From part-time side hustles to mul
ti-national billion-dollar organizations, every business has a blog. It’s essential for reaching out to customers, keeping your business at the top of search engines, and providing a repository for information that educates both consumers and other businesses. But is your business blog really helping your business out? Each year, the blogging landscape shifts and keeping on the pulse of what attracts and engages your audience can help your blog reach a wider audience. Use these tactics from the 2016 blogging trends aggregated and analyzed by Orbit Media.
Schedule the Time
While the company blog may not be at the top of your to-do list, scheduling adequate time to keep your blog current is essential. In 2016, bloggers are reporting spending, on average, 3 hours and 16 minutes writing a single blog post. Unlike tweets or Facebook posts, blog posts require thought, insight, and time to develop. Since more and more bloggers are citing weekly updates as an effective timeframe for posting, a simple three hour block a week can help you find blog success.
Brevity Isn’t Beneficial
With the rise of Facebook posts and tweets, the natural assumption is that blog posts should also be brief. Not so! The average length of a blog post is now breezing past 1000 words with the percentage of sub-500 word posts being slashed in half. Readers want a informative articles that provide a 360-degree view of the topic. Just like allocating enough time for writing a blog, business owners and bloggers need to fully develop their material. Don’t just set aside the time for blogging, also ensure that the articles you produce provide enough information.
Incorporate Graphics
Just because words are important doesn’t mean that a picture can’t make a statement. Incorporating graphics and media into your blog posts is a simple way to grab reader attention and keep interest in longer posts. Infographics are a great way to meld statistics with graphics. They also provide a great “break” in the middle of a lengthy article to keep or regain readers’ attention.
Consider Content Promotion Carefully
Content promotion is practically second nature in business. Incorporating business links, social media feeds, and internal links makes good business sense and can help boost sales and branding with consumers but only in moderation and with deliberate thought. When businesses simply try to place these ads early and often, they often end up with a product that looks spammy and untrustworthy. Combining the right promotion with the best outcome can help businesses streamline their blog and gain the most from their posts.
Blogging can be a huge asset to your business, but only if it’s executed correctly. Do you currently use these tips on your business blog? Think you’ve got a better way to capture attention on your blog? Let us know your best strategy for business blog success on our Facebook page!
