by Elle Ray | Jul 9, 2019 | Blog Writing
Your Business Blog Posts Serve a Purpose
Blogging is the 21st century version of the persistent chatter you hear while walking through a carnival: it’s loud, it’s targeted, and it’s constantly in your face as you amble past the tents. The chatter represents calls to action, each more enticing than the last.
Your business blog posts may not be that loud (as in, all caps) and they may not urge your readers to buy, buy, buy. But regular blog posts carry a daily persistence as they pop up in emails and social media sites. While your blog is targeted, it’s only in your face to get Likes from your current and future customers, not to drain your wallet.
The more often you blog, the more of a presence you carry online, on mobile devices and in the minds of consumers. You may not being producing a blog a day — few business blogs do — but the closer you can get to that number, the greater your chances of snagging a savvy passer-by who needs your product or service today.
How Often Should You Blog?
Many factors go into making a decision about how often you should create and post new business blog posts to your website and promotional channels. Some people say that they don’t like to be “hammered” with daily blogs while others look forward to a good daily read that promises to make their day better in some way — by imparting important information, cluing them in to trends or just making them smile.
For sure, one well-written blog a week is much better than daily drab bits of online clutter. But if you’re looking to bump up your content marketing strategy, consider a few guidelines to help you decide on the ideal number of days your business blog posts need to appear to make a real difference to your bottom line:
- Your industry. Some industries — certainly tech, tourism and teaching — go through milestone changes overnight on a regular basis. And they produce a lot of newsworthy information that industry insiders need to have as they make important decisions throughout the day. If you’re in a hot industry or in the peak of your industry’s season, business blog posts every day are considered must-do marketing strategies.
- Your budget. In the bad old days, entrepreneurs did everything themselves (or it didn’t get done). Today, with third-party vendors like Ray Access ready to fill all your business blog needs, your valuable time doesn’t have to be spent writing and editing. Let someone else do it. Your marketing budget goes so much further with a constant internet presence filled with quality business blog posts than from what you’d spend on TV ads or even carnival barkers.
- Your SEO. Search engines love, love, love new content. They reward you handsomely for producing fresh, quality content every day. Daily (and even weekly) blogs give your readers more than enough chances to interact with your company and pass on links they find useful, creating even more interaction with your business. According to HubSpot, “companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got almost 3.5 times more traffic than companies that published between zero and four monthly posts.”
- Your competition. How often are your competitors blogging? If they’re getting more eyeballs than you and repeatedly beating you to the punch when it comes to delivering updates and fresh takes on topics that affect the lives and businesses of your clients, you’re in trouble. Be the trendsetter, set the benchmark for your competitors to try to beat, be the big dog when it comes to followers and set the tone for your industry, your community and your own business — a tone that says, “we see you, you matter, and here’s proof.”
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.
by Mark Bloom | Nov 27, 2018 | Blog Writing
Longer Articles Serve Multiple Purposes for You
The content experts at Ray Access encourage you to write consistently, regardless of the length of each article — as we’ve advised you in the past. Consistent blog posts, delivered every week (or more frequently), help your website rank higher with the search engines. All that extra content helps visitors and search engines alike learn what your business is all about.
Long blog posts can do more than 350- to 500-word articles. Short articles provide just enough space to explain one key point or share a short list of tips or tricks. It’s just too short to delve into a topic or shed real enlightenment about any subject. And the best blog posts — shareable articles — are those long blog posts that educate, inform and entertain.
Research Supports Long Blog Posts
Multiple expert sites suggest that the best length for a blog post is 1,600 words, such as:
One of the reasons this is so perfect is that this length takes an average reader about seven minutes to get through. Most people who find your topic interesting have seven minutes to learn something useful. If it’s any longer, readers tend to lose interest.
How Much Is 1,600 Words?
How much do you have to write to reach 1,600 words? If an average book contains about 250 words per page, then count on 1,600 words fitting close to six and a half pages. The same is true of double-spaced, typewritten pages. That’s much less than a chapter. You can write that.
