Blogging for business: Set yourself apart as a trusted expert

When we talk about blogging for business, we often focus on how it can draw more Internet traffic and be used to improve your search engine rankings. If done well, blogging for business can do more than that – it can build a reputation for you that raises you above your competition as a trusted expert. More traffic will widen your field of potential clients, but this expert status will be what closes sales and builds revenue.

In this vein, it’s important to write about meaningful topics in your industry. A ghostwriter is fine, if you find someone who can provide quality content. Articles that are too generic or include broken English or poor grammar and spelling are not good for your reputation. You want content that will engage your website visitors and encourage them to buy from you by educating them about the benefits your business can provide.

Here are some tips for a successful business blog:

• Keep it casual. By this, I just mean that you should infuse your writing with some personality. Don’t write as if you are preparing a formal report, but as if you are explaining something to a client person-to-person.
• Eliminate the marketing message. I know this will seem counter-intuitive, but the most successful blogs are informative or entertaining, not promotional. Even if you are blogging for your business, avoid telling your readers why your business is better than others. Instead, let your status as an industry expert speak for itself. As you educate them about industry services, trends and news, they will naturally come to think of you as a trusted expert.
• Link to other articles/websites. Offer your readers others sources of information on the topic you’re writing about. This will show that you are putting your website visitors’ need for more information ahead of your desire to sell to them. They’ll respect you and your content more for this. (Besides, linking to other sites is good for SEO.)
• Build a brand/identity. By incorporating themes into your writing, and putting the focus on valuable tips and trends instead of marketing, you’ll build an identity your readers come to recognize.

Of course, these tips won’t be much good if you don’t reach an audience, so continuing with efforts to increase your exposure on the Internet is also important. Integrating your blogging with social media is one of the top strategies for this. I recommend the book “Platform: Get Noticed In a Noisy World” by Michael Hyatt, if you are looking for more guidance. It is a step-by-step guide to merging traditional and new media that should be very helpful particularly in the art of blogging for business.