Top 12 Successful Blog Writing Tips to Achieve Bigger Sales Opportunities

Following our Winning Best Blog Award Ireland 2012 of an SME end of last year we’ve had numerous enquiries on the how’s, do’s and don’ts of writing a compelling business blog consistently. I was also asked to write a similarly themed article for the Irish Tatler Business Annual 2013 so I thought you might find it useful if I shared with you some of the recently published tips.

 

The list compiled is by no means all encompassing but gives you a good reference point to get started or review your blogging activities to date.

 

Top 12 Most Successful Blog Writing Tips to Achieve Bigger and Better Sales 

 

:: 1. Know and define the target audience for your blog content, be they customers or prospects. One of the major reasons blogs fail is because the content is not relevant to its readers, or the target audience needs are not properly understood. This should be an important part of your brand marketing strategy.

 

:: 2. Create a writing calendar, know your content, marketing, social media and blogging goals. Plan 4-6 months ahead (broadly the year) and if you have notable industry events, seasonal relevance or cultural occasions during the year that are relevant to your target business audience make sure appropriate, brand congruent, topics feature around those times. You can always adapt and change if something topical happens in the market place but planning ensures you have a defined strategy on which it all hangs.

 

:: 3. Post consistently and frequently and keep your content congruently on topic by ensuring you post information that really meets your customers needs and solves their problems. Apply the 80:20 rule, 80% adding value and serving your customers and only 20% about you (your products, launches, case studies etc.). It gets awfully boring visiting a blog that is ‘me me’ orientated and offers no real value to the reader.

 

:: 4. Incorporate your blog into your company or organizations website. If you’re using your blog to support your inbound marketing, integrating its URL into your main website address is very important.

 

:: 5. Seamlessly integrate you branding into your blog both in terms of voice, language used, personality, character and values coupled with corporate brand style guides and visual appeal.

 

:: 6. Add relevant imagery, audio and video clips to make your blog more appealing and support the story being told. Good photos, video clips and sound tracks help attract and retain the readers’ attention.

 

 Blogging For Business Irish Tatler 2012

 

:: 7. Optimise your content for keyword search but don’t be tempted to keyword stuff. Ensure you write for the reader not the Google robots.

 

:: 8. Break up your content into bite size chunks and smaller paragraphs. Writing for online is very different to white paper reports or book writing. Use bulleting and bolding where appropriate. Reader attention span is much shorter online.

 

:: 9. Link your blog posts to appropriate products or services elsewhere on your website. Don’t assume your readers will find those gems. Make it easy for them.

 

:: 10. Research your content and facts but remember to respect other peoples’ intellectual property and copyright. It’s important to provide attribution or reference and links where appropriate.

 

:: 11. Proactively share your blog content across social media platforms as well as feeds, email and newsletters to increase your reach and draw your audience in.

 

:: 12. Track your blog to measure its effectiveness in terms of lead generation, traffic, sales and ROI.

 

Above all ‘Think Big! The sky is not the limit when there are footprints on the moon’. Make your blog a core part of your brand and business strategy and you will reap the rewards.

 

Feel free to get in touch or leave your comments below. We’d love to hear your feedback.

 

If you have any questions or need some brand direction for your blogging strategy then please don’t hesitate to get in touch E: [email protected] or T: +353 1 8322724

 

Wishing you growing success as your blog and your brand become No.1 in your target market.

 

*This is part of an article written by Lorraine Carter, listed as one of the Top 1,000 Women of Influence in Ireland, and published in Irish Tatler Business Annual 2013.

  

 Irish Tatler 2012 Annual Cover 

 

 

Winner Best Blog Award Ireland 2012, of an SME

The Blog Awards Ireland were held last month and much to our huge surprise and honour we Won the Best Blog of an SME, Ireland 2012.

 

 Winner Blog Awards Ireland

 

Having only belatedly discovered the level of entries and read the judging criteria applied we’re feeling even more thrilled and privileged to have been chosen. 

 

Unfortunately due to being overseas at the time we actually missed the awards night. However Sage, the sponsor, delighted us by recently presenting us with our award at their offices.  

 

Lorraine Carter Persona Design 

 Lorraine Carter of Persona Branding & Design presented with her Blog Awards Trophy

at Sage offices by Sage Digital and Marketing Manager, Avril McArdle

 

Thanks again to all the organisers, volunteers and sponsors of Blog Awards Ireland and congratulations to all the other category winners too. To take a look at some of those fantastic blogs check out the other category winners on the Blog Awards Ireland website. They are definitely worth reading.