Another way to look at it is to compare how other documents stack up. For example:
- The Declaration of Independence has about 1,450 words.
- Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech has a little more than 1,600 words.
- The average 10-minute speech has 1,500 words.
- This blog post contains approximately 1600 words.
The Long and Short of It
It still holds true that consistency wins the long race for gaining exposure, which is a vital first step toward generating new business. If you post on your blog regularly, you quickly build up a treasure trove of excellent resources for your customers and potential customers. And every blog post, long or short, stays on your website forever for anyone who wants to find it.
Even if your blog posts are short, around 500 words, they can still offer benefits to your website. But they need to be useful to your customers. They need to explain your point of view clearly, and it’s best if you write about topics that aren’t widely available. Give your audience real value, and they’ll remember you. They’re more likely to return in the future.
On the other hand, you have more opportunities in your long blog posts to build your case. It’s one thing to share your opinion on a matter of relevance to your customers. It’s another to back it up with research. A longer post packs more punch. It’s more persuasive. And that’s often the reason you write blog posts: to share information, tips and insights so that when your readers are ready to buy what you sell, they’ll think of you.
Why Everyone Doesn’t Write Long Blog Posts
Long blog posts are inherently more difficult to write. They take more time to complete than short blog posts. But since longer posts are proven to have a better response rate than shorter ones, it’s a trade-off in terms of what’s better for drawing people to your website. Of course, your results may vary. Your blog posts still need to be entertaining, engrossing reads.
Additionally, not every topic deserves 1,600 words. You need to dig deeper to find those juicy topics that your customers may find interesting and worth their time. If you’re a plumber, write about a common problem, and offer a number of reasonable solutions that don’t involve “call your plumber.” If you’re an accountant, a list of year-end tasks could make a valuable long blog post.
7 Reasons to Write Long Blog Posts
And now for the primary purpose of this blog post: to share with you why we recommend that you write long blog posts at least occasionally. Find some extra time once a month to craft a blog post that approaches 1,600 words. Here are the reasons why:
- Search engines like long blog posts. As research progresses year by year, the top-ranked sites had longer and longer content. Several years ago, a 900-word blog post may have received top marks, now it’s 1,600 words, and the mark seems to get a little longer every year. If you write long blog posts for no other reason, this one is compelling, since writing blog posts is a way of attracting readers and search engines in almost equal measure.
- Longer articles keep visitors on your website for a longer period. If you’re writing engaging content in your blog posts, readers are more likely to read until the very end, which keeps them on your website. This fact matters because other studies have confirmed that the longer a visitor stays on your website, the more likely that person is to buy from you.
- You can cover a topic completely in a longer post. As mentioned earlier, you have the space to go into depth about the topic you’re covering in a long article. In a longer piece, you can set up the situation, walk readers through your points, one by one, so that by the end of the article, you have persuaded your audience to adopt your advice. That’s the essence of successful rhetorical writing.
- Your readers stand to gain a greater ROI for their time. In other words, your audience gains a greater understanding of your arguments or your reasons for following your recommendations. If they follow you all the way to the end of the article, their payoff should be exponentially greater than that from a much shorter article. Make sure that remains true; reward your readers for reaching the end.
- Your website can stand out from the crowd. Because most businesses don’t create long blog posts, yours will automatically stand out. While some marketing experts, like Neil Patel, suggest creating 3,000-word blog posts, which is all well and good if you have the kind of subject matter that holds up for a good 15-minute read! We believe that a 1,600-word bog post gives you enough space and your readers enough time to absorb your topic. This length also keeps you as the writer from rambling or diverging onto other topics.
- Longer articles are more popular. They also exhibit longer staying power. The reason is that long, rich content is shared more than the short bursts of opinion that short blog posts too often contain. Marketers have determined that blog posts longer than 1,500 words are shared more on social media sites. As odd as that sounds, research has backed it up.
- Practice makes perfect. Writing is a craft; the more you do it, the better you get. Your first long blog post may not turn out great, but with practice, you will improve. Additionally, if you get in the habit of writing long blog posts now, even occasionally, you’ll be more likely not to blanche at the prospect of writing a white paper or even a book. If you don’t want to put the time in, just ask Ray Access to write it for you.
