Before social media really kicked off, plenty of individuals set up blogs to catalogue their thoughts, recipes, crafting endeavours and more, but as the years have progressed, these written platforms now provide a wealth of tools and information covering practically every topic. As their popularity hasn’t decreased, more and more businesses are seeing the potential that blogs can provide and are beginning to add these to their websites to boost a host of practices.
What is business blogging?
Many consider business blogging as a worthwhile marketing tool to both reach and engage audiences and provide some worthwhile information about the products and services on offer. A business blog page will differ from a traditional one in the sense that it will focus on a specific subject to support and promote the entrepreneur or company hosting it.
Its primary function is to provide a comprehensive level of information and act as a portal for potential customers to find out everything they need to know about your brand and the wider niche, while establishing your reputation and trustworthiness as an industry expert.
Nine reasons why blogging is important for your business
A business blog can be one of the most important tools in your marketing arsenal to:
- Attract new audiences
- Generate worthwhile leads
- Grow and improve conversion rates
- Launch promotions
- Update business-related news
- Build brand awareness
- Improve traffic
- Build and curate a worthwhile list of verified emails
- Boost your social media presence
- Improve your reach
Six major blogging mistakes
1. Selecting the wrong blog name
When it comes to selecting a name for your blog, you need to keep in mind that this will not only be the identifier of your products, services and brand, but also the name that your audience will likely use to search for and connect with you. If the name you choose is off-topic, isn’t memorable, can be confused with another brand or service, or is too long, it can impact the blog’s success. Before making any decisions and setting anything in stone, be sure to check that the domain is available (preferably .com).
2. Creating content for yourself and not your readers
One of the biggest blogging mistakes is when businesses focus on the content they want to provide as opposed to what is interesting for the reader, as this can lead to curating a blog that simply doesn’t appeal to everyone. Sometimes you can be too technical or provide too much information in a way that isn’t easily digestible - and this can cause your audience to click away from your page and find a blog that is more customer-centric.
3. Not publishing frequently or consistently
If a customer connects with your brand, they are likely going to want to learn all they can. This means that one of the top blogging mistakes to avoid is posting infrequently. If you leave long gaps between posts and don’t work to maintain a level of consistency in the type of blogs you produce, readers may lose interest. A good rule to follow is to set a publishing schedule of at least twice a month, but more frequently can be better if you get a high level of engagement. Always remember that quality will be better received than quantity, so be aware of the content you are putting out and use worthwhile tools to boost productivity, like a work time tracker, to keep everything on schedule.
4. Prioritising self-promotion
As you are going to be running a business blog, one of the biggest beginner blogging mistakes can be too much self-promotion. When starting out, it can be easy to fall into the trap of overly promoting yourself, your goods and your services. You will want to curate a blog that your audience wants to read, while keeping a small level of self-promotion in mind.
5. Choosing the wrong topics
Common blogging mistakes always include choosing the wrong topics, whether you have a business or personal blog. What you want to do is give relevant information, answer questions that your consumers may have and share news and updates as and when you have them. If you go off-topic, readers may get confused about your brand and the things you offer, so be sure to stay on topic every time.
6. Not linking to other content
Business blogging mistakes will include not making the most of linking potential. When you are writing about a specific topic, your content is likely to bring up other information or raise questions that your readers will want to find answers to. Instead of trying to address everything in one long, convoluted post, keep information succinct and add inbound links to other posts on your blog or outbound links to other relevant sites that will provide additional information. Remember that external links will help your SEO efforts and add an additional level of credibility to your blog that search engines will use to determine your positioning in their search results.
How to avoid blogging mistakes?
The best ways to avoid blogging mistakes are to have a clear purpose for your blog, focus on your audience, update your blog frequently, incorporate links where possible, don’t overlook the importance of SEO and keywords, implement proper formatting and set the correct tone. Additional considerations can include promoting your blog on social media, allowing guest posts, growing your email list and using analytics and document management software to identify areas that are performing well or could do with some extra attention.
Can starting a business blog really help to grow my brand and increase profit potential?
It may seem like a huge commitment to start a business blog, but if you keep all of the above points in mind and avoid common blog mistakes, there can be a host of worthwhile benefits, such as increased website traffic, better, more relevant conversion rates, more trusted client relationships, a well-rounded social media presence, brand growth and reinforcement and much more. It’s no secret that the benefits will outweigh the time and effort you put in, so it can be worthwhile to get started right away.
