As soon as an entrepreneur starts thinking about releasing his or her own content to attract customers and his or her own platform, the first thought that comes to mind is “Should I start a blog?” On the Internet you can find a lot of advice on how to create a company blog, attract readers there and start writing about how to download the company’s app or click here to play at Playamo. In fact, this only leads to confusion.
There is nothing complicated about blogging, if you do it right from the start. There are four basic mistakes that almost all blog owners make. If you eliminate them, you’ll be on your way to your goal.
Your Blog Has No Purpose
The first and most basic mistake is not having a purpose for blogging. When starting a blog, answer yourself the question, “What is the purpose of this blog?” The goal may be to attract or retain customers, keep current customers informed, or increase your average check. Perhaps you want to make yourself known as an expert in the market or get in the media spotlight, receive invitations to speak at conferences, and thus increase your visibility and your image. The purpose of the blog can also be monetization, when you realize that you have a lot of interesting content that is not on the Internet.
In any case, you need to define a goal for yourself. Its absence is a serious mistake, which will interfere from the very beginning. In this case, it is good to have one goal, but it’s not forbidden if there are two of them. Let’s assume that the first goal is to promote yourself as an expert, and the second goal is to attract more customers. Once you set yourself a clear goal for blogging, a proper content plan comes immediately.
Misunderstood Audience
The second common mistake is a lengthy answer to the question of who will read you. The answer “everyone” is not an answer. It means no one. Who will read the blog? Is it your customers, our potential customers, or those who aren’t yet customers but are already thinking about becoming one? Or those people who don’t even know that the company exists and that there are such services?
For example, you’re restoring leather shoes and you want to write a blog about it. Who do you want to write for? Are they the people who come to you so they don’t forget about your services? Or are they the ones who are in search of a repair shop right now and you will help them right now?
Let’s say you’re choosing a blog for a potential audience, for customers who should choose yours out of all the companies. Why should they do that? Because you have terrific expertise, good market rates, and great craftsmen, and you’ve been in the market for years. These are the key messages you’ll be broadcasting through your blog content.
Consider the other version of the audience – those who don’t even know you exist. They are also unaware that there is now a ton of technology that can be used to restore bags and shoes. For such an audience, you talk about the technologies and methods of restoration, showing through expertise your skills. Through these posts, articles, and videos, you show what customers should love you for.
Wrong Language
So, you’ve identified your audience and purpose, but you’ve forgotten to identify the right language to communicate with your audience to achieve your goals. These are the very words you use to communicate with your audience, to respond to comments, inquiries, and questions in private messages, and to ask guest experts on your blog to adhere to.
You can’t communicate to one audience with language meant for another. You can’t speak complicated atish language for auto repair shops. Just like you can’t be too plain for IT people who never use industry-accepted terms.
It is necessary to communicate with the chosen audience in their language, using the terms they understand. At the same time, the language must be appropriate to the people who read you.
Not Delivering
The fourth mistake is to ignore the dissemination of information. You can write terrific articles with the right goals for the right audience who will never see them. It’s not enough to just write a blog post or record a podcast and post it, you have to think ahead about how that content will be distributed. Neglecting this important point – distribution – leads to the fact that the work done well and properly is lost, because no one will know about it. So, it’s important, even at the very first stage, to think through what tools you need to use to promote your blog and content.
If you understand that your own power is not enough to attract the right audience, it makes sense to start blogs in new media and on industry platforms. The audience of these sites will see the right articles at the right time, given the right effort.
Even if you do it on your own site, it’s not that complicated. Ask guest speakers to share their published articles on social networks and on their own platforms. Duplicate the publications on your own social networks. Don’t dismiss advertising opportunities on social media that can bring in the right audience for you. You can target content to the right people or to a general audience based on traits and interests. Then the hard-won content will be in demand and work for your needs and goals.
All in all, these mistakes are quite frequent, and even those who have big businesses make them. But if you try to notice these errors at the beginning and correct them as soon as possible, your blog will surely become popular. As a result, it won’t just bring helpful information for your current customers but also attract new clients and help you make profit for your company.