If You Do It, Do It Right
Almost everyone can write, but not everyone can write a long blog post and write it well. Remember that you’re writing for people first, not search engines. Keywords are fine to use, but don’t overstuff your article with them. At Ray Access, our recommended use is one percent density — that is, once every 100 words or so. We’ve written about best practices for using keywords before.
Also, keep your article moving forward. Break it up with subheadings, as we do in this blog post. Make every word count. Extraneous fluff gets in the way. Say what you want, and say it in your own voice. Readers will connect with you and be more likely to follow you to the end. And that should always be your goal.
Final Thoughts from Professional Writers
With so much evidence on the benefits of long blog posts, you should start writing them right away. They’ll attract more attention and keep visitors on your website longer. Longer blog posts that are also engaging and pertinent to your audience should lead to more sales and a greater name recognition for your business. As professional blog writers, we can vouch for the efficacy of writing long articles for your website.
Then again, if your long blog posts are well-written, well-constructed, interesting and informative, the ultimate length may not matter that much. So don’t set out to write exactly 1,600 words. Instead, concentrate on the content. Keep your sentences and paragraphs short so your readers have white space to rest their eyes as they make their way through your masterpiece.
Addendum: By the way, did you realize that a list of seven items is perfect? More items on the list and your readers won’t be able to remember them all. Too few items on a list means it’s not as valuable — at least in the minds of your readers. The magic rule is: seven, plus or minus two. So when you’re writing your next blog post, regardless how long it is, strive for that magic number. Another solid tip from the experts at Ray Access.
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.
by Mark Bloom | Nov 13, 2018 | Blog Writing
Blog Ideas Generator for Business Blog Writers
If you identify as a business blog writer and you get paid for your efforts, congratulations: you are a professional writer. You can wear that badge with pride. But it can also be a burden, as you have to come up with blog topics to write about every week. Even the best professional writers sometimes don’t know where to turn when the well seems to run dry.
The good news is that the well never really runs dry. Stop digging and look around. Ideas are everywhere. Here is all you need to know when you hit a temporary roadblock: a blog ideas generator you can refer to whenever you feel the need — because like all things digital, this blog post is available online all the time.
Is a Blog Ideas Generator a Device?
Wouldn’t it be great if you could just whip out a doohickey every time you got stuck, and it would supply you with countless ideas? Well, that doohickey exists, and you have it in your hands. It’s called a smartphone. Connect to the internet and ask it any question you want, including:
- What should I write about today?
- What’s trending in the news?
- Why did I choose to become a writer?
- What is a blog ideas generator anyway?
Bam! You’ll get instant answers (true or not) to your question. That becomes fodder for your imagination and grist for you to write about. You can even find websites dedicated to sparking your creativity — just search for “writing inspiration” and away you go. But there are other ways to generate ideas, as well.
Get Up, Stand Up
Sitting at a computer in a room is like solitary confinement. It’s easy enough to pass the time, but it doesn’t always spark your imagination or provide ideas for your next blog post — unless you’re in a room with a panoramic view. So whenever you feel stifled, stand up and get outside!
Take a walk, either in the city or better yet into nature. There’s something about wandering among trees, strolling through a field or hiking in a desert that brings ideas to mind. Get past the immediate concerns, such as:
- I wish I’d remembered to wear shoes.
- I’m really thirsty.
- Why is that man wielding an axe?
You’ll eventually get to a deeper place. It may be ironic, but getting out helps you dig inward. The act of walking is in itself a blog ideas generator. Exploit it, and you’ll not only find ideas worth writing about, but you’ll improve your health as well.
Don’t Get Boxed In
Coming up with fresh ideas means thinking outside that proverbial square thing we all get trapped in occasionally. If your box is full of medical ideas, think of sports, the economy or fashion. When you feel free to explore another topic, new ideas emerge. This kind of blog ideas generator allows you to combine seemingly disparate genres and combine them into something fresh.
