Business blogs can be somewhat challenging for a few reasons: you shouldn’t be self promoting, you need to create timely, relevant content for your readers and you have to be consistent. Let’s take a look at some best practices to ensure your blog reaches the level of success you’re looking for.
B2B Blogging Best Practices
1. Think Like a Publisher, Not a Builder — You’re not just a building or remodeling company anymore. You have to become a publisher. When you write articles, you have to think about what appeals to your target customer. How can you get this content out to them? Where are they on the web? Chances are, your customer isn’t really interested in what your company is doing or the new capabilities you have as a builder…yet! The majority of web surfers are looking for information. “How long does it take to remodel my kitchen?” “How much does it cost to remodel my bathroom?” These are the types of things you need to be talking about in your blog.
2. Ask Your Blog Subscribers What Kind of Content They Want — A lot of times, as a builder or remodeler, we think we know exactly what our prospects want to hear. Most times, we are wrong! Don’t be afraid to ask your readers what kind of content they are looking for. If you humble yourself, appeal to your audience, you will likely gain more and more followers…which means more prospects coming to your blog and website. You’re clearly not writing the blog for yourself…so don’t pretend to! Just ask you subscriber base what they want to hear and give it to them!
3. Make Sure Your Builder Blog is Connected to Your Website— There are a couple of ways to make sure your blog is connected to your website. The first is to have your blog sit on a sub domain of your website. (Ex. blog.mybuildercompany.com) The second way is to have your on an extension such as www.mybuildercompany.com/blog. By making sure your blog is connected to your website, you will ensure that each article gives your website one more opportunity to get found on the web. If you host your blog on a free platform such as www.mybuildercompany.wordpress.com you will only be giving WordPress credit. You want to give your website all the credit!
Business blogging can be one of the most important tools in tying traffic and leads to a corporate website by generating content that search engines value and people enjoy sharing on social networks. What best practices have you discovered while publishing your own business blog?
Blog Post Written by Taylor Vowell
Taylor Vowell is a certified inbound marketing specialist with a background in graphic design and website development. www.tmrdirect.com