Entries Tagged 'blogging for business' ↓

A great way to get your name or your brand name ‘out there’ is by asking bloggers to review your products or publish guest blog posts for you.

This helps you gain back links, widen your audience and generally boost your exposure and therefore should be a valuable part of your PR strategy.

But learning how to pitch your ideas successfully is vital if you want your posts to be accepted.

After all, well known and widely-read bloggers will be inundated by requests every week, so you have to make yours stand out from everyone else’s.

So how do you do that?

How do you get noticed?

1. Generic is bad

Like the rest of us, you’re probably short of time, but cutting corners by sending a single email out to a number of bloggers is a bad idea.

After all, who are they more likely to take notice of? Someone who has taken the time to write an email addressed to them specifically by name, or one that has obviously been sent out to the faceless millions (OK, probably not that many, but you get the idea).

If you’re serious about your pitch, mention them by name and personalise the email by showing your familiarity with their blog.

2. Blind submissions

Gathering a list of blog email addresses and blindly sending out your idea won’t be a fruitful exercise.

If you want to stand a chance, you have to research who you’re sending your pitch to. Let’s face it, as I have a marketing/copywriting/social media blog, if someone sent me a blog about the ideal beauty regime for Llamas I would be very unlikely to consider it.

Only send your ideas to blogs within your niche.

3. Don’t be repetitive

Sending your idea once is fine. But sending the same email again and again is annoying.

By all means chase up your proposal after a suitable time period, but don’t make yourself a menace.

4. Get to know them

If a company pops up out of the blue to try and sell me something and I’ve never heard of them, I’m unlikely to be receptive to them.

It’s the same with your blog pitch. If you’ve taken the time to get to know them, either through Twitter, Facebook or commenting on their blog, your name will probably be familiar to them and therefore they are more likely to respond.

5. Ignoring guidelines

If you’ve managed to get your pitch noticed and received a request to see your post, don’t scupper your chances by ignoring their guidelines.

They’ll probably be along the lines of:

•    Your post must be original and must not be published elsewhere
•    It must fit within the topic of the blog
•    It must not be a thinly veiled advert
•    There should be no HTML links in the body text

If you completely ignore these, your post will not only be rejected, any further pitches will more than likely be ignored.

Over to you

Do you regularly submit requests to bloggers?

If so do you have any tips you can offer?

Leave a comment below, it would be great to hear from you.

Let’s get one thing straight from the start – corporate blogs don’t have to be boring.

It’s great that so many companies have woken up to the fact that they need to blog to:

• Boost their SEO and link building activities
• Position themselves as experts and market leaders
• Provide excellent customer service

The problem is that many companies fall at the first hurdle, namely their content. For some unknown reason, businesses still feel that their blog posts have to be formal, technical and downright boring.

Well I’m here to tell you there is another way to blog.

The following 12 points will help you create and maintain an entertaining and interesting blog that people will want to read.

1. Personal

Despite what you think, a corporate blog should be personal. After all, it is a person writing the post so make sure your personality comes through.

Writing your post in the second person (like this post) will help you connect with your reader, because that is what you want to do. A blog post that simply talks at the reader won’t be well received, but if you write to your audience, it becomes much more personal.

Of course, to be able to write to your audience you have to know who they are, so make sure you do your research first.

2. Technicalities

Don’t, whatever you do, write in technical jargon. Your post has to be easy to read and that means leaving all technical terminology out. If it is absolutely necessary, make sure you define it clearly so everyone can understand.

One of the keys to writing a good blog post is to use simple language and plain English.

3. Length

Most people read blogs during their coffee break so make sure you keep them relatively short. Somewhere between 400 – 1000 words is ideal. If you think your post is likely to be longer than that, split it into 2 separate posts.

4. Scan-ability

Because people are unlikely to read every word you write, it’s essential your posts are easy to scan. Using effective headings, sub headings, bulleted lists and short paragraphs will help your reader dip in for the information they need.

5. Interesting

Above all your posts has to be interesting and relevant to your reader. Make sure you write something that will be of use to them and add value to your relationship.

6. No awards

I mentioned earlier that you need to keep your language plain and simple. You are not writing an award winning novel, it’s just a blog post to impart a useful tip or bit of information to your readers. The last thing they want is to have to sit and decipher your incomprehensible language.

They won’t be impressed by big words, so keep it simple.

7. Strong headings

As with every form of writing, your title has to be strong and compelling enough to make them want to read it. Likewise, your opening paragraph has to grab their attention and pull them in.

If your post is weak in either of these areas, you’re unlikely to attract readers.

