7 Pro Tips for Maintaining a Blog
Blogs are a great way to put out information relating to your business and to engage with your audience. Not only that, but publishing regular content can drive traffic to your website and improve your social media presence. While there are many benefits to blogging, perhaps where most businesses tend to fall short is with blog maintenance or failure to come up with new content.
We get it, it’s not always easy to write blog posts, but there’s no need to fret! At Cork Tree Creative, we have a lot of experience keeping up company blogs, so we have a few tips for how to beat writer’s block and craft successful content.
Always Keep Your Goals in Mind
Are you writing to attract new customers, inspire donations or streamline change? Regardless of your purpose, you need to make sure the content you’re putting out directly aligns with your organization and its goals. Unlike personal blogs, which have a little more freedom when it comes to the topic, avoid talking about things not directly related to your business, or if you do, do so strategically.
Schedule Content in Advance
Maintaining a blog is always easier when you know what you plan to write ahead of time. Setting up a regular posting schedule as well as thinking through potential topics will save you from the hassle and headache of trying to crank out content later. Whether you’re tackling the job of writing on your own or have a team or department, schedule meetings or solicit ideas from colleagues and managers to get new perspectives and insights you might not have considered before.
Speaking of Content…Don’t Be Afraid to Think Outside the Box
Coming up with new content doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, even if you feel like you’ve exhausted every possible topic, there are still ways in which you can be creative.
Share Stories
Stories are a great way to connect with your audience members on a more personal level. While you definitely don’t want to overshare, the more personable you can be, the more likely you are to develop a relationship with your readers. This makes them see the actual people of your organization, rather than just the company.
Make the Unfamiliar Familiar
Depending on your industry, you’ve more than likely written a blog (or two…or three) on your products and services. While you might have a great inside perspective, it might be more beneficial for you to consider your audience and what they know. What might they want to know? Avoid using jargon and technical speak and instead find new ways to explain foreign concepts. These don’t have to be long, drawn-out posts either. Start small with a specific word, phrase, or product, and find ways to make your reader’s more familiar with it. You might be surprised by what you come up with.
Dive Deep
Tying into the story suggestion, you want to make sure you’re reaching readers on a personal level without oversharing. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t dig a little deeper. Start with the why behind your company and go from there. The deeper you can go into your organization and what they do, the more it will resonate with your audience.
Conduct Office Interviews
Stuck for content? Consider being a journalist for the day. Find someone in your office and conduct an informal interview (with their permission, of course). Learn more about their past experiences and why they decided to work for your company. If you have access, sit down and chat with the founder or owner to learn the business’s origin story. If you can’t do a “traditional” interview, try following an employee for “a day in the life” piece.
Creating and maintaining a blog doesn’t have to be a chore. By creating a blog strategy and utilizing your content, you can make your blog work for you. Need a helping hand? Contact our team at Cork Tree Creative and let us help you kickstart your company blog today! We offer Search Engine Optimization services where our writing team drafts keyword-loaded content to help your company’s website rank at the top of search engines’ results lists for relevant searches.