Blog writing is a basic element of digital content marketing. A business blog is a series of posts that you create about your job, not something personal that you would like to share with the world. People often doubt whether they should devote their time to business blog writing or not. It may be also hard to understand how to get started and continue writing on a regular basis. These and some other essential questions we will address in this post.
What to Write About?
Our advice is simple: remember that this is your blog, so you can write it about anything you consider important for your business and customers. This is a beauty of a blog, yet don’t get into a trap of writing about everything under the sun.
To select a list of topics to cover, describe what your business is about, what you are responsible for, what your mission is, what your biggest challenges are, with whom you build partner relationships, etc. It works well to come up with a story about your business, a product, or key employees. Some behind the scenes insights work well and keep the reader’s attention. Check out this selection of sample topics for business blog posts to get inspired.
What about the Length?
One of the most popular questions that we hear from our writers is how long the posts should be. Most people don’t like writing. And even fewer people can create a quality copy without understanding how many words they should produce.
It’s widely accepted that business blogs are fine if they are anywhere between 300 and 2,000 words per publication. Since it takes a different amount of time to create a 400-word story and a 1,600-word long read, you need to consider how much time you and/or your employees will dedicate to blog writing.
Another question to consider is what your audience prefers to read. If they lack the time and, therefore, need a quick hit, there is no point to writing a longer piece. In case, you can’t come up with a right post length, target at 450-750 words.
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How Often to Post and How Long It Takes?
These are hard questions to answer because you may be tempted to post daily. The tricky part is that you should select the posting frequency and stick to it or else your audience may get disappointed. For instance, if you post on Fridays on a weekly basis, you make our customers wait for updates from you on Fridays. In case you can’t publish a material, they may think that something happened or you got lazy.
We advise you to keep these two points in mind:
- 1. Come up with a list of topics first. If your list is 3-page long, you are likely to handle a weekly posting.
- 2. Think about how much time you and/or your employees can dedicate to blog writing. It may take less than an hour or a whole working day if plenty of research is involved. See the estimates below. In 2016, most respondents spent 1-2 hours on creating a typical post.
What Writing Style to Choose?
After you have identified the length of an ideal post for your business blog, you have another point to consider: what writing style will fit your blog.
On the one hand, you should make it useful and interesting to read. On the other hand, your blog needs to include a touch of humanity to your business. To put it simply, you can communicate your insider problems to your audience. For example, write about how you have handled a challenging project or what team building format suits well for your web-development department.
It’s a good idea to write using a conversational tone. Imagine what and how you would tell about a chosen topic to your best friend who doesn’t know much about your business. and write in such voice.
To Plan Your Posts in Advance or Not to Plan
Planning is highly recommended. You can develop a simple content strategy to follow. Also keep in mind the key items on your business calendar, e.g. events, promotions, anniversaries, and so on. Following the calendar of your partners and competitors is also a good idea. By doing so, you won’t miss anything important in the industry. The advantages and disadvantages of doing blog planning are presented below:
In case you feel like you can’t keep up and commit to your publication schedule, consider hiring a ghost writer. These guys are experts in adapting their writing style and tone so that they sound almost like their clients’ voices. If you know a few experienced ghost writers, try their services, check everything before publishing, and don’t hesitate to outsource post writing when you lack time.
How to Measure Your Blog Success?
Remember that you’re writing a blog for your business. This is a marketing effort, so you should measure your success and consider how many working hours you spend monthly.
Typically, content marketers measure impressions, shares, views, and comments. You can also check the referral traffic in your Google Analytics account. So, you will understand what content works better for your audience. For example, they may prefer infographics, not long reads, or watching videos to studying the diagrams.
Either way, you should focus on attracting the target audience in the first place. The Minimalists blog discusses a relevant concept of a great quality reader who is engaged, enthusiastic, intelligent, interested, and returning.
P.S. “No business truly sells to another business; we all sell to people.” Ann Handley
About the Authors
Promodo team
Marketing department
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