You’ve heard the phrase ‘content is king’ and are convinced that a blog is going to help attract more clients for your Melbourne business. You’re committed to posting often (yay!) and already have a bunch of topics in mind.

But hold up there a darn second. Blogging is more than just letting your thoughts loose on the web. To make this really worth your time it’s important to be smart about it. So before you put fingers to keyboard, follow these blogging tips for small business owners so that you write posts that actually benefit your business.

how to write good blog posts

Oh hey, this is the second post in the series on blogging for your small business. You can have a read of the first part here. Subscribe to my email list to never miss a post, plus get weekly updates and super-special content just for my lovely subscribers.

 Who Are You Talking To?

“We use qualitative studies to guide our teachings.”

“We’re fuelled by industry best practices to achieve results.”

Hold up a second there. What language are you speaking?

I often come across business blogs being used as a way to show (off) how smart the owner is to their industry colleagues and peers.

Your blog isn’t for your peers or your colleagues. It’s for your clients and potential clients. So you need to use language that they understand. You want to sound super-smart, but all you’re doing is turning people off. So ignore what everyone else in your industry is doing and write for the people you want to attract.

Hmm. Let me put that in a way you’ll understand:

“The use of standardised language is an exceptional way to communicate your capabilities to your potential stakeholders in a way that builds greater understanding and achieves results.”

Do you get it now?

Why Are You Blogging?

Choose from the answers below:

a) Your web designer included a blog, so you thought you should write something;

b) A copywriter keeps banging on about blogging, so you thought you should write something;

c) Everyone else in your industry has a blog, so you thought you should write something;

d) You want to create helpful content for your clients and potential clients to build genuine connections  and be seen as an industry expert.

If you ticked A to C then go read this post again. If you ticked D then yay! you’re on the right track.

Every post that you write for your business blog needs to fit into your overall marketing plan. Before you sit down to write a post, ask yourself how it serves your goals. Does it answer a question that clients are always asking you? Does it explain more about your method? Does it help potential clients understand how you work?

Treat your blog as another tool in your marketing toolbox and you’ll get better results (more clients), faster.

What Do You Want Me to Do?

I’ve just read your blog post. It was brilliant. It totally answered a question/cleared something up for me/told me something I didn’t even know I needed to know.

Thanks for that.

Now I’m going back to reading the latest updates on The Bachelor Australia scandal.

Wait. No. Stop.

When you write a post, you need to tell your reader what you want them to do next. Oh and in a way that makes sense to the context of the post.

If your post explains how you work, invite them to contact you for a consultation.

You’ve just blogged about a common problem that client’s have, so now invite them to sign up to your list for more updates.

An inspirational post could be followed up with a call for them to put into practice what you’ve just told them, then contact you to share their results.

Tell your reader what you want them to do with the information you provide so they can take action. That leads to better results for your clients and your business.

I’d love you to take what you’ve learned and apply it to your next blog post. Then come back here and tell me how it went.

(See what I did there?)

Want to get some blogging going on your website, but don’t really want to bother with it yourself? No problem. My Caffeine Injection for your Business blogging packages are just the pick-me-up you need.

Photo credit: Flickr/Ahmed Hashim