Taking Your Blog To The Next Level
It doesn’t take much to set up a blog on your website. It is quite a bit more difficult to find someone who knows how to write well for the media and do it with consistency, thoroughness and accuracy.
The real challenge comes when you discover how to use blogging as the actual tool it is meant to be, (1) to help you become easier to find on Google and (2) improve reader engagement on social media. After all, a great blog can be the ticket to change a passive reader to become an active loyal customer.
So how do you go from “let’s start blogging,” to attracting a devoted following and seeing search results tick steadily upward?
At Focal Point, we’ve been blogging for years. We’re here to tell you that nothing happens overnight. Even the best blogs take time and practice before getting noticed for the right reasons.
That said, we do have a few suggestions for you to help that search curve trend upward a little faster:
- Research what your blog competitors are saying. Read their stuff and do a little analysis. What are they writing about? Who is writing their blogs (First person? Guest bloggers? Testimonials?)
- Blogging is an extension of you – your brand. Is your brand just one thing, seen in only one way? Of course not. Be open to how you are blogging. There is a lot to be learned from bloggers in related industries. Consider hiring a guest blogger (or even a customer) now and again.
- Apply writing or research strategies from other successful blogs into your own. How do they structure their blogs? Listen to their voice and identify their writing style.
- Make sure your blog personality matches your readers’. Folksy and down-to-earth or technical and savvy, humorous or full of breaking news. If you know your readers, you’ll know what they want to hear and more importantly, how they want to hear it.
- Once you have done your research, fine-tune your blog style. So, even if you occasionally use a guest blogger, your usual reader can tell the blog is your blog.
Nobody likes criticism, but –
Once you have figured out how you are writing and what you want to say, make sure you use the services of a keen editor. It’s rare to find a writer than can also edit his or her own work.
If you are blogging for your own company, this goes double. You may believe you know how to reach your customers, and think you know how to write effectively. But – be open to the idea that you may be wrong about both A and B.
You need thick skin. Ask others you trust to look at and check your work before you send it out. This is a terrific opportunity to get some open and honest feedback about your work. Accepting constructive criticism from others about structure, flow and style is the best way to learn from mistakes, tighten up your content and get better at what you write.
Lastly, don’t stop.
It takes awhile for your blog site to do its job. If after posting multiple blogs, you (or your corporate blogger) find you cannot consistently produce good blogs, hire someone to do that for you.
We hear from companies all the time with the best intentions that let their blogging ‘voice’ go by the wayside. They leave their (dated) blogs out on the website and let them die there – showing the world they gave up. And really, that’s the last thing you want your potential clients to think of you – that you stopped caring.
Blogging does take time and energy. It does take awhile to produce results. Do it anyway. Sometimes that means hiring a seasoned blogging professional, like us. We can help you find your ‘voice,’ achieve consistency and get the search results you want.
Shall we talk?
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