Give yourself credit for having a blog for your business in the first place, but don’t stop there. You have to treat your blogging endeavor as you would any other aspect of your company and pay proper attention to it. Blogging is full-time work, and you have to set goals and constantly monitor your blog if you want it to be successful.
Understand what mistakes you’re making managing your blog, so you can make changes and bring in more traffic and create more engagement with readers. Spend time looking around and researching so you better understand what it is you need to be successful in the space.
Refusing to put anyone in Charge of the Blog
It’s a smart idea to hire someone to be in charge of managing your business blog and not leave it up to chance that a member of your team will take care of it consistently. Appoint an employee who will be in charge of making sure it’s well maintained and is getting proper attention on a regular basis. Don’t assume as the owner of the company you’re going to have time to do your day job, run a business and manage a blog.
Not Getting outside Help for Gaps in Knowledge
Launching a blog opens the floodgates to a lot of unknowns, and you may have questions as you begin to grow it. For example, reach out and get outside help with your WordPress management to save you time and headaches. You’ll want these individuals as part of your team to deal with situations such as a hacked or down website and making necessary website edits. You don’t have to know it all to start a blog, but you do need to know when it’s time you get help from those who are experts in managing a blog successfully and taking care of details you may not be knowledgeable about.
Posting too much or not Enough
Inconsistent posting is likely to turn people off and cause your traffic to decline big time. Your readers want to know what to expect from you and get the substance they desire and look forward to on a regular basis. Come up with a content calendar and make sure you’re sending out regular blog posts that are informative, timely and valuable. Posting too much or not enough will backfire and users will quickly lose interest in your blog. What you need is structure and an editorial calendar will do just that for you. If you’re unsure how often to post, check out other successful blogs and see what they’re doing.
Sharing on A Wide Variety of Topics
While you may think that being knowledge and showing off all you know is a good idea, this strategy may take a toll on your readership and people will soon become confused by what you’re publishing. It’s better to find your niche and focus in on a main topic than it is to be posting content about a bunch of different subject matters. You want to share information your target audience finds appealing and that makes sense for what you do as a business. Answer questions, provide value and stop trying to hard sell people through your blog.
Not using any Visuals & Weak Blog Titles
It’s all about the details if you want to truly have a successful business blog. Start using high-quality images if you aren’t already and think long and hard about your blog titles. People are looking to be informed, but they also want to be entertained and visualize what you’re talking about. These are the types of improvements you can make that will draw in readers and keep their attention. Boring headlines will prevent you from attracting users and hurt traffic immensely.
Failing to Cross Promote on Social Media
Use social media to your advantage and share your blog posts across all channels. This is where your audience is hanging out and a good opportunity for you to catch their attention online. Make sure you have social sharing icons on your blog and allow your readers the opportunity to distribute content they enjoy with their network. Also, use social media to build relationships with other bloggers who can guest blog for you and to increase your followings so you’re guaranteed to have readers visit your website when you post new blogs.
No Call to Action or Next Steps
Use your blog to ask your target audience to take action and let them know what steps they can follow for doing business with you or learning more. You’ve given them a valuable piece of information, and now they’re more likely to be inclined to interact with you and find out more about your company and products. Clearly spell out the call to action at the end of each blog post and see how quickly you increase conversions and create a return on the time you spend managing your blog and posting new content.
Choosing not to Answer Blog Comments
Another reason you want someone in charge of managing your business blog is so that the comments are always being attended to and answered. Don’t even bother having a blog if you’re not going to engage with your readers and get back to them about their inquiries. Even if it’s a compliment or statement, make sure you respond to the person and let them know you’re listening and paying attention. It’s possible this small act will turn readers into customers and create more buzz about your business. Providing responses to comments will likely draw in additional remarks from other readers as well.
Conclusion
It’s always good to learn what you’re doing wrong so you can quickly make adjustments and improve your processes. Your blog is one area that you should pay attention to and manage better if you want to impress your audience and increase traffic and conversions. Have fun with it and challenge yourselves to do a better job with each post you make on your blog. If you can get it right, your company blog has a lot of potential for helping your business grow and thrive.