Jaykishan Panchal — December 10, 2016 Follow @jaypanchal8The importance of having a blog on your business website cannot be overstated. Some of the many benefits a blog can offer your site include attracting high-quality and organic traffic, converting traffic into leads, establishing authority, and driving long term results.
But with every business website having a blog of its own, how does one distinguish a great blog from an ordinary one?
It is necessary to ensure that your website’s blog has what it takes to stand out.
Let’s take a look at a few ways in which you can make your company blog better and more attractive to readers.
1. Spark Emotion with Images
Before you start writing for your blog, figure out your blog strategy by considering the following questions:
- Who are you writing for?
What do they want?
- Once that is figured out, you can create a message that is relevant and valuable to your readers.
Content that is supported with a colored image is likely to receive 80% more readership than one that isn’t. Attractive and pertinent images also increase attention span by 82% and create an impression that is 39% more memorable.
Images have the power to spark emotions. Your article should, therefore, be accompanied by an image that has the potential to incite the emotions you want your readers to feel. If your article is successful in sparking excitement and intrigue, it is more likely to be shared and bring more traffic to your site.
2. Create Infographics to Depict Statistics in a Post
Infographics are a great example of visual content that offer an exciting and a fun way of presenting numerical data. 65% readers learn and understand better with visual content. Visual data has been found to be 43% more persuasive.
The good news is that you don’t need a professional graphic designer for creating infographics. You can create them with the help of free online tools like Piktochart, or tap into thousands of free infographic templates that are easily customizable to depict data in various ways.
http://raconteur.net/infographics/does-workforce-mobility-improve-employee-productivity
3. Create Posts around Readers, Not Products/Services
Your blog articles shouldn’t be product or service descriptions. Consider what your readers would like to know or read about. Think of the day-to-day problems they face and how your products/services can help solve them. Further, the ideas and themes in your articles should resonate with your customers.
Take the example of outdoor clothing and gear retailer, Patagonia. A quick look at its blog, The Cleanest Line, will reveal that it hardly ever promotes its products. In fact, the blog has nothing to do with Patagonia’s products. Rather, it is devoted to a central theme/idea that says that a business can be run without compromising on the way we care for our planet. The articles focus on the factors that their customers care about, like sustainability, sensitivity towards the environment, protecting the planet, and living an active lifestyle. The company doesn’t just preach, but runs numerous campaigns which have helped it donate millions of dollars towards fulfilling global environmental needs.
4. Add Unbiased Product/Service Reviews
Publishing candid and unbiased reviews of your products/services on your blog can help you gain customer trust and enhance your brand’s credibility. You can either hire an outside expert or ask an in-house specialist to review your product/service and publish it on your blog.
By doing so, you’re using your blog to present your company as one that cares about its customers’ well-being to the extent that it is ready to critically analyze its own products and services in a bid for constant improvement.
A great example of this can be seen on the blog of a tourism site called PlayadelCarmen.com. The site provides information on hotels and tourist activities, and helps organize personal and corporate events and bookings. The website frequently posts reviews of hotels and resorts, and shares them with readers through their blog. In one of the posts, they have reviewed a resort and have written a brutally honest, unbiased and candid feedback based on the personal experiences of “travel gurus” of the service provider.
The blog has been greatly appreciated by readers, which is apparent from the comments posted on it.
5. Answer Every Single Comment That Readers Post
Nowadays, every blog post ends with the author soliciting readers’ feedback, which can be submitted via the comments box. However, merely asking readers to comment on the article isn’t enough. In order to keep them engaged, you need to take the time to respond to each and every comment. This also gives you an opportunity to interact with your readers, understand their opinion of you, and build lasting relationships..
A quick look at Neil Patel’s site will show you how he interacts with his readers. Neil is a marketing guru and a prolific writer, and all of his blogs get immense traction because he provides real value to readers. Several readers share their thoughts on his blog posts and Neil, more often than not, responds to every comment. This has played a huge role in building his brand authority and credibility.
6. Provide Actionable Content That Provides Immediate and Real Value to Readers
Whether you are selling a product or a service, your blog should revolve around a theme or an idea, and provide actionable tips. This type of content provides immediate value to the reader, who can use it right away to better some aspect of his/her life. Creating such content on a regular basis is difficult, but you should aim to create such blog posts frequently.
Jeff Bullas and many other marketing and business experts share articles with a ton of actionable tips that can be put to use immediately. This is a good example of actionable content, which contains easily-understandable and visually-led data. In the post, Jeff introduces readers to a third-party tool that can be used with Analytics program to assess the best and worst performing content on a website. Webmasters can immediately try the tool and get their content assets analyzed, thanks to this information.
Another such example is Brian Tracy, who is one of the world’s most reputed personal development and business speakers. He has consulted over a thousand companies and given more than 5000 talks. On his website, he writes blog posts like ‘5 Great Steps to Self-Confidence and Becoming Popular,’ ‘Use These Brainstorming Techniques for Maximum Creativity,’ and many more. Most of his posts contain actionable tips. So, even if you cannot listen to Brain Tracy in person or buy his content-rich courses, you can still gain amazing value, something that you can use immediately to change some or the other aspect of your life.
Parting thoughts
As with every digital asset, you need to understand how your blog is doing by using an analytics program like Google Analytics. It will tell you from where you are receiving traffic in real time. It will also reveal if you are being referred to by someone, how your PPC ads are performing, and so on.
Constantly perform A/B testing to know which layout will work best for your blog. You can also test titles, images, color themes, and much more. Search for the best and optimize your posts to deliver superlative results.
What tips do you use/suggest to improve a website’s blog? Do share them in the comments section below.
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