The thing your blog needs most of all, is POSTS! ‘Well Duh!!’ But while your blog certainly needs posts, before you even get to posting, it needs POSTS. Let me explain.
P is for People. The people you need to be speaking to if you want to use your blog to grow your business. You need to get to know these people so that you can talk to them about the things they want/need to hear. Building a picture of your audience is an ongoing process, and one that requires you to apply the Green Cross Code principles of Stop, Look, and Listen; and then continue to Look and Listen All The Way.
O is for Objective. If you’re going to find the time to blog, your blog needs to have a purpose, a reason for existing. You need to know why you’re blogging. And if your blog is for your business, you need to give it a Business Objective. Without a solid enough tie to your business, without a business purpose, you’ll never be able to give your blog a high enough priority. There will always be something more important for you to do. This is the most critical thing your blog needs if it’s to help you to be successful. I will bang on about this until the end of time!
S is for Story Cupboard. You need a fully stocked Story Cupboard of great blog post ideas. A virtual treasure trove, if you like, of fun, inspirational, useful, entertaining things to write about. So that you never have to rely on inspiration alone. Every time an idea comes to you, every time a customer or potential customer tells you what pisses them off, or what they love, or how they want help, you need to stick that in your Story Cupboard.
T is for True-To-You. Authenticity is a word that gets bandied around a lot these days, but that doesn’t make it any less important. People buy people, so you need to find your authentic voice online and use it. A version of you may be better than being a robot, but it’s nowhere near as good as being the real you.
S is for Share. You can write the best blog posts in the whole wide world, but if you don’t publish and share them, you may as well not have bothered. Content Marketing is a game of two halves: creating the content and then marketing that content. If you only create content, you’re only doing half a job. ‘Build it and they will come’ is a pipe dream: you need to share your message.
In my experience, everything always comes back to these five principles. They’re the foundations, the cornerstones of any successful business blog. When I started my first business, I wanted to write a blog, but I couldn’t, because my purpose was too weak and I didn’t know who my audience were. As a result I couldn’t think of what to write about and I had nothing to share. Each one of these foundations depend on the other. Which means if you build on one, it’ll have a positive impact on the rest.
If you’re struggling to get blogging or keep blogging, check how your blog measures up against each of the five cornerstones and see if you can build on any that are lacking.