Nope, Tia isn't impressed

Just because you’ve jumped onboard the business blogging gravy train, doesn’t mean you’re on the road to guerilla marketing success.

In fact, the presence of an ailing blog on your company website could be doing more harm than good if it tells your readers, by your obvious failure, that you just don’t get how to communicate on the web.

The top five things I tell companies when they ask me for help with their failing blog are:

1. You forgot to be human

A blog, even a business blog, has to have a human voice. Dry press-release flavoured copy is not going to strike a chord with readers. Give your blogger(s) the freedom to be human. Don’t restrict them to being corporate mouth pieces. Companies need to create cool content if their content marketing is going to find an audience.

2. You aren’t original

There’s a billion blogs out there battling for traffic. SEO, a snazzy design, a stack of cool icons don’t make up for kick-ass copy that gives readers what they want or what they need. The blogosphere is a bit of an echo chamber so you need to work hard to find ways to make your copy and the topic(s) you blog about stand out. Seriously!

3. You haven’t got time to be original, human, oh, and blog regularly

Experience from my own blog and working with clients shows that the only way to keep build a blog and keep a blog, is to commit time and resources.

Bashing out a quality post (often) takes research, time and effort. Even if you can do this for 3, 6 or 12 weeks you often have to keep going for months before you start to see results. Even some of the most established blogs out there take a dip when post quality and frequency takes a dive so you need to factor in strategies to combat this. And resources!

My pet hate is coming across a well-designed, well-written business blog that hasn’t been updated for 6 weeks. It oozes complacency and a lack of understanding of how online communications work.

4. You didn’t allocate enough resources for your business blog

The bar for business blogging has risen in the last years; nowadays you pretty much need a skilled programmer to set it up, a professional designer to give it the right look and feel to match your corporate identity, and a talented and resourceful writer and communicator who excels at juggling social media networks like Twitter and Facebook alongside blogging to get you heard on a regular basis.

Business blogs are not a cheap alternative to traditional marketing. They’re an effective PR and marketing resource, but only if you invest in them just like any other.

They work best when integrated into a cogent marcom campaign that includes online and offline channels.

5. Your blog isn’t getting enough traffic

Just because you set up a blog, doesn’t mean readers will flock to you. No matter how big a company you are.That’s why creative content marketers can win an audience despite not being market leaders.

Do you have a strategy to drive people to your blog?

Advertising and online promotion might get you some traffic, but interruptive marketing is increasingly overlooked. Instead, you may find you need someone to build relationships one-person-at-a-time online with social media channels like Twitter, Facebook or Google Buzz. This isn’t cheap and can’t be done in a day. Building an effective business blog takes time, commitment and effort.
Think: long haul, rather than quick fix.