Kristen Patel
You’ve finally gotten the A-OK to move ahead with writing a corporate blog. Congrats! That is an awesome first step to inbound marketing success. Just in case you’ve forgotten, allow me to remind you the benefits of blogging:
- Traffic: Businesses that blog have 97% more inbound links and 434% more indexed pages, resulting in much better organic search traffic since there’s a better chance that your business can be found.
- Conversions: Blogging not only provides your visitors with helpful information, but it can be a great way to introduce a call to action that not only encourages anonymous visitors to provide information, but offers content that keeps them engaged.
- Authority: Blogging allows you to answer the questions that your (potential) customers are asking. By answering them, even the hard – and especially the taboo – ones allow your company to become a trusted thought leader and advisor.
- Brand Awareness: 70% of consumers learn about a company through online content rather than ads – and blogs are the second most influential factor when it comes to making a decision regarding a product/service.
Yes, yes, you know that. That’s why you wanted to start blogging in the first place, duh, sorry. But now that you’ve gotten the go ahead to get starteed, are you wondering, how do you write a business blog? Who are you writing for? What tone or style should you use? What’s an ideal length? Any do’s and don’ts?
Know Your Audience
Hopefully by the time you start writing your blogs you know already who your audience personas are, and what their needs are. If you don’t, well – you should get that figured out, stat. Because you are writing your blogs for those personas; working to help them understand their needs and the possible solutions.
Business Blogs with Style
What should the style of your blog be? Well for starters, it should be consistent with the overall voice of your brand. However, just like I can’t tell you what your brand’s personality should be, I can’t tell you how your tone should read. Be you (business casual you).
You’re allowed to be funny, punny, sarcastic – just be the office-appropriate you.
Length of a Blog
In the wise words of Hubspot, the blog can be whatever length it needs to be. The key is, you want it to cover one topic, not many. So although the industry standard for blogs tends to be somewhere around 400 to 600 words, you can go shorter, you can go longer. Just write what you deem necessary – don’t go over. You’re busy; the people that you’re writing for (your target personas) are busy, so don’t waste your time or theirs.
The Do’s and Don’ts
While you’ll probably discover the majority of these “do’s and don’ts” yourself, there are a few basic ones that I can start you off with.
Do:
- Keep your blog concise
- Focus on one topic
- Include an image
- Make it enjoyable to read
Don’t:
- Segue from topic to topic
- Include statistics without citing them
- Make your blog a sales pitch
Ready, Set, Blog!
Sounds simple, right? That’s because – well, it’s really not too difficult. Once you start writing and publishing, you’ll realize what works best for you and what your readers prefer. Anything you think I’m forgetting? Reach out to me and let me know!
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