In fact, most breakthroughs happen today when two different fields of expertise are somehow combined. Think of socioeconomics or biotechnology. This technique works to inspire you to write engaging new blog topics, maybe even ones that no one else has ever thought to write about before.
Forget Everything
Perhaps the best piece of advice is the one most often overlooked. Professional writers and successful authors all adhere to it, and you can follow their lead very simply. What’s that advice? Just write.
That’s all there is to it. If you think of yourself as a writer, sit down and write. What comes out at first may be garbage, but maybe you just need to clear away the cobwebs to reach the treasure. If you write often enough and long enough, you will eventually get to “the juice:” the mood or mental place where writing gold awaits. Go for it. Expect it to be there and you’ll find it.
Or take a break and read some rules for writing magnificent stuff from Ash Ambirge’s The Middle Finger Project. No matter what you do, if you’re a writer, you’ll find a way to a blog ideas generator that works for you. We know — because that’s our cross to bear too, as well as our reason for being here. Happy digging!
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.
by Mark Bloom | Jul 17, 2018 | Blog Writing
A Business Blogger Has to Write Every Week
This blog post is the 225th published on this website. As a business blogger, Ray Access has been blogging every week — with few interruptions — since the first blog post went live back on August 28, 2012 (nearly six years ago!). For 225 times, we’ve found something to write about. And every week, we wrote something we felt was worth sharing with other writers, entrepreneurs and website developers.
The point isn’t to toot our own horn, although 225 blog posts is something to celebrate. The point is to stress that the key to a successful website is a consistent blog. And for almost the whole time we’ve been blogging for ourselves, we’ve also ably performed as a business blogger for our clients (see some of our examples). They understand the value of consistent blogging.
Consistency Draws Attention
Just as with social media, you develop name recognition — the first step in the sales process — with consistent postings. If you’re on social media once a month, no one will remember you. But if you’re there every day, your audience eventually recognizes your name.
The same is true for business blogging. If you publish a blog post once a month or even less frequently than that, no one will know or care who you are. You’d have to get lucky enough to write a viral article, which is very, very difficult to do. But if you blog — and promote your work — every week, week in and week out, people will come to recognize you and your business. They may even look forward to your words.
Quality Always Counts
But if you’re publishing useless advice or tips that everyone already knows, your readers will come to recognize your name and learn to stay away. Even if you publish consistently, you’ll be building a reputation, but one you won’t want. A business blogger has to add value to the online conversation with every post.
Part of the puzzle is knowing your audience. Only then can you write about topics of interest. Only then can you deliver insight and value to your community. No one online has time to wade through boring preambles or irrelevant facts. If you can write well about your business or industry, you can make a name for yourself, a reputation that attracts an audience. Writing quality always matters.
How to Be a Business Blogger
Ray Access has been blogging for long enough to have picked up some tips to share with you. To blog consistently for six years, you need several tools beyond a website platform:
- Develop business blogging ideas. Coming up with a new topic every week can be a challenge. Ray Access has the advantage of a superb partnership that shares this burden equally. We also use the two-headed approach to brainstorm blog topics for our clients. You either have to devote time to it or call in a professional.
- Use a clear or entertaining voice. How you relate to your audience helps you stand out from the crowd. If you’re consistently clear and thorough, that makes you a dependable source. If you’re funny or entertaining, that makes you worth a visit. Whichever voice you choose, be consistent.
- Learn how to tell a good story. All good nonfiction writing has to inform. While that’s true with every type of writing, it’s especially true with business blogging. A business blog has to engage its readers and hold them until the end. That’s easier to do when you have a story to unfold.
- Promote your blog wherever you can. A business blogger has to reach out to his audience. Bring your blog post to them. Make it easy to find your words. When you take the time to promote your blog, you widen your audience and attract new visitors. In fact, that should be the goal of your blog.
- Be consistent. You don’t get to 225 blog posts without being consistent. You don’t get to be successful without consistency. Rain or shine, whether you’re feeling inspired or not, make your blog a priority, and it will catapult you and your company into an enviable online entity.
