Keep Your Blog Great: Avoid the One-Note Blog

The purpose of a business blog is to attract an audience. A well-written, well-considered blog can educate your customers and potential customers. It can answer in-depth questions. It can explain the ins and outs of your industry. If successful, a business blog can show up on related keyword searches organically, ready to bring new visitors to your website.

This road, while it does work, is fraught with peril. If you turn your blog into a sales pitch, touting your products and services at every turn, announcing new offerings and sales events, or going into detail about your quality, your audience will tune out. Only a small percentage of the visitors to your website are ready to buy right now!

Rule #1: Inform, Don’t Sell

The worst thing a business blog can do — aside from not having a blog at all — is to bore its audience. We see this often, both in blogs and in social media. The subjects tackled, the writing style, the stock photos … everything points to a lack of commitment. If you’re trying to sell your products or services on your blog — as your first priority — you will drive your readers away.

Your blog is your opportunity to explain what your readers don’t already know about your industry. If you are a new car dealer, don’t use your blog to boast about the new models. Instead, use it to describe the new features on those models and why customers should want them. Instead of advertising sales events, use your blog to explain how to get the best deal.

An article on getting the best deal on a car lot is likely to attract a lot more readers than an article announcing your seasonal sale. In addition, if you add value with your blog writing — with educational topics, tips or interesting facts — customers will remember you when they are ready to buy.

Rule #2: Don’t Beat a Dead Horse

If you find you’re writing about the same topic over and over, your audience will soon tire of it. Stop beating that dead horse. Your blog isn’t just about finding different angles to explore about the same topic. Regardless what your business or industry is, you can find thousands of topics to write about.

For example, if you’re an accounting business, stop writing about the advantages of hiring an accountant or providing QuickBook tips. Take a step back. Consider your readers (if you have any remaining). Why would they even be on your site? Write about something else that would interest them, which brings us to…

Rule #3: Diversify

How does your business tie into food? Water? Interpersonal relationships? The environment? Entertainment? These are topics people care about in their daily lives. If you can find an intersection between what you do and what people want to learn more about, you’ve struck gold. You can write about something people will want to read … and share.

Other tips for diversifying your blog:

• Find a topic in the news and write about that
• Consider your own passions and write about what brought you into your business
• Every once in a while, take a broad look at the state of your industry
• Focus on your customers’ wants and needs outside of your business

In fact, do this last one all the time. Put yourself in your readers’ place. Why are they reading this? Why are they here? What do they want? You’ll succeed if you can answer these questions. If you get stuck, we’re in the business of answering questions.

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.