Are you connecting with readers? If your blog posts are always focused on products or services, you may be missing out on opportunities to resonate with readers. Even if you have content writers providing website content services, you can supplement their efforts with your own personal posts, or give a writer the basics that you wish to get across and ask him or her to make it sing.
It’s with good reason that most of your posts will relate in some way to what your company has to offer — your ultimate goal is to do business. But it’s a good idea to mix up the content with occasional short topics that have a better chance of making a personal connection. This humanizes a company and makes it more than just a place to buy a product or use a service.
That isn’t to say they should be random or fluffy. Far from it. These blogs can praise the hard work of active members of the community, comment on social issues and support local efforts in a disaster.
If your readers are predominately local, focus on the community:
- Highlight a carnival or other family-oriented event. Praise the organizers for a successful event, and reminisce on past experiences with similar events.
- Touch upon a natural disaster, such as fire, storm or flood damage. Take the time to thank those who came to the rescue. Praise the community that reached out to help others. Share your own story if you were affected. If you took part in cleanup, share what you witnessed in others.
- Bring a national event home. Share something you read in the newspaper, and briefly add your thoughts, whether they’re happy, sad or in between. Relate the event to something happening in the community.
If, however, you write a blog that is national in scope or focuses on a wider area, just widen the scope of the posts. Instead of a natural disaster in the area, write about Hurricane Isaac or similar headline-making storms. And do bring up your local carnival, but quickly move on to reminiscing. This establishes you as a warm, thoughtful person with down-to-earth values who likes to have fun.
Impromptu blog posts can be sparked by little things you notice as you go about your daily life. Carry a notebook with you and write down ideas. You may be surprised at how often you become inspired to write a quick blog about something that comes to your mind that’s not business-related: Fall colors, random acts of kindness, inspiring people; the list can get pretty long.
Not all of your readers will become customers, but the more you connect with them, the greater the chances they might want to pay more attention to the company that’s behind the website content services found in your blog.
Laurie S is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments.
