Blogging for Maximum Inbound Marketing Impact

There are more than 133 million blogs on the Internet with bloggers posting in excess of 900,000 new blog posts every day. With that kind of competition, it's a challenge just to get your blog noticed and even more difficult to keep your blog on readers' radar. Creating a blog with a high level of readability is an important key to gaining and maintaining dedicated readers.

To attract readers and entice them to return, try these tips:

• Present interesting content. Content should be original, varied, useful and interesting to site visitors and should have an obvious connection to your business or product.
• Be effectively organized. Blog posts should be easy to find on the page and quick to access with a click. Choose a standard format for headline and content presentation to give your blog a unified look. Create a logical list of categories and tags to make it easy for readers to find and access similar content.
• Be visually attractive. Select font sizes and color contrasts that are easy to read. Short paragraphs create more white space and appear more visually pleasing and more accessible to readers. Use underlining, highlighting and bulleted or numbered lists to break up content grayness and improve readability. Illustrations add visual interest and attract readers.
• Use language articulately. Use proper grammar, sentence structure, spelling and punctuation in your blog posts. Use the spell checker and proofread blogs before you post them.
• Be written in a suitable voice. The "voice" in which you write creates your blog's personality and molds the reader's view of your company or product. Choose a voice that is in synch with your inbound marketing strategy, the image of your company you wish to portray and your targeted readership. Depending on the company image you wish to build, your voice might be humorous, flippant, educational, compassionate, practical, etc. Blogging is an opportunity to connect with potential customers on an informal level. Use your voice to create a more personal bond with readers, just realize that your voice will also color readers' perceptions about your firm.
• Post new content on a regular basis. New content creates a reason for readers to return to your blog. A minimum of three posts a week, spaced about every other day, will keep readers coming back for more.
• Encourage your readers to subscribe. Place an RSS feed subscription button and e-mail subscription form in a prominent position on your blog page. A brief description of your overall blog subject matter and how often you post is also a good idea to convince your readers to subscribe. By converting readers to subscribers, you are far more likely to add repeat visitors to your site, which ultimately can yield loyal followers and sales leads.

Some people were born to blog. Some of them work for us.

Photo credit: stijnbokhove