Blogs are increasingly being used by businesses to build stronger brand loyalty in their customers.
The objective of your blog should be to attract and hold onto the largest possible readers. Yet many bloggers routinely turn away readers by making dumb mistakes that could easily be avoided.
Here are the top five ways many bloggers unwittingly destroy their credibility and turn off readers so they never return:
- Talking Too Much about Yourself
Remember: The purpose of your business blog should be to provide readers with content that consistently informs and educates them on new and interesting topics.
Blogs should not be commercials for your products or business. When you only write about what your products and what your business is doing, readers won’t stick around very long. A better plan is to establish yourself as an industry authority and give readers high-value content they can use to increase loyalty bonds and keep them coming back for more.
- Shamelessly Promoting Your Products
It’s okay occasionally mention your products or include links to your services, don’t hit readers over the head with your sales pitch. Educate first and sell with subtlety.
- Not Selling Enough
Okay, this may sound like exactly the opposite of the item, but it’s actually not. While it’s important to provide your readers with high-value content and avoid barraging them with your sales pitch, you also should remember that your blog is there to increase interest in your company or subject.
Tie your valuable content back to your brand and include a soft sell to get the message across to your blog’s readers.
- Not Letting People Leave Comments
Some businesses are so concerned about their online reputation that they try to manage the way they are portrayed on their own blog by shutting off the comments section.
Not allowing comments sends the message that you don’t care what they have to say, that you don’t value their opinions.
While there may be some minimal risk that somebody could post something critical about your business, if you properly maintain your comments section on a regular basis you can address any negativity quickly and effectively, and turn a negative into a positive.
- Making It Too Long
People aren’t clicking on your blog because they want to read thousands of words of copy. Keep your blogs short and information-dense. Providing too much information can make reader weary and wary of future blogs posts.
Like they say in show business: Always leave them wanting more!
