It’s better to leave them off entirely in that case.
Here’s a tip that will boost the look of your blog instantly. Make sure that the images you use in your blog posts are the same width across.
All of mine are 640 pixels wide. If there’s an image that I absolutely must post that is smaller than that, I (begrudgingly) either center it, or preferably shrink it and another image down to half that size and place them side by side. That way, the image area is still the same width.
Want to learn about photo styling? Check out these resources.
Resource List
Product Photography & Styling by Holly Becker, Decor8
Jenn Elliott Blake, Scout
Current Food Photography Styles and Trendsby Stephanie Shih, Desserts for Breakfast
DO THIS NOW.
If you have a business blog: Take a look at the problems above. Do you notice any of these on your blog? Write down your problem areas and how you could rework them to address these issues.
If you don’t have a business blog: Make the decision to start a business blog. Write down some of the ideas you have for blog posts. How can you be most useful and informative to your customers?
This is an excerpt from my workbook, Blog With Purpose.