Blog and articles are fantastic features to have on your website. They allow you to…
- Ensure that your website stays current
- Highlight particular products/services that you offer
- Connect products/services that you offer with particular events
- Provide ‘extras’ for your customers to enhance their experience with you
- Act as great landing pages for particular keywords or phrases
In our eyes, a blog/article section on your website is appropriate for most websites and is a worthwhile feature to spend resources on.
There are two elements to consider when looking at creating a blog or article section on your website – your resources and quality.
Your Resources
At the end of the day, we all only have two hands, one brain and 24 hours in the day. As a company, you will only have the capability for x employees based on your turnover and only so many working hours to utilise.
Blog creation is a time-consuming exercise so it's key that you balance your blog posting frequency with the resources that you have.
To work out how many blog posts you should be posting on your website each month then you need to look at your resources vs. your audience.
If you have the resources for lots of blog posts and the audience that demands fresh content regularly then, by all means, publish a new blog or article daily.
If you have the resources for semi-regular blog posts and the audience that likes to see something weekly or every fortnight, then post a new blog or article weekly or every two weeks.
Equally, if you can only produce one quality blog post a month that is relevant to your audience then go for this posting schedule.
It is far better to produce one blog post every two weeks than 10 all in one week and then nothing for the rest of the year.
Quality
I am sure it comes at no surprise. 10 quality blog posts that showcase your company voice, products/services and are relevant for your audience is better than 100 rushed and poor quality blog posts.
Keep this in mind when you are creating blog posts for your website and marry this with the frequency that you can produce your blog posts in.
One of the things that we often get asked is ‘What topics should my blogs/articles be on?’.
It’s this part of the blog and article creation that seems to hold people back from having a blog or article section on their website.
Well, without further ado.
What topics should I cover in my blogs and articles?
If you look around online at blog and article creation the main piece of advice that gets given is…
Google ’20 blog topics’ – that will give you a list of blog topics to write about.
Our advice is don’t do this.
Whilst these generic blog topics may be applicable to some companies, most of the time they are irrelevant. Especially if your industry is a niche industry.
Instead, put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Think about what they care about, any interests that they may have and look at where that intertwines with your company and the knowledge that you have.
For example, if you are an accountant or financial advisor then you are going to know that your customers (and potential customers) are going to be interested in…
- when tax deadlines are
- whether there have been any changes to financial regulations and if so how it affects them now and in the future
- what new products are in the market to help them manage their finances
- how to generate savings for future business plans, a rainy day or pensions
You can then look at this and think of the following blog posts…
- Tax Deadlines for 20XX (even breaking this down further and looking at personal tax deadlines, self-employed tax deadlines and limited company tax deadlines
- Introduction to Law Name Here
- Regulation Name Here 101
- Keep your Finances Simple
- How to Keep Effective Records
- Looking ahead, plan for your future
- Pension Planning for 30+
- Best Pensions for Self Employed Individuals
Once you have worked out what your customers are interested in the list is endless and you can match their ‘interest’ with your experience, knowledge and business offerings.
Don’t create content for content sake, ensure that it is relevant to your audience and your business. After all, I am sure you have a customer who loves dogs but as an accountant or financial advisor, your website does not need a blog on the best dog breeds for families.
Getting the balance between blog frequency, quality and topics is an art form but if done right can enhance your website, your online marketing and your brand image.
Last but not least – Ensure that you tie your blog/article efforts (aka content marketing) into the rest of your marketing and business activities for ultimate impact.
Published: 17th Aug 2020