If you can’t do blog writing, hire someone who can — someone like, you guessed it, the business blogger pros at Ray Access.
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.
by Elle Ray | Jun 11, 2018 | Blog Writing
Use Brain Power to Come Up with Blog Topics
One of the laments that we at Ray Access hear constantly from small business owners, website developers and marketing pros is that they have trouble coming up with unique blog topics every week. Some even tell us that they draw a blank for new blog topics they churn out only once a month!
Coming up with new blog topics week after week, trying never to repeat a topic, is a challenge for sure. Even though you may be able to get away with a different angle on a single topic, it still takes a certain amount of creativity, open-mindedness and yes — imagination.
Fact and Fiction
Some people equate imagination with fiction — things that are just made up and not necessarily true. And while you certainly can imagine fantasy and great story lines that never happened, you also can apply a vivid imagination to the truth, reality and your readers’ — and clients’ — interests.
In an article titled Nonfiction: Access to Information, Insight and Imagination, collaborating scholars write:
Nonfiction surrounds each of us daily. Such a profound notion suggests that nonfiction should be quite accessible… Such an assumption becomes reality…”
The thrust of the article — as published in The Dragon Lode and reprinted by Springhill College — basically covers how writers of fiction and nonfiction are more alike than not. They argue that the genres really aren’t all that separate. Each type of writing relies on a clear and open mind willing to receive ideas from that same place where the imagination rests.
Tap into Your Best Thinking
Now we’re not talking about making things up and trying to pass them off as fact. Actually, what we’re suggesting is exactly the opposite. Applying your imagination — whether you’re coming up with blog topics, creating a documentary, writing a company newsletter or covering breaking news — allows you to see beyond your own prejudices and ideas of right and wrong.
Being open-minded rightfully relies on the imagination to think beyond your upbringings, your assumptions and even sometimes the very foundation of your faith. For example, as a former newspaper woman, Linda was sent on a mission trip to a third-world country with a group of evangelical medical missionaries. Even while the members of the group proceeded to try to convert her to their religious beliefs, she had to write about their bravery and compassion.
It’s only because she learned how to leave her fears and prejudices behind whenever she covered a story that she was able to produce an award-winning special section. She could see past the facades these religious zealots wore outwardly to see the real humanity and oneness they shared with the “unbelievers” in their care. Linda came away a better person, a better writer and a respected journalist — all without converting.
Too Many Blog Topics
When you apply the principles embodied by information, insight and imagination to the act of coming up with blog topics every week, year in and year out, you may feel like you’re heeding a higher calling. But you never know who you might reach, what you might learn and how you might teach.
So, let us provide a few tips for opening your mind and tapping into the endless well of imagination you were born with. Use these tips when you sit down to create your own list of upcoming blog topics:
- Brainstorming. It’s said that the average person has about 60,000 different thoughts every day. When you storm your brain, alone or preferably with one or more other colleagues, you shake some of those thoughts loose and throw them down on paper. Even if you only use one percent of those random ideas, that can lead to 600 potential blog topics!
- Jotting it down. Keep a pad of paper nearby at all times. Most of the ideas we get pass through so quickly, they don’t have time to stick. Whether you use actual pen and paper or tap the words into a note-taking app on your phone, commit your ideas to hard copy when they catch your attention.
- Meditating. The practice of stopping all thoughts is the exact opposite of brainstorming and gives your mind a break, leaving it open to funnel in some surprising new revelations you may not even know you knew. Many meditators believe that their God/Higher Power/Source speaks to them during this quiet time. If your spiritual guide truly cares about you, she’ll pump you full of great blog topics exactly when you need them! All you have to do is get out of the way.
- Getting out of your chair. Exercise can shake loose a few of the cobwebs stuck inside your head. When you pose a question to yourself and then stop thinking about it while you push your body to move and sweat, all kinds of imaginings can take root and grow. The healthy shot of blood to your brain doesn’t hurt either.
