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5 Cardinal Sins of Business Blogging

We all know how valuable a blog can be for your small business. A blog can help you expand your business, build brand recognition, and help you become a trusted resource for your customers. Unfortunately, some business blogs fall short of the mark. Why? Let’s take a look at the common mistakes many small business blogs make.  Too much self-promotion Your company blog is a great place to make company announcements for new products or updates by linking back to your site to drive traffic, but many times businesses go over-board. Ideally, you want to focus on what is important to your target audience. Give them tips or news on topics relevant to the products or services you are selling. For example, if you sell mobile phone accessories, a great post would be, “How to dry out your cell phone if it becomes wet”. If you only provide product or promotional information, your blog offers no additional value for your customers!  Boring content Don’t bore your audience with lackluster posts. Blog content doesn’t have to be extremely formal, so go ahead and give your posts some character. Write about relevant topics, encourage your readers to comment, have fun and most importantly, keep it short. Posts with a 500-word count are long enough to provide valuable information, but not so long that your readers get distracted or disinterested. Of course, if you’re blogging about a super hot topic, then feel free to up your word count – just make sure the content is worthy of the extra characters.  Inaccuracy One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to provide your audience with inaccurate content. Whether it is a mistake with spelling, grammar, or the information you are presenting, the standards you set in your blog will reflect on the products or services you are trying to sell. Well-researched and thought-out information or arguments are what help determine your blog’s success.  No analysis One of the best tools for any small business owner is Google’s free analytics tool. Most business owners have it installed on their company website, but many times they overlook the need to install it on their blog as well. The information business owners can pull from it, such as where the blog traffic is coming from or how long readers are engaging with their content, can be priceless in helping formulate a content strategy and knowing where to publicize the blog. Inconsistency Don’t make your fans do any guesswork. If you want to build a loyal readership around your content, be sure to post new content regularly. Writing a new post everyday can be challenging, so set aside a few days a week for new content, but be sure they are the same days each week. If your fans know you have new posts each Monday morning, then they are more likely to come back.  There you have it. Turn your business blog around by avoiding our 5 cardinal sins of business blogging. Have a blogging pet peeve of your own? We’d love to hear about it!