In the manufacturing arena where competition is fierce, some companies have turned to blogs as a way to increase brand awareness, become a thought leader in their space, increase their web traffic and generate leads. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know I keep preaching the importance of a blog in your overall marketing plan, but I also stress the commitment needed to do it right and accomplish all your objectives.
I recently read a post from ThomasNet, 6 Ways to Ensure No One Reads Your Blog, and I thought I’d share them with you(tongue in cheek), so if you are considering blogging, these are the things you don’t want to do.
THINGS NOT TO DO
- Post only things about you, your company and products – People do want to know about what you do, but they are also looking for help/guidance in their field of work. We have a rule of thumb that 1/3 of posts should be about you, 1/3 about the industry you serve and 1/3 about what other people have said about the industry.
- Offer nothing original, helpful or insightful – That will surely keep them coming back. You need to answer the question, “What’s in it for me?” from the reader’s perspective. They should be looking at you as an expert in the field.
- Ignore issues that customers want to hear about – What keeps them up at night? What are some controversial issues going on in the industry or associations you belong to?
- Don’t have a keyword strategy – One of the big benefits of social is that by using keywords and phrases will help you get picked up by the search engines.
- Post irregularly – You want people to follow you and it’s hard for them to do that if you post once a month. You need to publish content on a regular basis, even if it’s only once a month.
- Write poorly – You don’t have to be a professional writer, but you need to be able to write and organize your thoughts. Well-written posts have a topic, your take on the topic and a conclusion for folks to think about and hopefully respond with their thoughts.
While I hope you’ve enjoyed my sense of entertaining you, on a serious note, blogs are great marketing tools. But like all tools, you need to know how to use them.