- Caring and sharing. Out with friends who play no part in your industry? Mixing it up with fellow dancers before your Zumba class? Sitting around the dinner table with family? Toss the imagination ball around the room and see what happens. People love to explore new notions and tap into their own creativity out loud — even if it’s only to give you some new blog topics.
- Reading the news. Every day, you should get at least one blog topic from the news. The way your business and/or industry intersects with current trends and interacts with something in the news is one of the best ways to find blog topics. And it’s one way that web developers and SEO professionals get blog topics that are already trending online.
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.
by Mark Bloom | Apr 10, 2018 | Blog Writing
How to Connect to Your Audience When Writing
To learn how to connect to your audience when writing, you have to study the elements involved. The simple trick is a technique that’s as old as storytelling, yet as relevant today as the latest Oscar winners and the most successful brands. To tell a good story or write a successful blog post, you have to remember who your audience is.
Advertisers have been tapping into this phenomenon for centuries. Blogging is no different, really; it’s just so much more fun and way less intrusive! So here are five tips to discover how to connect to your audience when writing blog posts. These techniques will help you write more effective blogs for yourself or your clients.
1. Know Your Audience
This first step is the most straightforward, but perhaps the most difficult. You may think you know your readers, but until you do some research, you’ll never know how to connect to your audience when writing your blog posts. Your resources, including time, determine how thoroughly you dig into this aspect of audience evaluation. Some common methods include:
- Develop personas. Use all your market research data to create specific individuals who represent large segments of your audience. A persona may include a photo, a name, family members, employment, income, hobbies — everything you need to personalize and get to know that segment. You can develop multiple personas, if desired.
- Send a survey. The most direct way to learn who’s reading your blog posts is to ask them. Publish a survey, asking just the most important questions you want to know. The longer it is, the less likely your readers will complete it.
- Study the analytics. Technology has advanced to the point that your computer can track who stops by your website. Analytics breaks down that data by location, age, gender and more. Use this information to better target your readers.
2. Learn What Questions They’re Asking
If you want to know how to connect to your audience when writing, you have to write about topics that matter to them. If they’re worried about taxes, to give a topical example, then provide information about taxes that they can use. If conversion rates are keeping them awake at night, write about how they can improve those rates.
You can’t learn what questions your readers are asking until you know who they are. You can’t know what they search for or care about unless you do the research. Find out, if you can, what information your target audience is searching for. Think about yourself. Ask yourself: what are the last three phrases you typed into a search engine? That’s an enlightening first step in this process.
3. Answer Those Questions
It sounds so simple, but this process is often anything but. People change day-to-day. What was topical and relevant yesterday may be old news today. But depending on your business and your industry, some information is always going to be relevant. If you’re a plumber, write about how to fix a leak. If you’re a web developer, tell your readers what a website does, what it needs and why.
If you can help your audience learn something or gain valuable information, you’ve earned their trust. Gaining trust is the biggest single accomplishment when you want to know how to connect to your audience when writing. Once you become a trusted source, your readers not only accept the information you provide, they look to you for those answers.
4. Use Language They Can Understand
How to connect to your audience when writing blogs takes your readers into consideration with every word you commit to the page. Make sure they understand the point you’re making. Make sure the word you use is clear in the context you’ve presented it. English is a versatile language, and there are often many ways to say the same thing. And yet only one will do.
If you have the most useful information ever, but if you don’t deliver it in a way your audience can understand, you’ve failed. Write in a tone that’s comfortable for them. Use words like “you” and “your” to engage them. Once you’ve gained their trust, they’ll have a better aptitude to learn.
5. Deliver It in a Timely Way
Your audience doesn’t always ask the same questions every day. Some are more topical than others. Address those topical questions in a timely manner. If a holiday’s approaching, determine the trending worries, questions and issues. Then tackle them in your blog. You’ll generate more traffic if you’re answering the right questions at the right time.
Learning how to connect to your audience when writing blog posts means keeping up with the news and discovering how it may affect your target readers. If it’s relevant and timely, it’s worth exploring in a blog post. It’s also a good way to draw attention to your blog. When it comes to writing a blog, your readers are the most important audience.
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.
