There’s so much talk about website best practices and what you should be writing about on your blog, it’s easy to forget what your blog isn’t. While this goes along with best practices, there are a few key things to remember about blogging for business. Things that, if used often, are sure turn-offs for your audience.
Stay Away from Rants
We all have them. The clients who make us want to pull our hair out or the business partnerships that ended up being pretty one-sided. I understand the need to vent about this—anyone who knows me personally knows I’m not shy about venting! But like everything else in life, there’s a time and a place for this.
Your blog is not the place for your rants. (P.S. Neither is social media.) Save your rants for your significant other after the kids go to bed, or for your friends at happy hour and keep the negative vibes off your website.
[bctt tweet=”Don’t rant on your blog–save that for your spouse or your mom. No one else wants to hear your complaints.”]
Don’t Expect to Make Sales
Your blog is a marketing machine, not a sales machine. While you will win over clients there, don’t expect direct sales to come via your blog. That’s just not what it’s there for. It’s a place to educate your audience and spotlight your expertise. Use your blog to publish the information your audience is asking for. How to do something, the most important aspects of your niche, a top 10 list of must-haves, things not to do. If you run out of ideas to write about, this blog can help you come up with ideas.
By educating your audience and providing the information they are hunting for, you’ll gain the “know, like and trust” factor. And that’s what will win you sales in the long run. You’ll become the person they turn to first when they need something in your expertise, and though it may take weeks or months (or even years), chances are they’ll eventually convert into a customer.
[bctt tweet=”Use your blog to educate. You’ll build the know, like and trust factor with your audience.”]
Avoid Tooting Your Horn
I love wrapping up a great project and sharing the amazing results of my work with my clients. But no one really wants to hear about it, unless they are scouting me for an upcoming project. I have a testimonials page on my website that allows me to post the great feedback I get from my clients, and I have a ready arsenal if a prospective client wants to see samples of my work. That allows me to keep horn-tooting off my blog and to use it for what it was designed.
The reality is that you still love to toot our horns—and you should! If you want your audience to see what you’ve been up to, social media is a great place to do that. If yours is a visual business, Instagram is a good medium to post images of your work. If you’re in a service-based business or work with other businesses, turn to Facebook or LinkedIn. Find out where your audience is and share there, not your blog—but be sure that you’re sharing more than just your own content.
[bctt tweet=”Toot your own horn on social media, not your blog.”]
There are so many things your blog is:
- A place to spotlight your expertise
- An SEO powerhouse
- An education piece for your audience
- A way to grow your website
- A storage space for Q&As that relate to your business
Stay away from horn-tooting and rants and focus on using your blog as the marketing and education machine it is. With time (and great content), it will become a place that can help convert prospects into customers.
