If you put effort into promoting your business online, most probably you already have a blog. It may be fairly successful, have an impressive number of subscribers and constant traffic. But somehow it is not effective in reaching the goal you had in mind when you started it: attracting your potential audience and converting them into customers. Why?
The most likely reason is that your blog is simply speaking to the wrong people. The questions it answers and the problem it solves are not the questions and problems your customers have. They are the topics your fellow business owners are interested in.
This mistake is very easy to make when you first start blogging. For example, if you are real estate agent, you assume the topics to cover are trends and news in the real estate industry. But what your potential customers really want to know is what to look out for when purchasing a home or how to get the best mortgage deal. By writing about trends and news you can establish an expert reputation among your peers, but these are not the topics your customers are looking for.
If you feel you got off the track at some point and started talking to fellow service providers instead of customers, here are 5 rules to help you fix it.
Choose the Right Topics
How do you know what topics to cover? Think of the most common questions your customers actually asked you in real life. Browse forums and Q&A websites to see what answers people are looking for. Follow important updates in your industry and think of the problems your customers might have in regard to them. All in all, keep your eyes open – and let your customers tell you what they want to know.
Avoid Professional Jargon
Remember you are not writing for fellow professionals. If your posts are rich in professional jargon that customers don’t understand, it can drive them away or make them plain bored. You know the subjects you are talking about, so you definitely know how to cover them in layman terms.
Make It Easy to Understand for Beginners
When you blog for a while, it is easy to assume that your readers already know the basics and understand what you are talking about. Keep in mind, though, that there are new readers coming to your blog every day, so make sure your content is understandable for beginners, too.
Don’t Talk Down to Your Readers
The purpose of your blog is to share your knowledge and, to some extent, to show you are an expert in your field. Nevertheless, it is important to treat your audience as an equal, even though you are more knowledgeable than they are – otherwise, you may lose them very soon. So, the golden rule is never talk down to your readers.
Speak to One Reader
You may have thousands of readers, but in the end you speak to each of them individually as they read your content. Think of your post as a conversation you are having with one of your customers. That will make your writing sound natural, personal, and easy to comprehend.
Understanding your audience is the key in blogging, just as it is in any other sphere of marketing. Another rule of thumb is addressing the right audience, so make sure this is what your blog does.
