Six Tips for Writing a business blog
Blogs are my bread and butter, and I love bread and butter. And digressing. Anyway, I write loads of blogs for my clients, and today, I’m writing one for myself.
Well, actually, it’s for you.
Bit creepy.
But I like it.
From blog structures to hitting word counts, coming up with blog ideas, and more, I’ll cover the basics of business blogging so you can start your own.
Even better, I’ll demonstrate such incredible blogging abilities that you’ll hire me to write your business blogs for you.
Get chunky.
If the odd long email is the extent of your writing experience, a blog might be a bit daunting. However, you can hit almost any word count with a bit of preparation, and what I like to call “chunking”.
Here’s how to chunk a 1,000 word blog.
Come up with an idea for your blog. (see point five for tips)
Break the topic down into different talking points.
Split your points into chunks of about 200 words each, which should be three or four paragraphs per point.
I know, four chunks of this length only equal 800 words, but throw in a 100 word introduction and 100 word conclusion/call to action, and the job’s a good ‘en.
Change your chunk sizes depending on your blog length, and use headings, bullet points, and numbered points, as I have in this blog, to break up your text. You can also use images to achieve this.
And if you didn’t know, a call to action (CTA) is where you tell your reader to do something. It’s usually to get in touch or visit a service page of your website, and CTAs should be at the end of a blog. You should also include at least one CTA in the main body of content.
If you’re already overwhelmed by the whole blogging idea and want to outsource the headache, or just want to see a mid-blog CTA in action, email james@writeocreative.co.uk.
2. Size doesn’t matter! For paragraphs.
In primary school, you were probably taught that a paragraph should be longer than two sentences. However, in a business blog, this is often the perfect length.
There are no rules, basically, (or teachers) so you can make paragraphs as long or short as you like. It’s completely up to you and nothing is off-limits.
You can even be an absolute renegade and write a single-sentence paragraph, which is actually pretty standard.
Not only are short paragraphs “allowed”, but I’d actually encourage you to use them when writing a blog for your business. Once again, they physically break up content for the reader, so they don’t get psyched out by long walls of text and leave.
3. Write how you talk.
A common cause of blogging pain for business owners is the level of formality to use when writing. However, honesty is the best policy in most situations, and blogs are no different, so I’d encourage you to write how you speak when crafting a blog.
There you go, like these guys.
Look at them go!
Why? Because people want your expertise in your own words, and they’re more likely to work with you if they can relate to you. People relate to people, so as long as you’re a human (I’m watching you ChatGPT), you’ll be sweet.
You can get away with pretty much anything, to be honest, from colloquialisms to slang you use in general life; you can even swear!
At the end of the day, it’s your blog and your rules. Try and avoid too much industry-specific jargon, though, and don’t overdo it with the slang, or it becomes a bit cringe.
Also, make sure your spelling and grammar aren’t a complete mess and that your writing style matches your brand tone of voice.
If you’re a solicitor, for example, I’d lay off the F-bombs.
4. Fluctuate your sentence length.
Think of your blog as a soothing melody for your readers.
Use different sentence lengths to keep people interested, but recognise that too many long sentences will turn them off. This works both ways, with too many short sentences ending all hopes of enjoyment for your readers.
The key, basically, is to fluctuate your sentence lengths.
Keep things snappy to keep readers interested, but don’t create a blog that reads like a bullet-pointed list.
Get it right, and readers will be more interested in your services and business.
5. Base blog topics on customer questions.
Coming up with blog ideas can be tricky, but every business has questions they get asked all the time.
Basing blogs on customer questions gives you the chance to provide answers and consequently, boost trust in your business.
On top of this, more popular questions will be Googled more often, so you can take advantage of increased web traffic for your site.
An important point here is that you should always keep things relevant to your business, rather than jumping on any trending topic.
Think about it like this; you wouldn’t be happy if your bank manager rang you up to chat about the development of ChatGPT when your account’s just been hacked.
6. Use an expert.
It’s all well and good to follow blogging tips from knowledgeable, handsome experts, but it’s always best to use an expert to write your blogs for you. And by an expert, I mean a copywriter, like me.
Can I eat them yet?
A copywriting (and nacho) aficionado.
I write blogs for businesses almost every day, and can guarantee that I can help you write yours, or go one further and do it for you.
Helping you come up with things to write about or even proofreading and perfecting your blogging efforts, I can help as much as little as you require, and I’m an absolute bargain.
Need help writing a blog? Get in touch.
Drop me an email at james@writeocreative.co.uk for more blogging tips or to get some help writing a blog for your business.
I also write sales-led landing pages, entire websites, and manage social media platforms, if this is something you need some help with.
And in case you missed it, here’s my email address in massive letters:
JAMES@WRITEOCREATIVE.CO.UK