Matt Brennan — October 7, 2017 — October 7, 2017
Good writing habits are an integral part of using digital marketing to grow your business.
We’ve all been told how important quality content is to the future of our business, but what exactly does that mean? Becoming a successful blogger takes work. It takes constantly writing and rewriting, experimenting, and figuring out the ways to get your message to resonate with your audience.
What are you doing to promote your business online, and expand your audience? What are the good writing habits you practice to boost your business?
8 Good Writing Habits to Jumpstart Your Blog
Write a Little Every Day – This goes without saying, but if you are determined to be a successful writer or blogger, you need to practice. It doesn’t need to necessarily be the material you plan to publish. But concentrate on generating some level of output, and improving your writing skill set.
You don’t have to be a great writer to succeed with your business blog. What you’ll need to do is learn how to write the type of material that your audience is looking for. As I mentioned, you most definitely do not need to be publishing every day – but taking the opportunities you need to practice will help.
Generate Original Ideas – Idea generation is probably the most significant of good writing habits you can practice. Why? Because your blog post is only as good as your idea. If you write about something your audience doesn’t care about, it doesn’t matter how interesting the rest of it is. They’re gone and you’re operating within the confines of a ghost town.
So what can you do to improve the ideas that you come up with? It’s simple, really.
- Ask your audience what they want to read about.
- Answer the questions that you (or your sales team) routinely address while interfacing with customers.
- Do your diligence with keyword research and find the opportunities that people are already searching for.
One additional component to consider as you generate original ideas – don’t just regurgitate the same stale information you find elsewhere online. Come up with original points, or put your own spin on them. Give your audience something they’re not really finding in other places.
Incorporate Your Personal Style Into the Post – Your audience literally has unlimited choices for where they could be garnering information off the Internet. They chose you. Make sure you’re not sounding stiff as a board. Don’t allow them to conjure up images of Ben Stein teaching in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off while reading your work.
You can be both professional and informal at the same time. You can write to your audience in the same general style and tone that you would talk to a potential client while out to coffee. There’s no need for it to sound like an academic dissertation. There’s no need to constantly regurgitate material you found in other corners of the web.
What the Internet needs more of is you.
Talk Directly to Your Customer – This harkens back to the idea that your readers have choices – yet here they are, with you. There may be ideas you want to write about. There may be concepts near and dear to your business. But if they are not what your customer is looking for during their research phase, then none of your grand ideas will matter.
When you locate your ideas through the methods generated above, and when you filter your discussion points through the idea that they need to matter to your reader, your blog will be better off.
You also need to consider your reader down to the word choice. Your reader may not know all the industry geek speak that you are familiar with. When they no longer understand what you’re talking about is when they drop off. So make sure to keep the reader in the loop.
Keep their Grammar and Spelling Clean – Spelling mistakes and grammar errors can generate stopping points for your readers. They get in the way of establishing trust. Take the time to make sure that your writing is as professional as possible, and as many grammar and spelling errors are eliminated as possible.
Read Inside and Outside their Industry – The more well rounded you are, the more creative ideas you can bring to your business and to your blog. Reading inside and outside your industry allows you the ability to ponder and connect more original ideas.
Reach out to Other Bloggers – It helps to have connections with other people who are trying the same things. You can ask questions, and find another sounding board who can genuinely help your industry. It also helps to have an extra set of eyes look over your work before you hit publish.
Know How to Self Promote – The Internet is large enough these days that it’s extremely difficult to get a quality idea to just take off. You can work to grow your network and increase the size of your platform. When you are active in social media groups, more people are likely to share a post that resonates with them. Consider posting your blogs on Facebook, LinkedIn, Medium, Twitter, Pinterest or any other social network that might make sense.
What good writing habits do you count on to become a successful blogger? What has worked for you in the past?
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