8 Core Elements of Successful Business Blogs

You might think that writing a blog for your business is passé in today’s Facebook era.  But you’d be wrong. Consider these statistics:

• 51% of Internet users read a blog at least monthly and over 60% are expected to do the same by 2014 (Technorati)
• Companies that have a business blog attract 55% more website visitors than non-blogging companies (Hubspot)
• More than 43% of U.S. companies will  market via a blog by 2012, up from 34% in 2010 (eMarketer)

I attended a webinar yesterday featuring Rick Calvert & Dave Cynkin, the co-founders of Blog World & New Media Expo, and Michael Stelzner of White Paper Source. The webinar featured 9 businesses (B2B & B2C) that are doing blogging right.

My takeaway from the webinar was that in order to have a successful blog for your business, you need to focus on these 8 core elements:

1. Get creative with your blog theme. Tailor your theme to your target audience and don’t be afraid to show your personality.

2. Create value for your readers. Provide information in your blog that is important to your target audience. Don’t “sell, sell, sell” your products or services.  Your blog can subtly advertise, but don’t make it your primary purpose.

3. Wow your audience with impeccable branding & design. Be consistent with your company’s image. It will allow you to strengthen your brand with target audience. Consider your target audience. If they skew older, make the site easy to read with bigger fonts – easy to read backgrounds.

4. Exceed your audience’s expectations with great content.  Great content will be very valuable to your readers.

5. Mix up your content topics and delivery methods. Use photos, videos along with text to make the subject matter compelling and interesting to your reader.

6. Become the “go-to” source to build loyal followers. Make your posts interesting so your readers consider the site their “go to” place for quality information. Use compelling & engaging graphics, and keep targeting the interests of your audience even if it doesn’t have anything to do with the product or service you sell.

7. Use a broad range of contributors. Don’t rely solely on your employees (or yourself) as the main contributor to your blog. Ask outside experts to write articles. Their participation will add enormous credibility to your blog, and provide an implied endorsement of your company.

8. Make your blog “social.” Integrate your blog with other social media platforms. Make it easy for readers to share your blog articles on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc.

If you have any other suggestions on how to make a successful blog for your business, please comment below! 🙂