Top 5 Greatest Blogging Mistakes, and How To Avoid Them

The benefits of blogging have been proven. Businesses that blog generate approximately 67% more leads than those that don’t. But content is still king. What you blog about should be your greatest consideration, and what you don’t blog about is just as important as what you do. Use this guide to help make blog content decisions that will elevate your business, not bring it down.

1. Keep Your Brand Out of the Conversation

It may be tempting to blog about new products, services, awards or events, but this is exactly the kind of information that should never be posted on your blog. These posts are sabotage to your overall blog success. Your website is the appropriate place for this type of information, and you should absolutely promote your company changes and PR in all the normal channels - just don’t put it on your blog. Your blog should be strictly educational and informative. You are trying to develop trust

2. It’s Not Personal

Your blog is not the place to post information about the company holiday party, new hires or the employee of the month. These types of information are better left to platforms like Facebook that people expect to be personal. However, your blog is not the platform for these posts. Think about it, as an anonymous Internet surfer what would capture your interest more - a blog post about a company holiday party or a post with information relevant to what you are looking for? Most potential customers, and even current customers, will have no interest in what you do to increase employee morale at your company. They are looking to you as the solutions provider you are - give them what they’re looking for and don’t muddy the water.

3. It’s Not About Sales

You may have the most useful, ground-breaking, incredible product in the world, but people don’t want to hear about it on your blog. If people want to learn about your product, they can visit your website and gain a wealth of information on who you are, what you do and what you have to offer. You blog posts should guide them toward your services by emphasizing strengths that your company has, informing potential buyers so they can make a better purchasing decision, and give them opportunities to come to your site for more information, but don’t sell on your blog. Your blog’s goal is to capture the interest of people searching for information related to your products or services. Provide valuable information and you will build trust with your visitors, that leads to loyalty and ultimately to business deals.

4. Get Some Help

While it’s true that more content generally means more website visits and ultimately more leads, you should never sacrifice quality for quantity. If you struggle to find the time to write a blog post, there are plenty of companies that offer blog writing services and can assist you with creating interesting, educational, relevant content for your blog. But if you don’t want to pay an outside service, writing and publishing one great article per month is far better than posting weekly about something your audience will not have any interest. Anything other than relevant, useful, industry-focused posts dilute the message you are trying to convey and could turn away potential leads instead of developing them.

5. Perfection is Relative

You could spend weeks spinning your wheels trying to make your content perfect. The truth is, it can always be better, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be. If you’re thinking about rewriting a blog post, first ask yourself, does this convey the message I’m trying to express? Does it offer valuable, unique information that will be useful to my audience? Is it timely? Is it accurate? Will my target prospects find it valuable? If you can answer ‘yes’ to these questions, stop wasting time pushing for perfection. Imperfect live content will achieve far greater results while perfect content that takes days or weeks more to develop.

Above all else, remember, your blog should be an education platform for your ideal customer. Period. Keep this platform pure and untainted by promotional materials, product updates and office events. If you manage your blog content correctly, you will gain the trust of anonymous visitors, convert them to leads so you can begin to nurturing the relationship, and when the time comes for them to make a purchase, you will be at the top of their mind.