Blogging is a huge business currently and it is growing daily.
Many people use blogging purely to vent or share information that they think you may find useful. That is great, especially if you are great at creating stories and keeping people engaged, and we all need a break from the run of the mill seriousness at some point.
However, another way that blogging is making an impact is by driving traffic to websites for business purposes and audience growth.
We all know that the more prominent your website and business is and the more interaction there is the greater chance of leads being converted into sales is. And that is the ultimate goal at the end of the day.
So, let us take a look at a few pointers when it comes to using professional blogging to ultimately grow your business.
WORDS DON’T COME EASY
Blogging is awesome and such a useful tool. If you are putting out engaging, informative, and relevant content regularly you will quickly see your following growing and interaction on your website growing – and hopefully – sales resulting.
But, we are not all a Keats or Austen or Hemingway when it comes to words. The good news is – you do not need to be a super professional writer to write good content.
If you are writing about your business and the services you offer, there is no better expert but yourself, and if you still find it a struggle to write, there are many freelancers available that could help you out.
WHERE TO START
We all have to start somewhere, and the below is a list of some of things you should keep in mind when you start adding blogs on your website.
- Write often – Write as often as the thoughts or ideas come to you. Make notes, put them together into some skeleton of a blog and then streamline. Write many articles, as many as you can, and then keep them aside for when you want to start publishing them
- Learn new things – Even if you are an expert in your business, and can write pages about things pertaining to it, you may want to add in articles about other things (related to your business but not fully about YOUR actual business). So when you go out there and read up on things and you think it may be of interest to your target audience, write about it.
- SEO – This is a big one. Search Engine Optimisation. Good SEO practice means that your article and your website will show up quickly in searches. Making sure the title and at least the first paragraph contain keywords pertaining to the article itself is important. If you want to know more about SEO, read this article.
- Outsource – As mentioned previously; if you are not the best writer or maybe you lack the time to write really great content, you can always outsource this task. There are many people who specialize in this type of writing, especially when it comes to marketing and sales copy. So if the words fail you, there will be someone that can assist you.
- Who is your target? – this is a biggy as well, because writing about things that interest you but have no relevance to anyone within your target audience will ultimately lead to failure. So, determine who your target audience is and make your writing relevant to them. The more relevant and interesting the better.
- Read a lot – reading often allows your creative juices to flow and those can then create some awesome content for your readers.
- Themes – use a great WordPress Theme to make your blog stand out when it comes to design standards.
- Make sure you can be found – WordPress has many ideas on how to make this happen for you. Read more here.
- Headlines – The title or headline of your blog is important too. Again this has to do with SEO as well as just being something that catches peoples attention. You can Google “how to write awesome headlines” or you can use a tool like Sharethrough which gives you a score on your headline and gives you pointers to improve it.
- Be honest – Always be honest about what you are talking about and want to convey to your audience. Read your article and ask yourself, “Do I believe me?”, “Do I know what I am talking about here?” And once you can answer honestly – hit the PUBLISH button.
THAT’S A WRAP …
Are you ready to write your first article yet? Do you need some guidance? That is okay. There are plenty resources available, especially when it comes to WordPress. Read and learn and make your articles killer.
Just remember, your writing needs to be engaging, to the point and look great when the eye first falls upon it. Also remember to add a great featured image to really catch the eye. If all this still sounds a little overwhelming, get in touch with Creative Ground and let us help you out.
