7 Reasons Your Blog Is Unsuccessful

Every business should have a blog that is updated on a regular basis with information that potential customers will find useful. It is common knowledge that a blog is a major component of a successful online marketing campaign but not all businesses have a successful blog. We find many companies come to us and wonder why their cash registers aren’t singing because they have a blog on their website.

It often isn’t simply because their blog is brand new, as we encounter many businesses that have had an active blog for several years and still haven’t seen any impact in terms of customer interaction and acquisition.

Most blogs are failures for several different reasons. Here are seven reasons that could be impacting the success of your blog in a negative manner:

1. No balance between post frequency and content quality

If you do not post enough content you will lose your audience and they will potentially seek out another source of information, but if you post too much you could potentially lose focus and go off into different directions. Also, frequent posting will hamper the overall quality of the content, which will also turn visitors away.

Every business is going to cross this path when it comes to mapping out the blog strategy. Should you post more? Less? Multiple shorter posts or fewer posts that are more in-depth? These are all questions that you will need to figure out.

Finding the blogging frequency that works for your business will depend on several factors. If you are in an industry that is very competitive then you will need to focus on both quality as well as quantity in order to draw more attention to your blog. If your industry is a bit less competitive then you can get away with posting less frequently and still draw attention. This takes time to test, so don’t be afraid to try different frequencies until you find out what works for your business.

2. Your blog is a constant sales pitch

You do not need to turn every blog post into an ad in order to attract leads and customers. You will often find that by providing something of value to your readers it will help you to gain their trust and they will begin to view your blog as an authority in your industry.

Many of your visitors will find your blog after searching for general information related to the products or services you provide. This is a good chance to gently introduce them to your brand without jamming a sales pitch down their throat. Use content marketing as a way to get your website visitors into your lead funnel, where you can then market directly to them at a later date.

3. Your blog topics are not engaging

Your blog topics should be something that your audience is very interested and passionate about, and also related to the service or product that you offer. This doesn’t mean that your blog topics should be overly promotional though.

We try to keep our blog topics fresh, related to all areas of online marketing in order to appeal to a wide audience. Sometimes there will be specific areas to focus on more than others, and it is up to you to determine what topics your readers will react better to. Create content based on topics that will cause interactions and bring back traffic to your blog.

Stay on track and do not drift too far from your core audience. If your content doesn’t appeal to your ideal customer then it will fail.

4. Your blog doesn’t provide a good experience on mobile or tablet devices

It is amazing how many businesses will launch a blog but not structure it correctly. It is very important that your website structure is simple to navigate from desktop computers, mobile devices, and tablets. Mobile and tablet traffic is increasing rapidly, so make sure that your blog is easily read on all devices.

A responsive website will provide your readers with a good experience on your blog and this will result in them returning at a later date provided that your blog was useful and they saw it as valuable.

You could have great content but if your website provides a horrible user experience you will not build a solid readership. Spend the time to make sure that your blog is responsive and is easy to read and navigate on desktops, tablets, and mobile devices.

5. Your blog is built around SEO and not quality content

Search engine optimization is constantly changing and while SEO is an important piece of the online marketing puzzle you want to make sure that your blog is created for your readers and potential customers – not the search engines.

Many businesses have blogs that are full of low quality (outsourced) content that reads horribly and is jam packed with keywords. Not only are the search engines cracking down on poor content quality, but also it provides absolutely zero benefit for your readers. You risk potential penalties that can damage your website rankings and you will push away readers.

Always write for your audience first, not the search engines.

6. You are not committed 100%

While online marketing and components such as blogging might be common practice for younger business owners and executive teams, older generations are still warming up to digital marketing. You (and your company) need to be 100% committed to blogging in order for it to be successful.

Companies that take their blog seriously will reap the rewards, and this will require sticking to a schedule and making deadlines. A successful blog will pick up readership as you gain momentum and a single late entry or failure to upload new content can spell disaster. Commit to producing quality blog content and updating it on a set schedule.

7. Your blog is stale

Your website could be ranking #1 on Google for several keywords that drive an abundant amount of traffic to your website, but unfortunately website traffic doesn’t always translate into revenue for your business.

Traffic alone isn’t going to result in leads and sales. You need strategically places calls-to-action built into your blog that capture your visitors name and email at the very least.

How-to guides, tips, eBooks, and special discount offers are all great examples of something of value to create calls-to-action around. Your blog as well as your offers used for lead generation should create excitement.

Define What Will Make Your Blog Successful

In order to determine whether your blog is successful or not you must define what will make it a success.

• How much traffic do you want to drive daily and monthly?

• What lead conversion rate will be considered successful?

• How many leads do you need to generate in order to get a sale?

• How many sales will make the blog a success?

These are just a few things to outline and be aware of while evaluating the overall success of your blog. When you have a very detailed plan along with specific goals it is much easier to determine whether your blogging is successful or not.

via Business 2 Community http://ift.tt/Re4u62