1,400 blog posts are published every minute, with 59.3 million published every month. So how many blog posts are published every year? You can figure out the Maths!

At the time of writing this post – 10:30am in Dublin, Ireland, Worldometers tells me that 2,278,710 blogs have already been written today.

The point I am trying to make is that there is a staggering amount of content available on the internet. Between 1994, when the first blog was created, until now, the online space has been flooded with content.

With the popularity of blogs as an inbound marketing tool showing no signs of abetting, all businesses are now starting to understand the value of this activity and continue to add online content.

This has made the online space an overcrowded place where getting your content noticed appears to be a daunting task!

Most larger corporates have dedicated resources to research, design, and create content that their target audience will find relevant. But if you do not have these resources at your disposal, you may not be able to make that kind of investment.

Does that mean you don’t get to benefit from this powerful marketing tool?

ABSOLUTELY NOT!

In this blog, I will reveal to you five blogging best practices that will help you reap rich rewards in the way of more leads, more business and greater profit using content.

BEST PRACTICE #1: QUALITY TRUMPS QUANTITY – ALWAYS

This is not really a secret, is it? It’s more of common sense. But common sense isn’t that common, and so what we see in the online world is a lot more mediocre and sub-par content than there should be.

Why anyone would publish content that does nothing for them and lies in an obscure corner of the internet, ignored and unnoticed is beyond me. But never mind them. What I want to make sure is that you DON’T make that mistake!

Don’t waste your time and energy creating content that is not great. Mediocre content will not do anything for your brand, or your business. Worse still, it can have the opposite effect and send them to your competitor!

You don’t have to flood the online world with content. A few, great quality, well-researched blogs that will attract your target audience and impress them with information that answers their questions is what you need. If your content solves their problems and takes care of their requirements, you can be sure they will keep coming to you for more.

BEST PRACTICE #2: BLOG CONSISTENTLY – ROME WASN’T BUILT IN A DAY, NEITHER WERE SUCCESSFUL BRANDS!

All big brands have one single thing in common. They have taken the time over the years to build trust, strengthen loyalty, and develop a steady customer base. In the current times, inbound marketing has given us one of the most powerful tools to achieve this kind of brand loyalty.

Blogging is not for someone seeking short-term ROIs. You have to be committed to blogging for a longer term before you see the returns and gain your prospects’ authority and trust. The only thing worse than never blogging at all is being inconsistent.

I did say that less is more sometimes. But less does not mean it is ok to blog once a year! That’s too “less” and definitely not enough! You don’t need to blog daily or weekly if you cannot manage that. But you have to find a frequency that works for you and follow it.

From the time when you start blogging, use your results to learn, iterate, and improve the quality of content and the themes that resonate with your target audience. Your results will help you understand what works for them and what does not.

BEST PRACTICE #3: MAKE YOUR BLOG A CONVERSATION, NOT A MONOLOGUE – NOBODY LOVES A BRAGGART!

In the days when traditional marketing ruled the roost, businesses engaged in monologues. All promotional efforts were about them, their services, or their products.

You could do nothing about the annoying ads staring at your face or the even more annoying ads interrupting your favorite TV show. Inbound marketing has changed this.

It is customer-specific. It has given marketers tools to engage with the audience. Inbound marketing is all about conversations.

Tip: If the search engines have landed a prospect on your blog page, they have possibly asked a specific question that may be answered in your content.

When you think like your customers, it will be easy to provide information that answers their questions, clearly and easily. It is likely that they will come back to you again when they want more information on a similar topic.

Here are a few tips you can use to make your content relatable to your target audience:

  • Speak your clients’ language. Don’t use a dull, corporate tone in your blogs. You’re speaking to real people – talk in a language they understand.
  • Use headlines that entice, call-to-actions that seduce.
  • Avoid grammatical errors, typos, and words that need a dictionary to understand.
  • Long paragraphs and dense blocks of text are a put-off. These are absolute no-nos! Be sure to use your H1, H2 tags to both break up text and make your article SEO-friendly.
  • Use images, videos, and other visual elements to make your blog interesting. When you deliver information in an easy to absorb format, your target audience will be more likely to engage.
  • If you use social media to promote your content (and you should!), it is the best place to ask your audience questions about what are they looking for, from you. Listen if they offer suggestions on how you can improve their experience.
  • Be prompt to respond to feedback, positive or negative.
  • Also very important is to include a clear and simple Call-to-Action (CTA) in your content. That’s where your conversation should lead.
  • Remember to use the right keywords. Long-tail keywords work best.
  • Bonus tip: Offer them something tangible and free so they feel they got something from reading your content e.g. booklet (may encourage repeat visits!).
  • Blog length. You don’t want to write a novel where the content is seemingly unending! Online users attention spans are decreasing as time goes on, keep it concise, keep it precise and avoid the fluff.
  • Got an important message or announcement? Push it near the top. Ensure any essential points are above the fold to gain maximum exposure.

If you follow these basic steps, you will be able to establish a lasting relationship with your audience, converse with them frequently, and convert or retain them as your brand loyalists.

BEST PRACTICE #4: GET BLOG IDEAS FROM YOUR AUDIENCE

You’re writing your blog for your readers. So while your objective may be to generate leads, increase web traffic, or to raise your profile as an authority, you have to first build a relationship with them first. You’ll be able to do that only if you have your finger on their pulse.

Creating great quality content, consistently, will not work if you don’t produce what your target audience needs or wants.

If you are not sure what content you should be producing, you have the option of getting ideas from that very audience. Here’s how you can get started:

  • Create blog posts that answer the most interesting questions from people you engage with on social media. Pick ideas for your blog posts from your social media platforms.
  • Sneak a peek at your competitors’ sites and social conversations.
  • Google trends is also a great source of relevant topics.
  • Browse through your inbound Q&A, customer service requests, and any other feedback channels and support channels you have.
  • Have a coffee with your sales team. They are usually a treasure box of information since they are interacting with your prospects and clients all the time. Get ideas about the struggles or pain points that draws someone to your brand. Find out the nuances of how your brand solves their problem. Use this knowledge to create content that actually speaks to your target audience!
BEST PRACTICE #5: SPREAD THE WORD – ACTIVELY

Distributing your content to the right persona in the right place is often the main key to getting it noticed.

It’s not enough to publish your content and wait for people to find it. You have to actively promote it using a mix of tools like email marketing, social media, RSS feeds, and others.

For example, you can easily create a monthly newsletter with your articles to send to your database.

You could ask other team members, like your sales team to share this content. If it’s valuable and of good quality, you are not likely to get any objections.

In social media, you have one of the most effective tools to get more eyeballs on your content. Share your blog on social media and encourage others to do so. Promote your blog articles on the platforms that your personas hang out.

There are several content promotion and distribution tools that you can use to leverage your content socially.

Shop around and find an option to suit your needs. But make sure your content is being seen. You don’t want it to lie unnoticed and neglected in a corner of the online universe now, do you?

Need Help With Content Marketing?