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A marketing communicator’s guide to effective blogging

by | Sep 12, 2018 | Analysis, Public Relations

Blogging is one of the most effective tools that every business owner has right at their fingertips. You can establish your brand and publicize it at the same time. There is little in the way of personal marketing quite like blogging.

Every business needs a blog

For a new business especially, blogging can be the tool that gives a young business the traction it needs to generate leads and, hopefully, revenue. For an established business it is almost more important. Continuous reading as well as blogging, once a week at least, can be a great way to push a brand and establish a narrative about your business to either change your business model to fit with the times or attract a new audience altogether.

Blogging strategy

It can also be used to create an idea and make it proliferate through all of the normal blogging channels, such as WordPress and Medium. Truly, the effectiveness of the blog lies in its purpose and its writer (as well as the dedicated web designer behind the website).

A good blog has many different components, namely strategic backlining and effective SEO, all of which serve to increase its internet profile and draw a wider audience to your brand or business. A poorly written blog oftentimes has the opposite effect.

A blog with poor spelling and atrocious grammar may, in fact, hurt your brand or be flagged by Google. Strategizing with quality as a matter of primacy will ensure that your blogs will have the maximum impact available.

In addition, you’ll need to make sure you’ve got a bit of both length and consistency. Shoot for at least five hundred words for each and every blog article and blog as consistently as you possibly can. For the best effects, blog daily. Blogging weekly or even monthly can be beneficial too, as long as it is done on a consistent basis.

Great content marketing

Blogging is one very important facet of content marketing. You’ll want to integrate it with other facets to ensure its success. Make sure to blog your company videos, designs, and infographics along with quality written content.

In terms of making the writing as good as possible, there are a collection of essential tips:

  • Use correct spelling
  • Use complete sentences
  • Make sure you’ve got the proper link ratio (i.e. no more than one link per one hundred words)
  • Make sure the writing is original (with attributed quotes, if necessary)
  • The writing should grab the reader with call-to-actions
  • Paragraphs should be short and sweet
  • Sentences should be short and sweet
  • Identify your niche
  • Articles shouldn’t be overly complex for your niche
  • Articles shouldn’t be oversimplified for your niche, but err on the side of oversimplification
  • Vocabulary should be varied, even complex, when appropriate
  • Syntax should be varied
  • Your voice must be active
  • You must speak in imperatives
  • Alliteration is always appreciated
  • Pick a desired length and stay consistent
  • Use quotes to strengthen authority
  • Use stats (with links) to improve credibility
  • Use lists to organize information

Measuring success

Blogging can bolster the user experience. It can make your brand, your product, and your organization more meaningful to existing and potential customers alike. In order to see how your blog is performing, you’ll need to know which blog metrics to measure.

The number of visits will obviously be your first target. Be sure to track this stat as you launch your blog. After a month or two, look at the overall trend. How is your blog coming along in terms of the amount of visitors? Hopefully you’re seeing an upward trend.

After that you’ll want to hone in on unique visitors (to see how loyal your readership is and how many new readers you’re attracting. For the first two months or so, these are the only stats you’ll need to really monitor. Be patient, it takes a great deal of time to build a blog.

Conclusion

Blogging is the linchpin for content marketing, especially when coupled with email marketing efforts. You’ll need very strong blog articles to serve as a foundation for your content marketing.

Every business can use these strategies, regardless of size, to help increase its influence. Garnering a readership is important so you can attract both existing and potential customers and build a better brand.

Charles Dearing
Charles Dearing is a veteran tech and marketing journalist with over 15 years of experience using words to move people to act. He has written for various publications such as ProBlogger, Big Think, Apps World, to name a few.

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