How To Avoid Business Blogging Critical Mistakes

Are you writing your company’s business blog?

Many Houston companies decide to create a business blog as a way to communicate with their customers. They think that it is an easy task and that all they have to do is talk about themselves and their business. They think that by engaging current and future customers, they will get more leads and ultimately sales.

Hold on just a minute. Before you get on the blogging band wagon, there are some things you must consider. Maintaining a business blog is more work than you think. If you build it doesn’t mean that people will necessarily come.

Business blogging is both an art and a science. You might be good at the art, but totally bomb out on the science part. Or it could be the other way around.

Whatever your case may be, many new business bloggers make several critical mistakes. Making serious mistakes can sink your blog faster than a speeding bullet. So it’s really important to be aware of the mistakes so you can understand them and not make them.

1. Blogging only about yourself. Most companies will blog solely about what’s happening inside their company. After a short period, this will get boring to most of your visitors. After all, your blog should focus on audience, not yourself.

You should focus on your visitors 80% to 90% of the time. Create most of your content with your visitor in mind; tell them about up and coming trends, how to solve a problem they might have, or something that makes them think.

That’s not to say that your company’s blog shouldn’t talk about the company.

For the remaining 10% to 20% of your blog, talk about your promotions, your company, and especially the people in your company. You can spotlight specific people, tell visitors about a new direction your company is taking, or how the company is helping the community.

2. Content that is too broad. Just about anyone can write really generalized, broad content. Many of your visitors are looking for specific, new information. They are looking for something more than what is posted over and over, in different ways. If you can put a new spin on the information, making it easier for your visitor, the more likely you are to establish yourself as the go-to guy, the authority on the subject.

3. Posting infrequently. Peter Drucker once said, “Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work”. Many businesses will start a blog, but then it falls by the wayside. A good blog will have frequent posts, at least once a week. If your content it really good, your visitor will keep returning. Think of the blogs that are on your subscription roll and that you check frequently.

4. It’s too technical. The truth is that many of your visitors might not be company CEOs or other industry heavy-weights. Even so, why use technical, industry-ese? If your content is easily understandable, there is no missed connection.

Think about trying to get through a legal document. How many times must you read it to thoroughly grasp the content? Many people will not sit down and read the same thing three or four times. If they can’t grasp it easily, they will click away and keep looking for something that doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out.

5. Bouncing ball. The bouncing ball is your analytics. Make sure you are paying attention to the right thing. It’s all well and good to get 1,000,000 visitors each month, but if they don’t stay, what’s the point?

The most important statistic when it comes to a blog is your bounce rate. The bounce rate tells you how long your visitors are staying on a certain page. If you plan about 1 minute per 250-300 words or so, people are taking the time to read.

If people are taking the time to read, you’ve written good, understandable content.

If you are careful not to make the critical mistakes in business blogging, you will be on your way to gaining new customers. It’s hard work, since you have to create unique content once a week at a minimum. Many companies turn to professional bloggers to help. If you need an expert blogger to maintain your company blog, call Houston’s Directory One. Their experienced copywriters can keep your blog on the right track.