Every effort you put into your company has to move you toward your goals. One of your goals should be to satisfy your visitor by having what they’re looking for readily available. When it comes to blogging, you may have many goals – but I want you to concentrate on the goals that specifically benefit your overall marketing plan.
Lesson 5
Every effort you put into your company has to move you toward your goals. One of your goals should be to satisfy your visitor by having what they’re looking for readily available. When it comes to blogging, you may have many goals – but I want you to concentrate on the goals that specifically benefit your overall marketing plan.
- Build search engine relevance, so your website will be given a priority on search pages.
- Fresh content, in line with your website offers
- Page depth
- Interesting blogs keep people in your website longer
- Build credibility when searchers are comparing businesses.
- Give you something to share on social media outlets … but almost more importantly,
- Give OTHERS something to share when they come to your website.
I taught you some techniques in Lesson 2 so you could plan your messages throughout the week, month, or year. In this lesson, we’re going to make sure your message has a voice that matters, so you’re not shouting in the dark on social media! If you haven’t downloaded the Learn to Blog For Your Business Workbook, do so now, as it will augment what we talk about here.
You have to have goals in mind when you blog, so you stay on point and become really effective.
Think about the language of your customer. No matter how technical your customer is, they enjoy reading things easily. Also, for your blog to do you any good, your visitor will have to share it. Think about what this person’s friends and peers read or listen to. The more conversational you make your message, the easier and more natural it will be to get your information shared with their social connections. Your share will not matter as much as their sharing!
Avoid:
- Long-winded sentences.
- Many multi-syllabic words in the same sentence.
- Faulty spelling or grammar.
- Long paragraphs that look silly on a smartphone.
- Writing from the internal blog editor and posting immediately.
- Poor taste. Choose your perspective carefully. Healthy debate is acceptable, and while ‘snarkiness’ might be highly viral, it may not be the best thing for your brand. More sales are made with a positive message.
In your Learn to Blog For Your Business Workbook, you’ll learn how to decide on category choices. This is important because you are looking at this as a long-term function of your company, not just adding a few posts helter-skelter and being done with it. Doing it right can present a conflict with the way you normally conduct business. It takes time to blog, edit, upload, and share your information.
Create a Standards Of Procedures Guide
Make it as easy as possible to do all this by creating systems that make it a simple task to hand off to someone else. As you learn how to blog for your business, develop a standards of procedures (SOP) binder so you can protect your brand online, and become very aware of how your information is perceived by your visitors. It’s all a listening game, and the best listener wins.
When you listen to what people are talking about on social media, when you listen to what your customers routinely ask you for or are interested in – you gain an advantage over your competition. ESPECIALLY if you blog about those interests. People want the answers and insight your company can provide. Your SOP should have this information inside of it, so blogging is managed correctly as your business grows. Encourage everyone in your company to participate. They all deal with your customer directly or indirectly – and WILL have a perspective to communicate.
- Topic choices and what predefined blog category they should belong to
- An editorial calendar, outlining what you’ll be talking about weekly, monthly, and annually. Connect this to your specials and promotions.
- How often you will blog, and what time of day you’ll publish it. (Can be scheduled.)
- Twitter and Facebook page status messages and update ideas for the topics (these will grow as you take them from the Google Doc you created in Lesson 2.)
- Customer feedback, so you can think elastically and respond to their requests.
Blogging is not instant fame. No matter what you do, your blog will not be instantly read or recognized. It will not matter at all, as long as it just sits there. You will have to promote it, and encourage others to promote it also. You may address how you want that done in your Blogging SOP, or create a separate Social Media SOP. Either way, make it part of your new routine in business.
An SOP will help everyone stay in tune with your customer, and should be updated routinely – at intervals that make sense for your company.
I want you to try the Free Writing exercise from your workbook now. Write as much as you can in 10 minutes, and if you use Google Docs (Google Drive) you’ll be able to check the word count after you edit it later.
After Your Free Writing Exercise
Let this information sit, and be ready to edit for grammar, message, and links the following day. 24 hours will make a big difference in how you see your work. I suggest repeating this exercise for a half hour, it will blow your mind how much you think of!
About Links
Your messages will be even more helpful to customers and visitors if you link each post to a page or previous post that supports it. Those links help Google connect the dots inside your website, and encourage your reader to stay on your site a little longer.
Create a link by opening up another tab on your browser. You should have two instances of your website up now, one from the blog you’re adding, and one with a page or post you want to link to.
Highlight and copy the URL of the post or page you’re linking to, and go back to your blog editor. In your blog editor, click on this link:
Now paste the URL into the link box that opened. We suggest always checking the box to open up the linked page in a new tab. This way, your visitor won’t lose their place in your website when they go to read your additional information.
A Word About Copy Versus Content
Copywriting and content are two different things, and you need to remember this if you wrote your own web page copy. Copy is specific language that leads to a purchase decision, but blog content is more informative and helpful – less ‘salesy’.
While there’s nothing wrong with subtly encouraging your visitor to learn more about your company and become your customer, and that can happen, don’t forget the most important goals for your company.
Use a strong call to action for each and every post you put out. Only one or two, if you give your visitor too many choices, they won’t make any at all. Here are some examples:
- Call you
- Leave a comment
- Share your post
- Connect with you on social media
- Sign up for your newsletter, free report, or ebook
Lead directly. People want to know what you want them to do next.
Are you ready to edit your free write post and get started taking control of your online reputation?[/show_to]
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