Now writing blogs is very much the cause du jour of the business community. Clients call me with panic in their voice because they have been told they must write blogs and have no earthly idea where to start.
Firstly, ladies and gents – as us Brits are exceedingly good at doing – do keep calm and carry on. Blogs can, without question, offer a valuable USP, provide sharable content on Social Media and keep browsers on your site for longer. However, blogs will only enhance and enrich what your business already has, so before you start writing ask yourself these questions:
- Is my website user-friendly?
- Is my current content targeted and engaging? (for some helpful pointers take a look at this blog)
- Do I have enough Calls to Actions?
- Is my website mobile-optimised?
- Do I know what online medium my customers are most likely to use?
Basically, before starting with the more advanced aspects of digital marketing (blogging), make sure you have all the basics covered.
Once you have double checked all of these points you are indeed ready to start writing 500-600 words of immensely interesting content that will add value to your target demographic. The very first question to ask yourself is: what will my clientele be interested in?
Taking myself as an example, I am pretty sure visitors to my site care about all things content. My blogs offer advice and insight into the world of content marketing; sometimes I also discuss the latest industry news or advances in content marketing.
So have a think – what helpful tips can you offer to your clients? YOU are an industry expert and undoubtedly will have some wisdom to impart. It is often easier to write and read this sort of an article if is formatted as a listicle – for example a gardener may write, “Five top tips to help spruce up your garden on a budget,” or an accountant may offer, “The seven most effective methods of crowd-sourcing.”
To make these even more relevant and less generic, it may be worth linking these up to seasonal events or national days, so the gardener may make his blog Easter themed or the accountant may address his blog to tech-start-ups. This sort of content can prove far more valuable and see a far higher readership.
The second step is to think about tone – what works for our gardener (who I have decided to call John) and our accountant – Martin (don’t we all know an accountant called Martin?) is not the same. A gardener is typically friendly, approachable and warm and his content should mirror that – it should be jargon-free, easy to read and (ideally) full of stunning images. Meanwhile Martin, who should be professional and efficient, requires a far more formal tone that displays his level of competency and intelligence. Think about what your clients expect of you and try to convey that in your tone.
Now the third step is to actually write the blog. Without sounding a little pompous and alienating my entire consumer base – I am lucky, this comes remarkably easy to me. However, for most people this is extremely difficult. Staring at a blank page can prove extremely daunting. So turn off your social media and email notifications, silence your phone and write. The first draft does not have to be perfect. Frankly, it doesn’t even have to be good. As long as there are words on the page you have something to work with. From there you can start chopping and changing, amending and altering until you have something you are proud of. Your first blog will probably take you weeks to write, however with time this will get easier and I find the most effective bloggers are those who set aside a time in the day to writing their blog.
If you do have any questions please do feel free to give me a call on 07826 857 882 or drop me a line at helena@helenabaker.com. I also provide in-house training which can really help empower teams to write their own content.