8. SEO

Yes, it’s those horrible initials again. If you want your posts to be found, you have to use SEO techniques. Include your keyword in your heading and sub headings. It will also need to be in your body text (along with associated words and terms), but not to the extent that it makes it unreadable.

9. Show don’t tell

The underlying aim of your blog post will be to show how great your company is. But coming straight out and telling them you’re the best thing since sliced bread is not the best way to do it.

The best way to highlight your company’s greatness is through case studies and examples.

10. Variety

You can keep your blog fresh by mixing up its content. If you just constantly churn out industry news, it will get boring. Instead, offer articles on manufacturers, customer interviews, industry news, happenings within your company, top tips and how to articles.

11. Images

Blog posts are always enhanced by appropriate images. They can also act as an enticement to get people to read your post.

But make sure they are relevant and good quality.

12. Call to action

After spending (potentially) hours writing your post, make sure you make the most of it by adding a call to action.

It could be something simple as a request for comments, a link to sign up for your newsletter or white paper, or it could be a ‘call now for more information’.

You would never send out a sales letter without a call to action, so why waste this opportunity?

You see, corporate blogs don’t have to be boring. Make sure you understand who you are writing to, keep your language simple and make the blog look attractive (by using subheadings, bulleted lists etc.).

Your blog is an important sales tool and should be given as much importance as you main website and other sales materials.

Over to you

Do you run a company blog? If so, what have your experiences been?

Leave a comment below with your thoughts and questions.

Sally Ormond – Freelance Copywriter, blogger and social media addict

There are oodles of blogs out there covering just about every subject under the sun.

In your niche, there are probably thousands of people blogging about the same subjects as you.

So how do you make yours stand out above all that noise?

How do you get your blog noticed?

Obviously you need to post great information that is relevant to your audience and well-written.  But you need to go further than that if you want to start forging relationships with your readers.

The key to getting your blog noticed is adopting a distinct voice, one that is instantly recognisable as you.

When writing your blogs, it’s very easy to fall into the trap of writing in the same style as your favourite bloggers.

Don’t.

Someone isn’t going to be interested in reading a copy-cast style blog when they can have the real thing. You have to be different and be yourself.

So how do you achieve that?

1. Personality traits

Think about who you are. Then decide what personality traits you want your blog to have.

Do you want to come across as being?

• Formal or informal?
• Conversational and chatty?
• Amusing?

2. Be you

The best way to stand out from the crowd is to let your personality shine through.

The easiest way to achieve that is to write your posts as though you were writing them to a friend. This will automatically change the style in which you write and phrase things.

Showing your personality is the best way to get people to recognise you and engage with you.

3. Review past posts

Every blogger will have posts that do better than others. The trick to maintaining that level is to review those posts, take a look at the voice you used, the angle you wrote about, the topic and point of view you covered.

Then replicate that style.

4. Check the details

Everyone writes differently. It could be your use of punctuation that singles you out, your turn of phrase or your vocabulary and layout style.

Whatever it is, it’s going to set you apart from other writers.

Over to you

How have you developed your voice?

Are there any particular nuances that you’ve established to create your own distinctive style?

Leave a comment below and tell us how you have made yourself stand out of the crowd.

 Sally Ormond

Freelance Copywriter and blogger

The good news is that loads of businesses understand the importance of content generation. Whether it’s through blogging or article marketing, they appreciate that constantly producing great content boosts their online presence.

Yay!

The bad news is that unless people can find it, it won’t get read and won’t generate the constant stream of traffic to your website that you were hoping for.

Boo.

How do you make sure people can find your stuff?

There are several things you can do to make sure your hard work isn’t wasted.

1. Research

Before you start writing anything, take a good look at your target audience. What is it that they want? What interests them? What issues do they have that they might want help with?

Only when you can answer those questions can you be sure you’re writing focused, informative articles that they’ll want to read.

2. Call to action

If they do happen to find your articles and posts, but you fail to ask them to do anything once they’ve read it, they’ll just go away again.

The whole point of generating content is to drive people to your website, so make sure you tell them to visit your site, or place relevant links within your article to take them to the page on your site that holds all the answers to their questions.

3. Forget the search engines

OK, don’t write them off completely, but make sure you write for your reader. Make sure your information is interesting, well written in simple language (no jargon) and easy to read.

It is your readers who will (hopefully) be buying from you, not the search engines.

4. Keywords

Yes, I know I just said don’t write primarily for the search engines, but you still need to get your keywords in your headings and body copy if you want to be found. But that doesn’t mean stuffing it with keywords.

Keep your writing natural – the keywords will drop in automatically without you even realising it.

5. Social media

Make sure you promote your writing. Send out links through Twitter and Facebook, but make sure you add value and engage rather than just blatantly self-promote.

