Effective Inbound Marketing Tips

A recent HubSpot study found that businesses that had blogs on their websites got 55% more visitors than blogs that did not. You don't need to throw all of your current PPC and SEO strategies out the window, but you may find that a good portion of your marketing efforts are better spend on blogging. If you don't already have a blog for your company's website, it is relatively easy to get one started. But now what? The process of blog writing can be overwhelming, especially in the beginning. Take on one or two tasks at a time and build from there. Here are a few tips to assist you with this process.

1. Know your audience. You can't be all things to all people. If you don't have a good idea who your target audience will be for your blog, think about specific customers and write with them in mind. You may need to alter your target audience over time, but this will be a good place to start.

2. Find a niche in your area and maximize its potential. The blogging world is a big place. Unless you have a very specific niche company, it is likely that there are already other bloggers out there covering some aspect of your industry. Do some research and seek out areas that aren't already being covered.

3. Go beyond your specific products and consider additional aspects of the field. It is easy to cover content that you already have elsewhere online or simply stick to news stories, such as product releases. Challenge yourself to go behind this and look for topics that will be relevant for your customers.

4. Keep your blog tone light and conversational. Make it easily readable for your customers. People aren't reading your blog because they want a detailed collegiate course. They want something concise and easy to comprehend to peruse during a morning cup of coffee or a short break at work.

5. Don't be afraid to reveal valuable information about your industry. People are always looking for freebies. You aren't selling yourself or your company short by offering free advice once in a while. People will keep coming back to get an occasional free tutorial or e-book.

6. Make sure to include multiple medias in your blog posts on a regular basis. You don't need to pull out all the stops on every post, but look for regular opportunities to include pictures, video, and surveys in your posts. Original photos and videos will add a personal touch to your written content.

7. Learn from the best. One of the best ways to learn the tricks of the trade is to study successful people. Research highly trafficked blogs for your industry and take note of what does and does not work well on their blogs.

8. Make yourself accessible to your readers. Encourage interaction with them. Blogging is a two way street. Don't write a post and then run away from your computer for a few days. Post questions to encourage interaction with your readers and then follow up with them. Include contact and social media links on your blog so your readers know how to get in touch with you and where else they can find you online.

9. Network with other bloggers. Remember how you researched successful blogs in your industry? Leave comments for them and bookmark notable posts so that you can link them on your own blog.  As people start to get traffic from those links, they are likely to include your posts on their own blogs.

10. Set a schedule and stick with it. Don't despair if you don't see results right away. Figure out a blog schedule that works for you and keep up with it so readers know when to expect posts. It can take months or even years to get significant blog traffic. Keep writing regular, high quality content, and you'll get there.

Do you have other tips to improve business blog writing? Share your thoughts!