Blogging! That thing everyone does! A blog has immense potential to generate website traffic…or so they say. I know getting an audience that reads your blog can a BIG problem for business blogs. There is so much content noise already. I know you don’t want to be a noise-maker, but a news-maker. So the question is, what makes your blog better reading than another’s? How do you write a blog that gets an audience?
Here are a couple of criteria our team came up with:
- You have a captive audience. Perhaps you are a company that requires or requests all employees to be familiar with the content of your blog. Or maybe your company CEO is in the public limelight. No contest! You win!
- You have information that can only be found on your site. Again, you win. However, it is a certain fact that you have a small audience. If you didn’t, then the information you present would be available in many locations.
- You have a following. Congrats, I’m sure you worked hard to get to this point. However, you know the work does not stop. Those readers will desert you faster than they signed up for your site if you do not continue to inform and amuse them.
Does your blog fit into one of these criteria? If it doesn’t, that’s okay because I have a couple of suggestions for you.
Make It Personal
One problem many readers have with corporate blogs is how inhuman or faceless they feel. You want to present the best version of the company, but many corporate or in-house blog writers don’t feel comfortable writing about themselves from the first-person perspective. If the blog writer can personalize the content, all the better. Sharing stories of personal triumph as well as personal struggle is another way to humanize the company through the blog.
Guest Bloggers
One way to grow your audience is through guest blogging—both posting on other blogs and inviting bloggers to write for your website. Knowing your goals for guest blogging is going to be key, and KISSMetrics has a good guide on making the most out of guest blogging opportunities.
Writing Means Taking Action
Marketing superstar Seth Godin writes, “Marketing used to be what you say. Now, marketing is what you do. What you make. How you act. The choices you make when you are sure no one is looking.” What kind of choices do you make when you’re not on the clock? Actions like volunteering, attending conferences, meeting new people, sitting in on panels—all of these are opportunities for a great blog article. The ideas won’t come if all you do is sit at your desk waiting. You have to go out there and seek them.
