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Blogging is often overlooked for other flashier social media marketing options like Facebook and Twitter. However, successful business blogging not only supports lead generation - it also provides thoughtful, engaging content needed to be successful on social media. While blogging is important, it can also be challenging. Once you have mastered the art of regularly creating content for your blog, it is time to take it to the next level.
The next level of business blogging is really about doing what may seem simple, but exercises a major impact on your business blogging success.
7 Ways to Take Your Business Blog to the Next Level
1. Write Short and Clear Headlines - Headlines are a critical element of your blog posts. They tell humans and search engines what your article is about when they see it in search results, on Twitter, on Facebook, on LinkedIn, or in email. One of the best ways to work on clear headlines is to shorten them as much as possible. Try to never have a blog post headline be more than 9 words. If you can get it shorter, that is even better. The simpler your article, the more it will spread.
2. Include Several Headers Per Post - Having headers in your post serves two purposes. First, it tells search engines what that particular article is about. Second, and more importantly, it allows readers to better understand your information. Pages with endless paragraphs can easily cause fatigue and get abandoned. By placing headers in between each idea in your post, you allow the reader to consume all of your post more easily or let them scan to the parts of the article that are valuable to them. Have you ever heard of a person complain that a blog post had to many headers? I haven't.
3. Get Rid of Wasteful Words - Some words are simple to use but don't add any value to a blog post. Words such as "just" and "very" simply add wordiness and distract from the overall message of your content. Take a few minutes to read over a blog post draft and remove words that don't add value to your message.
4. Include a Contextual Image - Many people will tell you to put an image in every blog post, but that isn't enough. The image has to be contextual, it must connect with the idea of your post. The majority of your readers will see the image before they have read one word of your post, so it is critical that the image helps them understand the general topic and theme of the post.
5. Set Expectations with Headlines - Headlines are so important that a second item needs to be added to this list to address them. Your headline should reveal what content format the post contains. A post has a different appeal to a reader if it is a 2-minute video as opposed to a 600-word text. One way to do this is to bracket a content type at the end of your headline: "Your Blog Post That Has A Video [Video]"
6. Turn Comments Into an Extension of the Post - Comments can often be more valuable than the original blog post. For this to happen, blog posts need to encourage the right type of comments. Blog authors should ask smart question and include them at the end of each post. If a blog post contains a list of ideas, invite commenters to add to that list. By asking others to add to the post, it empowers readers to become a part of the issue the post addresses.
7. Use CTAs to Continue Education - Calls-to-action (CTAs) turn a blog into an important lead generation tool. But when done right, CTAs can be more valuable to blog readers. Think of a blog post as a primer: it is a brief look into an issue. Let's take this post as an example--it gives readers interested in business blogging some brief information to get better. But if they want even more, then the CTA at the end of this post that connects them to an entire ebook on business blogging, quickly provides them the additional information they were looking for in a simple and contextual way. For readers who aren't looking to learn more at this time, they can simple read the post and then move on to something else.
What business blogging tips would you add to this list?
Photo Credit: moyogo
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