Social media sites (such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) are a great way to spread the word and to get your article. Plus, promoting them will encourage people to share your content with others.

Over to you

Do you content market? What has your experience been? Leave a comment below and share your tips too.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter, blogger and social media addict

Briar Copywriting – T:@sallyormond – F: www.facebook.com/freelancecopywriting

This post follows on from a talk I recently gave at my local WiRE (Women in Rural Enterprise) group in Ipswich (it’s quite long so you might want to grab a coffee).

If you search through this blog, you’ll find numerous posts about various aspects of blogging. There are so many things you need to think about it can become overwhelming. So, for this post, I am concentrating on what to do once you have your blog set up.

There you are, sat in front of your computer staring at the Dashboard of your blog. What do you do next?

Let’s start at the beginning…

Why are you blogging?

You’ve decided to take the plunge because you know blogging is:

• Great for your search engine optimisation activities
• A way of positioning yourself as an expert in your field
• A way of continually adding fresh content to strengthen your web presence

That’s great, but before you launch into writing, you must establish a blogging strategy that’s going to work for you.

Getting started

First of all, you must think about how often you’re going to blog. The frequency you choose must be sustainable.

As your readership grows, people will get to know how often you post and they’ll expect to see posts at that frequency. If you suddenly stop for some reason, or reduce the number of posts you make (or just post at random intervals), your readers won’t know where they are and go and find another blog to read.

Secondly, you have to find your niche and stick to it. Writing about copywriting one moment and landscape gardening the next is going to leave your audience very confused.

Thirdly, consider the types of posts you’ll write. Mix them up a bit and use:

• ‘How to’ posts
• Top 10 lists
• Hints and tips
• Comment on industry news
• Comment on relevant news items

Now all you need is some ideas.

 Generating ideas

Inspiration for ideas can strike at any time, so it’s well worth keeping pen and paper close to hand. Great ideas can strike at the most unlikely times:

• Walking your dog
• Watching TV
• Reading a newspaper or magazine
• Conversations with friends and colleagues (and even customers)
• While you’re browsing your social media channels

Just remember, if you are using other blogs, newspapers or magazines as the source of your inspiration, always link back or reference the original article/post.

Writing great blog posts

The first thing to remember is you are writing for the web. People browsing blogs don’t have loads of time to sit down and read ‘War and Peace’. Keep it punchy, keep it concise, keep it relevant and make sure it’s interesting.

Before you start to write, make sure you inject your own personality (don’t try and copy someone else’s style) and write from the heart.

Then, make it easy to read:

• Create a great headline – this is your hook, but also think about SEO and make sure your keywords are in there too
• Make your headline relevant to your content – don’t promise something and then fail to deliver
• Use sub headings and short paragraphs to create a lot of white space to make it easy to read and make it scanable
• Use bulleted lists to add interest and highlight important points
• Always use simple language – absolutely no jargon
• Write for your audience – in terms of content and using the second person (i.e. lots of you and no we)
• Check and re-check before publishing to make sure there are no typos
• Add a call to action at the end – such as leave a comment and have your say
• Link out to other relevant articles or to your website, but only if the link adds value to the reader, otherwise you’ll be seen as blatantly self-promoting

Sounds easy, doesn’t it?  So why isn’t your traffic increasing?

Common blogging mistakes

No one is perfect (no, not even you) and we all make mistakes. So, if you’re merrily blogging away but you’re not seeing your traffic grow and you’re not getting any comments, here are some of the mistakes you might be making:

• Not knowing your audience – you’re not giving them what they want
• Blanket writing – you’re ignoring your niche
• Being inconsistent – don’t let your standards slip, always focus on quality not quantity
• No commitment – if you’re not sticking to your blogging schedule, you’ll lose readers
• Writing for yourself – you have to write what your reader wants, not what interests you
• Poor headlines – if they aren’t strong, no one will read your posts
• No engagement – don’t talk at people, involve them and write as though you were having a conversation with them
• Unresponsive to comments – if someone takes the time to comment, reply to them and show them you care
• No promotion – you have to let people know your blog’s there, so put links to your posts on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn

Blogging is hard work, but it can be rewarding if you stick with it. If you generate great content on a regular basis, you could be picked up by one of the many websites and pro-bloggers out there who love to produce their ‘top blog’ lists. One link from a website like that can do wonders for your rankings.

Why not give it a go? When you get into it, blogging is also great fun.

Over to you

Are you a seasoned blogger? If so, leave a comment below and let us know why you do it and what you get out of it.

If you’ve not taken the plunge yet and have any questions, post them below as a comment and I’ll do my best to answer them.