I was reading a blog post recently—a guest post by the
client of a web design company who was describing the business that he was
losing because his website was outdated.
Naturally, he was thrilled by his new website and had received all sorts
of kudos because of the update. I
wholeheartedly agree with him on the importance of a good looking and
professional website—it’s what gives prospects their first impression of your
company and you absolutely want that to be a positive and lasting impression.
But I’m not a web guy; I’m (among other things) a blog guy.
So I’m going to continue the theme of the importance of having a good blog that
is continually updated with fresh content.
Company blogs are the centerpiece of successful inbound marketing
campaigns as they can be stuffed full of SEO friendly keywords and keyphrases
that help search engine rankings and they help engage prospects and build
credibility.
We’ve come up with a few key pointers to keep in mind
starting or managing your company blog.
Keep It Fresh
You have to keep fresh content flowing. When you pick up the newspaper in the morning
do you want to know what happened in the world a month ago or yesterday? When you flip to your local TV news station
do you want to know what’s going on right now in the world or this time
yesterday? If a prospect visits your blog
and your last post is from three months ago will they get the impression that
your company is hurting and doesn’t have the resources to keep the blog
current? Will they think that your
company starts things but doesn’t follow through? I’m sure these aren’t the first impressions
you want to make.
So what are you going to blog about? You definitely want to exhibit industry
expertise and thought leadership. Take
inspiration from the world around you: things that happen during your day both
at home and at the office, current events and hot discussion topics, things
that you’ve done right and wrong. Don’t
be afraid to admit mistakes as long as you highlight the lesson learned: people
love reading and learning about how not to do things.
Before you start a company blog make sure you understand the
time it will take to maintain it. Some
people don’t appreciate what’s involved and they end up with a stale company
blog that sends all the wrong messages.
Make It Look Good
Your business blog has to look good because while it might
be crammed full of knowledge, insight, expertise—and even if it had the winning
lottery numbers—few are going to click through if it isn’t visually
appetizing. Visitors are shallow like
that so you’ve got nothing more than a few seconds to catch and keep their
attention before they’re reaching for the ‘Back’ button.
Keep Changing It Up
Vary the lengths of your posts. Shorter posts (400 – 600 words) are more
likely to get comments from your readers, while longer articles (800+ words)
are more likely to be shared on social networking channels. Don’t force your posts to be any longer than
they naturally are to meet some magical word count criteria—keep them crisp,
concise and to the point. Even if you
can only bang out four sentences before hitting the publish button you’ll
still outperform at least one professional journalist on a nationwide sports
website (don’t get me started on the ever diminishing standards of sports
journalism!).
Conclusion
A business blog is a great tool for improving search engine
ranking and engaging readers. To help
your blog be everything it can be make sure it looks good and is updated
frequently with fresh and relevant content.
Some companies get overwhelmed when they try and set up a blog or find
they can’t keep pace once they do have a blog up and running – if you find
yourself in either of these situations then give us a call or shoot us a quick email,
we’d love to see if we can help!
Got
something to say? Leave a comment below, we’d love to hear from you! Got a
question that we can address in our blog? Contact us through our website or email me directly and we’ll put our
crack team to work and let you know when we post a reply.
Other Blog Posts
If you
liked this blog post, here are some other blog posts that you might also like:
- How to Write a Blog Post That Doesn’t Suck
- 10 Great Reasons Why Your Company SHOULD Be Blogging
- Social Media & Content Marketing: In-house or Outsource?
Steve Hartley,
Managing Partner
Fering
Communications Inc.
Website: www.feringcommunications.com
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