blog trends

Reality check: Yesthere are dozens of reasons your business should be blogging. You’re well on your way if you’ve got your blog established with SEO and social sharing features already in place. Great job. And, as a blogger, you’re sharing your expertise and positioning yourself as a leader in your industry. Good for you.

Now, it’s time for a gut check: are your blog posts benefit-rich? Business-to-business bloggers often struggle to write posts that are helpful and applicable to target audiences. Sometimes the root of the problem is lack of content ideas. Other times, the challenge is to turn a topic idea into an objective, relevant piece.

Here’s a list of questions that will stimulate your blog post writing. By weaving the answers to these questions throughout your post, you’re sure to craft a content piece that your audience will find truly beneficial:

1. What is the problem/challenge or product(s)/service(s) you’ll emphasize? Be specific and descriptive for each.

2. What is the purpose of blog post? What is the main message and how specifically will it benefit the reader?

3. What are your publicity goal(s)? How will this blog post reflect positively on your organization/your expertise?

4. Who is your target audience? What role does your reader play in the decision making process for the featured product/service?

5. What is your target audiences’ knowledge of the topic? How familiar with this topic is your target audience and what’s their perception?

6. What are your audiences’ hot buttons / concerns / motivations? What issues must your post address? How do you expect the reader to feel or act upon reading it? What info or call-to-action will persuade them to react?

7. Fill in the blanks: This blog post addresses <describe problem> by <describe solution> for <type of audience> in the <type of market>.

8. Finish this statement: The featured solution/product/service described in your blog post will improve your target audiences’ business/process/problem by __________________, __________________ and __________________.

9. Complete this matrix as it relates to choosing, implementing and/or buying your post’s featured solution/product/service:

Audiences’ Top Concerns

 PROBLEM

Feature(s) and Benefit(s) of the featured product/service that address this concern

SOLUTION & PROOF POINT

1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5

10. To learn more about your solution/product/service, the audience should ___________? Explain why and how.

Now that you’ve got a strong foundation for your blog content, you can be sure all this benefit-rich information is weaved throughout your post. Don’t forget to craft a headline that is short and captures exactly what the reader will come away with by clicking on and reading your post. Your post should be concise, written with subheads and bullet points and use supporting illustrations and photography to guide the reader through your piece. Allow your audience to comment on your post. Better yet, invite them to offer their own perspectives, experiences and advice. Finally, enable your audience to easy share your post via social media outlets and email. If your readers perceive the post to be beneficial, they’ll share it!

Comments Welcome: Share your tips, tricks, ideas and insights with your fellow B2B bloggers. Perhaps you have your own style, or a formula for creating truly shareworthy posts for your industry. There’s plenty of us who would love to hear from you

Blog on, fellow B2B bloggers!