Winner 2012 Best Blog of an SME, Ireland

We’re thrilled and honoured to have been chosen as Winner of the Best Blog of an SME, Ireland 2012.

 

 Winner Blog Awards Ireland

 

Fantastic news and only sorry I wasn’t able to make the Awards Ceremony on Saturday night. Thanks so much to all the organisers, volunteers and sponsors of Blog Awards Ireland and to all the other winners too.

http://www.blogawardsireland.com

 

Surviving & Thriving: Innovating Through Recession to Success

Innovation, that oh-so-elusive yet desirable trait touted as the engine for economic growth by our hackneyed politicians, is actually the life blood of any business but never more so then in our current economic market. 

 

Fresher, smarter thinking is critical in business for ongoing growth and prosperity. Product and service development is a constant, iterative process to respond to competition and market demands.

 

New products, methods and ideas are about constant change which for some can be uncomfortable and stressful while for others it’s the essential variety on which they thrive. 

 

Take the humble egg, largely overlooked and seen as a commodity purchase with generally poor packaging, weak brands and negligible consumer recognition. Clonarn Clover, a small Irish family artisan egg producer has launched a new brand, O’Egg, to market with white eggs in a pink box ! They are the only artisan free range producer of white eggs in Ireland, said to be far superior for lightness in baking, and sold at a higher price to the common brown egg. 

 

O Egg White Eggs Icograda 

 

The O’Egg white eggs are packaged in an unlikely bright pink box, ensuring on shelf impact, targeted at a female consumer. Also the O’Egg brand is supporting “Action Breast Cancer”, with the logo for same prominently displayed on pack which also resonates with their target market. Product, brand, packaging and marketing inventiveness on a modest budget to shake up a sector which has seen very little ingenuity in a quite a while.

 

In this period of economic fluctuation, armed with the immeasurable online resources at our finger tips, we are actually presented with multiple opportunities unlike any generation before.

 

Ebookfling Logo

 

A great online example is EBookFling, a startup that creates a virtual e-book swap, facilitating lending of e-books between consumers using lending features enabled by Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook. 

 

Ebookfling How To

 

Borrowers upload titles of what they own and can swop with anybody signed up to the service for a temporary swop enabling them to “try before they buy”. Readers get exposure to try new authors without the risk of up front expense and the author gets a type of exposure not previously available. It’s a win:win with a service facilitating more fluid transactions between buyer and seller. 

 

Poopourri

 

Some might say our economy is in the toilet but Poo-Pourri is a fantastic example of entrepreneurship and product innovation. In a little over three years this start up business has grown to a €3 million enterprise. Poo-Pourri is made from a secret mix of essential oils sprayed into the toilet bowl and used to mask the smell in the bathroom before the deed is done, rather then after, like traditional deodorisers. Its far more effective and eco friendly ! Today the range consists of more then 60 products successfully selling in five countries.

 

Poo Pourri Sign

 

It is essential to become a fast discoverer with low cost, swift experimentation, prototyping and piloting, all of which leads to new insights and opportunities. Successful innovation (product or service) requires key ingredients some of which include:

• Ideas which solve important problems for your customer whose needs you must understand intimately

• An ability to get to market quickly before the market changes or your customer needs shift

• A fully integrated branding, design and marketing strategy focussed on your target markets needs

• Knowledge of barriers, adoption cycles and inertia within your target market

• Adequate resources and funding

 

Start with the end in mind. If your solution solves a problem that real customers have, your chances of success are increased. If your innovation is easily adopted by your target customers, based on a thorough understanding of their needs, then you have a much greater chance of success.

 

Country Crest Range

 

Country Crest is another Irish food manufacturer turning the highly competitive ready meal market on its head with innovative packaging and added pack functionality to meet their customers needs with its From the Orient range. A “collectibles” range of complete meal solutions in a NY style deli box, which is very different and distinctive on shelf compared to its competitors (all in trays and carton sleeves), the food is a “grab and go” solution which can be heated in 3 minutes and eaten from the box.

 

When you produce something really successful you can’t afford to slide into complacency. Your competitors are aggressively assessing the market looking for the next big thing or how they can topple you or take a chunk of your market share. Even when you’re on the crest of the wave your business must have a proactive strategy to relentless innovate, develop and search for new opportunities to stay ahead.

 

Most importantly though you have to get noticed to sell your product or service, capture your target markets imagination and create excitement through powerful branding and great design.

 

Do you have a great new innovation ready to bring to market ?

Is there an area of your business or market, tired and overlooked, crying out to be reinvigorated and transformed? 

 

Drop us a line or give us a call.

We’d love to help you make your brand the next big success story.

T: +353 1 8322724

E: [email protected]