Being an effective blogger is like being an expedition leader. You will be introducing your readers to new vistas in their world while building trust. These followers will always want more and often become your best customers.
Whether you are listening to the radio, catching up with the news of the day, reading your favorite blog or even conversations at work, the terms ‘Content Marketing’ and ‘Social media’ seem to pop-up ubiquitously . We have written on both topics here as well. (Content Marketing: Are You Using This Key Tactic to Win the Startup Arms Race?, Avoid the Siren Song of ‘Going Viral’: The Most Powerful SEO is Great Content). As topical as all this may be, it is important to understand the benefits and costs (Time, effort, patience) that embarking on a Content Media campaign are before committing to this. As we have previously discussed, in our ‘Content Marketing’ piece, regardless of the tactics you select for your own campaign (e.g. blog posts, hosting topical forums, podcasting, videos & webinars, Facebook pages, websites etc.) the key element is to create and share quality content. Writing and publishing effective blogs is the most content rich (and potentially time consuming) tactic you could choose. However, when this is done well, the benefits (eventually) will far outweigh the time and effort that you put into this.
Why bother…
Hosting and maintaining a successful blog is not a trivial effort. It also takes time and patience before the rewards of your efforts become apparent. Here are a few reasons to give this important tactic a second look.
- Become an authority: New customers are more likely to buy from a trusted source. If you share what you know on a regular basis with a blog, you will begin to become known as a trusted and knowledgeable resource for them. Even in the early days, being able to refer new leads to ‘articles’ that you or your company have written can have a very positive impact on the sales cycle.
- Rise from obscurity: Even before your first offering is ready to be sold, you can start to build your brand with a good blog. It takes time to build a customer base. Hosting a great blog allows you to start the process by building awareness and brand way before your launch so that you will not have to start from scratch on launch day.
- Recycling: The content in each blog post can be reused. Take copy from some of your more successful posts to help you create better website content, brochures, trade journal articles, press releases and more.
- Escape the glacial pace of academic journal publication: For Life Science and Biotech companies, the greatest validation of their products can come when some of their customers publish using their offering. This can take a long time. Remembering that this is an ‘Ad-Free Zone’, asking your best customers to guest blog on their work (applications) can be a great way to get influential articles in the public realm faster.
- Build more powerful connections: Everyone has a business card to hand out to new connections. Sharing a link to a relevant post article or two can be a powerful way to distinguish yourself (either when you meet or in your follow-up). Your new connection will have a chance to further evaluate how you communicate and how you think. The combination of an in-person meeting with a ‘content rich’ follow-up using this tactic can lead to a stronger (and more valuable) relationship.
A few fundamentals
There are a huge number of resources and opinions about how to write a successful blog that will really light up the literary world and have current and future customers and readers clamoring for more. (We share a few of these resources at the end of this post). One thing you will discover early on is that there are as many opinions on the rules that must be followed to create blog content as there are blogs and posts. The following guidelines (not rules) are based on what the author has found (and validated with clients) to be the most effective way to create content that works.
- Keep it short (sometimes): You can find various recommendations on how many words your post should be. 350 – 700 seems to be a rough rule of thumb. However, this ‘rule’ should not be what defines the length of your writing. (UpStart Life Sciences routinely violates this dictum.) A good post should be just long enough to discuss (or cover) one topic. If you find that you have written a piece that contains several concepts in it, you can divide it into separate posts during your editing.
- Follow the WEE principle: Trying to write the world’s best blog post the first time out can lead you directly to ‘writers-block’ or worse (giving up). I have found that once I have found a topic of interest that I will just go ahead and write it out as quickly as I can (spelling errors, awkward sentences, meaningless digressions and all). After a day or so, you can read and edit the piece with fresh eyes. You will likely find that it is ‘not as bad’ as you thought at first. Be sure to give it one more round of editing before publishing it. The Write (W), Edit (E) and Edit (E) again principle will free you to be your creative best and routinely produce interesting, informative and polished pieces.
- Spice it up: Use pictures, diagrams, videos, podcasts and links to tell your story. Each of these things offers a different way to communicate with your audience. Just make sure that they really do contribute to your piece and are not just thrown in as SEO (Search Engine Optimization) gimmicks. Sometimes the best way to punch up your writing is to use paragraph headings and bullet points (allows your readers to skim to what interests them in your longer writings).
- 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 … Launch: When are you ready to go public? When helping our clients with this, we recommend that they have at least 10 posts ready to go on the first day of ‘publishing’. It takes time for your audience to discover you, so you would like to keep them coming once they do. Having 10 pieces prepared will also test your own commitment to this effort. If this seems a little too much, consider trying this out by offering to be a guest writer for another well-established blog first. Having a body of work already available when each of your readers finds you will go a long way to retaining them and encouraging them to come back for more.
- Delight your audience not the world: This is especially important to keep in mind if you would like some of your audience members to eventually reach out to you to become your customers. Constantly worrying about what length or words or clever titles you should use to enhance the SEO of your piece will lead to mediocre content. If someone thinks your posts are too long, or boring, you can be sure that there is someone else out there that is glad that you took the time and effort to write a good piece. In time, if you focus on delivering value, your readership will grow and it is these fans that are most likely to reach out to you to do a little business. Remember, there was a day when nobody had ever heard of J. K. Rowling or Stephen King. They produced great content that nobody read in the early days. However it was this great content that ultimately got them recognized and has built them each a huge following (there are still many people that don’t care for their work but I am sure that this does not keep either of them up at night).
- Save your company news for the Press Release: It is important to remember that your content rich blog articles help you garner trust and support amongst your target audience. They are not Press Releases. Press Releases generally announce goings on at your firm. They do nothing else, especially in the unsolicited online world. At worst, when applied to your blog they actually make you look like a less than savvy communicator online. Save those releases for other mediums or for a separate place on your webpage.
- Focus on ‘Content’ not ‘Marketing’: I have mentioned this before but it warrants repeating. If your main focus is producing high quality content, everything else will take care of itself. Write the blog posts that you would like to read.
Want to learn more about blogging and how it can impact your business? Get additional insights and tips from this podcast on this topic with the author on the No Boundaries Radio Hour Podcast hosted and produced by Scott Graves (Blogging Fundamentals Podcast)
Selected Resources:
- The Blueprint for the Perfect Blog Post (Infographic)
- Webinar on Social Media in Life Science |Dispelling Four Myths and Developing a Strategy for Engagement
- How to Blog (Even If You Can’t Write)
Picture Credit: filip.farag via photopin cc