One of the most powerful things you can do as a marketing agency for business owners is to help them create and maintain a business blog. But business blog writing differs a bit from keeping a personal blog, and it's important to help your clients understand how they can turn their blog into a tool to effectively convert visitors. Here are some of our top tips for maintaining a business blog:
Plan Ahead
One of the biggest reasons a lot of business owners shy away from keeping a blog is that they understand the kind of time commitment it can take. However, it's often easier to create content ahead of time, instead of trying to come up with it on a weekly basis. By planning ahead, you can make sure that your clients have enough content for weeks or even months to come, making business blog writing the least stressful thing on their plates.
Post Business Blog Writing Regularly
There are a lot of mixed opinions when it comes to how often you should post, but the key is making sure that you post regularly, if not frequently. You'll want to make sure that readers know when to expect a new blog post from you, especially if you plan on providing quality material that brings readers back. Of course, this can also backfire if you don't plan ahead -- posting low-quality content just so that you have content will likely bring your rankings down, rather than up.
Keep it Short
There are a few reasons you want to keep business blog writing short, but the biggest one is that people are usually just looking for an answer to a question. If they can't quickly get it, they'll likely move on to a competitor. The other reason is that attention spans simply aren't what they were, and people aren't interested in reading through a lot of fluff to get to the meat of the content. Aim to keep your blog posts between 400-700 words, and more often closer to the former than the latter.
Share, Share, Share
Not only will you want to make sure your clients' business blogs are being shared on their social media platforms, but you'll also want to make sure that it's easy for readers to share content they like. People respond more positively to brands they see shared by their friends, so you absolutely want to make it easy for people to put your clients' content on their feeds.
Get Analytics
What makes a good business blog? Of course, it's important to see whether or not your business blog writing is creating conversions, but there's another huge reason you'll want to make sure that you have analytics running on your clients' websites: it's a great way to see what's working. And if you can see what's working, you can create more content like it. Perhaps my favorite way of coming up with content is going back and seeing what I can add to old posts that got the most views or interactions. It's a surefire success for new content.
Hire a Writer
While it may seem tempting to save a few pennies by doing it all in-house, hiring someone to do business blog writing for you can make a world of difference. Business blog writing isn't something that comes naturally, and if you can find a good writer, it will increase your quality. Furthermore, if you can develop a team, you can make sure that fresh content is regularly being delivered, and as stated before, keeping a blog frequent is important for SEO and reader retention. This can also alleviate many clients' fears that a blog will be too difficult to maintain.
Related: Business Blog Writing Outsourcing vs. In-House Writers
What will a blog do for a company? If your clients are still unsure about developing and maintaining a blog for their site, bring up these ideas with them. They might realize that the benefits of blogging for business will surely outweigh the commitment, especially if you hire a writer or manage it for them. By doing a little bit of planning, keeping good analytics, and choosing the right keywords, you can make sure that their business blog writing is a self-maintaining success that helps them grow. Does your business need a blog? To learn more, check out our white paper, "How the Right Blog Content Can Power and Simplify All Your Online Marketing."