You believe in the business benefits of blogging and know it’s a marketing channel that supports your business growth.

You know the stats that say B2B marketers that blog receive 67% more leads and are 13 times more likely to experience positive ROI.

But you’re not quite sure if your blog is hitting all the marks that will allow it to maximize its marketing potential and get you that coveted ROI.

Here are 13 tips that will help to make your blog awesome.

1.  Create A Content Strategy

At its simplest, your content strategy comes from knowing your audience and sharing information they are interested in or that makes their lives easier. To be effective, it needs to be shaped by your audience personas. Points to consider are the types of content you can deliver that will support them through their buyer’s journey.

2. Help Solve Problems

Your readers are busy and overwhelmed with competing priorities. A sure way to create trust and loyalty is to help your audience solve problems or answer questions. Your blog is your platform to educate and inform. If you’re not doing that, your readers will go elsewhere.

3. Write Great Headlines

Headlines are the first and often the only thing that compels someone to read your blog. The headline should be about a topic, which is narrow in focus rather than a subject, which is much broader in focus. Above all else, your headline must convey what benefit the reader will get out of reading further.

4. Write Scannable Content

Scannable content appeals to the way people read online. Use sub-headings to tell readers exactly what they’ll find in your post. Bullets and numbered lists break up text making it easier to pick out information.

Draw readers to important information by highlighting text, using different coloured fonts, bolding or using italics.

Write in an inverted pyramid style putting the most important information at the beginning of your blog and leave lots of white space around your text, as huge blocks of text are a turn-off to online readers.

5. Optimize Your Content

Your content should be written to address the needs and concerns of your audience but also make sure it’s optimized for search engines.

A few things to keep in mind:

• Include keywords in your title and the first and last sentence of the post.
• Link to other posts on your website or other pages on your site.
• Include keywords in the blog post URL.
• Add categories and tags.

6. Optimize Your Site For Mobile Devices

Most searches now take place on mobile devices so your blog and website must be optimized to take advantage of this fact.

• Minimize loading time – two seconds is about the threshold.
• Use large, easy-to-read text.
• Keep layouts simple and functional.
• Make information easy to navigate and “finger friendly.”
• Use mobile-friendly calls-to-action.

7. Include Images And Video In Your Content

Images and video make your content memorable. HubSpot reports that when a relevant image is paired with information, people retained 65% of that information three days later compared to recalling only 10% without the use of images.

8. Use Alt Text

Search engines cannot “read” images so attaching alt text to your pictures describes to search engines what the images are about. Alt text is also used by screen readers to describe images to blind and visually impaired people and contributes to how the page is indexed and where it ranks.

9. Post Consistently

It matters less how often you post but more about how consistently you post. Readers appreciate knowing when your company will post new content and this consistency helps to build trust in your brand. In determining how much is the right amount of content that your company should produce, you’ll likely have to find a middle ground. If you had to choose between sacrificing quality over quantity, I’d post quality blogs less often rather than a barrage of poor quality content.

10. Use Guest Bloggers

Guest bloggers save you time and offer a fresh perspective. They also provide opportunities to get your blog and business in front of a new audience. Find writers within your niche with a solid writing background and make sure their content is consistent with your brand and provides the useful, educational information your audience has come to expect.

11. Include A Call To Action With Every Post

What do you want your reader to do after they read your blog? Do you want them to leave a comment, download a free offer, share the post on social media or subscribe to your email list?

Your readers won’t know what to do unless you tell them, so include a clear call to action with every post.

12. Respond To Reader Comments

When someone comments on your blog, it’s a signal they are engaged and interested in what you have to say. Responding to reader comments is an opportunity to connect and build relationships with your audience. Reading and responding to comments is also a great way to learn about reader questions or areas of interest, which in turn creates targeted topics for future blog posts.

13. Promote Your Content On Social Media

Choose a few select platforms where you can promote your content rather than trying to have a presence on them all. Choose sites where your ideal customers are likely to hang out to have the most targeted effect. B2B bloggers should have a presence on LinkedIn and Twitter while B2C bloggers may find more of their customers on Pinterest.

I hope you find these tips useful as you create your blog posts. Please share using the social buttons on this page.