Most likely you are familiar with what a blog is, but do you know how much it can do for your company or brand? This blog is all “about a blog” and I will share with you why it is essential that you have one and how to make it incredible!

A blog, which is short for “web-log”, is an online journal or newsletter that is updated frequently and posted on a website to read. It is a way for those to provide commentary on a particular subject. When it comes to business, it is just one of the many forms of content marketing, which is all about becoming the “go to” informational resource for your customers and prospects. The idea is that if consumers engage in a longer form of marketing and see you as the expert, they will become more engaged with your brand, trust your opinion and ultimately they will choose your company when they need your product or service.

A blog is the perfect way to showcase your company’s expertise to your target. If your company can provide relevant information that is useful to your readers, then they will want to come back often to learn what you have to say next. In addition to providing your prospects and customers this relevant information, it also helps with your organic rankings (SEO) on Google and other search engines. While there are plenty of separate blogs that could be written on the topic of SEO, we will only cover them at a high level for this post because after all, this is blog is “about a blog”. But in the simplest terms think of your blog as magnet. And as you add quality blog content to your site, it increases the size of your magnet and it attracts more traffic from your target. The more people that see your content as valuable, the more people will want to link to your site and the higher trust Google and other search engines will have. Over time this will increase your rankings.

Here are some important tips to keep in mind:

CREATE EXCELLENT, TARGETED CONTENT

A blog is a place to show your thought leadership. If you are just pushing out a blog just for the sake of putting out a blog with basic and boring information, you may as well not do it. You want to provide information that is inspired by someone who enjoyed writing it. And get specific with your information. If it is too vague, no one will want to read it.

FIND YOUR VOICE

When people think of your company or brand, what do they think of? How is what you do unique from your competition? When creating a blog, it is important that it follow the voice of your company. Are you fun? Friendly? Energetic? When writing all your blog posts, be sure to keep in mind what sets you apart and be consistent with that voice. And pick a title of the blog that is intriguing so that someone will want to read it.

CREATE AN EMOTIONAL CONNECTION

Is your blog engaging? Is it easy to read? Does it show a personal touch or vulnerability? Or is it simply sharing data? When creating content, ask yourself if this would be interesting for me to read. If the answer is no, then it will most likely also not be interesting to others. And do you have interesting images? Or are they the same images used by every other blog or site? Connect through your audience with stories and interesting images. Your tone should be personable, approachable, open and confident.

UPDATED REGULARLY

If you post only one blog a year, I would not even bother to do it. New blogs keep your audience coming back and this is what you want. So create an editorial calendar, brainstorm multiple ideas on topics, write relevant blog content and post regularly. Also, add a call-to-action so that your reader knows where to gain additional information or most importantly where to purchase your product or service.

This year, I started a new position in content marketing and a blog is just one of the areas that I use to help my client’s drive traffic to their website. This role is an amazing fit for me, because it capitalizes on my 19 years of expertise strengthening a client’s brand by leading the strategy, management and creation of content across multiple channels to drive awareness, engagement, and organic rankings (SEO).

A blog has so many benefits and I could go on and on about its value, but the main take away is by using these tips, you can create an engaging blog that stands out from the competition, provides your audience with relevant information that they want, and increase organic ranking. All of these things help provide your customers and prospects become more interested in your brand and help you gain new leads, conversations and sales for your business. My next post will go into more detail on how creating a blog with high quality content will be the magnet to attract traffic, links, and increase organic search results.

What are your thoughts? What are some other benefits of a blog?

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Want to learn more about blogging? Check out the following resources, where I obtained some of the above information. The book SEO Made Easy by E. Bailynand the webinar from the Content Marketing Institute called Taking the “Blah” out of Blogging with featured speaker @maggiejonezzz and moderator@JoePulizzi.