Our online social media marketing course explains how blogging can be beneficial to a social media marketer, and how to make sure you stay on top of it.

Blogging is ideal for marketing because it provides customers with new information to keep them interested in your company. It also enables companies to interact with their customers and to form a relationship with them. This has the effect of developing loyalty.

Establishing a blog is easy, but maintaining it can be a challenge. It can take time to post new content and come up with ideas for engaging material.

Readers will quickly notice if you run out of fresh content, and may lose interest in what you have to say. It would be sensible to set up a blog only if you are able to give it the attention it requires.

Make it compelling.

You want people to read it don’t you? Boring content will put people off. Use good pictures and perhaps video content too (which is considered to be very engaging). You will need to post something which sparks the reader’s interest or contains relevant information.

Keep it short and to the point.

A blog is not a replacement for a book. Writing thousands and thousands of words is not appropriate. Aim for several hundred instead. Reading off a computer screen is more difficult than on paper. How you structure the words on the page is important too. Break up blocks of text. Use headings. Use lists. All this makes it easier for readers to scan the material.

Do not be too formal.

Write in a friendly tone. Don’t use technical language. Use the same style as if you were sitting down in a café with a mate to chat over a cup of coffee. That does not mean you can get away with being unprofessional, though. Be “warm” and accessible instead.

Check your content.

Read through what you have written. Correct any mistakes and grammatical errors and ensure it all make sense. This is vital.

Update your blog on a regular basis.

Your audience will notice very quickly if you are not updating your content. Make sure you post new material every day or week (if you have something to say). Keep it fresh.

Link to other material.

Use your blog to link to other material on the web. This could be the website of the organisation you represent, or perhaps information about specific services it provides.

Build buyer personas.

It is hard to write a blog, or anything for that matter, without knowing for whom you are writing. Sit down and write up your audience profiles: age, occupation, income, wants, needs, aspirations, etc. Once you have defined your target audience, you can then write content that is relevant and meaningful to them.

Clarify your service areas.

In other words, determine the scope and reach of your blog. Are you focusing your content on a certain city, or a product, or one particular company? Are you aiming at a national or even global audience? Be realistic and smart about the scope of your blog. In doing so, you can specifically target those areas and optimise for geographically relevant search and social keywords.

List your blog topics.

With the target audience perspective in mind, think about what they would want and need to know about your services and industry.

Blog topics should be focused on relevant content to inform and benefit your buyer. Aim to fulfil or solve a consumer’s want, need, or pain point (problem). Try your hand at thought leadership pieces that establish you as a trusted industry source.

Avoid purely sales-focused blogs. Think about educational content, and then, if you can relate it back to your services, go ahead. But remember, your blog will not gain traction if a reader can hear the sales pitch in the first sentence.

Build an editorial calendar.

Prepare a monthly blogging calendar, including all the deadlines for drafts and postings. This will give you time to prepare and edit your pieces. You will always feel one step ahead.

Research before your write.

It is tempting to write blogs from your head, but try to use research to enhance your posts. This will help you make stronger arguments that establish you as a thought leader in your industry.

See our social media marketing course