Business Blogging: As Easy As A, B, C?

By Author: getcurata
Total Articles: 2
Comment this article

Business Blogging: As Easy As A, B, C?

Business blogging is being leveraged by each and every corporation, worldwide. It is a marketing tactic that is so easy, that nearly any business can do it and do it efficiently. In fact, it doesn't matter what you do or say in your blog, the simple fact that you post will help you see a massive return on your investment.

So, which of the statements above sounds as though it could possibly be correct? Unfortunately, the title of this piece may have drawn some of you to read this far with the promise of the easy. And for that, we apologize.

We understand, wholeheartedly, that business blogging is in fact not easy. It is not a surefire path to wealth and success. Business blogging is a hard journey that begins with a daunting view into a blank page.

Can we make the process of business blogging easier for you? Most definitely. But first, we have to start with the ABC's:

Ask Yourself

Why do I want to start a blog? Is it simply to join the crowd or do I truly have something to say?

Starting a blog because your top competitors are posting ...
... content all around you is certainly a legitimate reason to begin. But be aware, if your only reason for starting a blog is to sync your tactics with the competition, the chances of failure increase exponentially.

Before launching a blog, begin by listing out the goals you hope to achieve. Make these as specific as possible (ie 'communicate software design thought leadership and best practices', rather than 'write about software;' 'increase sales-ready inquiries from manufacturing companies,' rather than 'increase sales.') Post these goals on a wall directly in front of where you sit and ensure each concept you create is designed to tie back to one of these goals.

Basics

Keep your audience firmly in mind. All blogging basics stem from this simple statement.

For instance:

Blog regularly - every audience appreciates different post frequencies, but all engaged audiences share one thing in common: they like to know when the next post is coming. Choose a post frequency and commit.
Be concise - in any industry, blog readers have hundreds of options and have become adept scanners. Readers will retain, on average, only 10% of what you say regardless of how many words you choose. So choose each word you use carefully.
Build traffic - optimize your post for keywords used by your target audience, link back to your own supporting content or direct users to popular industry content. The more you use the language of your audience and direct to supporting material, the more you will quickly build a reputation of value. Which leads into
Boast value - regardless of industry, regardless of goals - the one constant rule in business blogging is that you have to say something that your audience wants to hear.
Content

Your content is the value you bring to both your audience and your business blogging campaign.

Content can be broken apart into:

Content marketing - broadly, this is a term that means 'to share information as a means of conversion.' A blog post, in terms of this conversation, is a form of content marketing.
Content creation - this, of course, is the process of developing original or sourced material that becomes your blog post or posts.
Content curation - the process of finding, grouping, organizing and sharing content that provides your audience with more value and information.

Think of each bullet above as most predominantly supporting the bullet directly above it (ie content marketing is most predominantly supported by content creation.) The difficulty has always lied in the step directly before content creation. The aforementioned blank page.

Content curation is the long-awaited step that predominantly supports content creation. It is as close as possible to a solution that makes business blogging as easy as ABC.

In less than twenty minutes each day, content curation efforts can double blog output by gathering resources, ranging from news releases to related blog posts, from several different channels. Near instantaneously, this content can be automatically repurposed as an original blog post to offer to your readers.

While content curation holds value, make no mistake - business blogging is still a great deal of work. There is simply no automated solution that exists that can completely replace the creativity generated by original human thought. In other words, content curation is an invaluable life preserver, but the blogger must still learn to swim.

But content curation does hold promise. The promise of a shorter learning curve for a new business blogger in terms of learning what type of content appeals or doesn't appeal to their audience. The promise of more traffic and faster results, on account of more promotable content. And, of course, the promise of filling up that previously terrifying blank page.

For more information, download the webinar ABC's of Corporate Blogging or watch an online demo of content curation solution Curata by visiting our Content Marketing Resources page.