Mike Templeman
It takes so much time to run a business blog. You may be asking, is it really worth it?
Yes, business blogging is a smart investment that pays dividends. But, here’s the secret: if you aren’t following the tips below, then you are most likely wasting your time.
You see, when it comes to content marketing, the math is a little weird. 30% of the work won’t give you 30% of the results. You may only get 5% results from 30% of the work.
On the other hand, if you do it 100% correctly, you will see 100% of the results.
So, how do you do that? Luckily, it’s not so complicated. Being at 100% doesn’t mean writing perfect content. It really just means avoiding the productivity-sucking mistakes that so many content marketers.
Without further ado, here are three tips that are guaranteed to boost your blog.
1) Sales Second, People First
This one is so annoying.
What’s the point of a blog? It is to be helpful. It is to be entertaining. It is to teach people.
Dangling a hyperlink in people’s faces and telling them to buy does none of the above.
So what can you do?
You need to write with empathy. Write a blog that you would want to read yourself. Don’t just put junk out there for SEO purposes. People, with their great instincts, can always tell if you are writing because you are passionate because you care about the audience and the topic, or if you are just writing for search engines.
Think about how you can help your readers. That should be the mindset of everyone content marketer who writes a post.
2) Don’t Be So Formal
There is a sweet spot in business blogging. Few marketers seem to be there.
On one hand, you don’t want to be too informal. You shouldn’t tell your audience that you are buying a new fully loaded BMW or ramble on about your super embarrassing health condition.
On the other hand, you shouldn’t be too corporate either.
How can you do that?
First of all, avoid the jargon when you can. Just try to keep the simple things simple. Additionally, try to make the complex concepts simple as well, without compromising their integrity.
Also, get rid of the passive voice. Instead of saying, “our customer was helped by our knowledgeable staff,” say, “Our staff helped Jennie.”
It makes your writing sound more convincing, which is always a great thing.
One more way to shed the corporate tone is to retire the long paragraphs. They may have impressed your school teachers, but they will not impress your customers. As a matter of fact, most people glaze over long paragraphs online. Now, it is vital to note that long paragraphs are occasionally okay. The problem is when the majority of your writing consists of them. When it gets to that point, it is time to put breaks in the paragraphs.
3) Compose Great Headlines
A famous copywriter use to say that headlines are worth 80% of your budget. At a glance, that doesn’t make a lot of sense. It stands to reason that a headline might actually only make up about 1% of the copy that is written for an article. So why do some people think it is so important?
Well, 80% who read the headline of an article never go on to read the body copy. That is why your headline needs to attract your audience. It doesn’t matter what you write in the body if people never read it because you have a boring headline.
How do you write great headlines?
Well, you need to spark the interest of the audience. The best way to do that is to make them curious. For instance, think of the headline “Online Coupons Can Save You Money.”
Not a bad headline, right? But in all fairness, you might not click on it. You would probably look at the headline and think “yeah that’s true.” You might even try out online coupons yourself. Go to App Store. Download an online coupon app. You wouldn’t need to click on the article to do any of that.
Now think of a headline like this:
“The Lazy Man’s Way to Saving Money at the Store”
That title sparks the interest of the reader. If you are lazy, then you would like to figure out how you can save money. On the other hand, if you are the hard-working type the article might appeal to you as well. You would probably think “If a lazy person can do it, then so can I.”
Good titles have one job. They need to entice the reader into reading the body copy.
Wait, scratch that. Good titles have two jobs. They need to entice the reader and they need to accurately represent the body copy. The title “Free $ 100 for Anyone Who Gives Me Their Email” might get a lot of clicks. But if the body copy is you piddling life insurance, then you are going to end up with a lot of people who are upset with you.
It’s not worth it. You need to deliver and entice. Both. Choosing one of the above won’t cut it.
A quick tip is that numbers work very well in these situations. A title that involves numbers such as “3 Easy Ways to do something…” When in doubt use a number in your title.
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