Successful business blogging, part 1: useful or funny decision tree
/In this 5-part series, we’ll cover the philosophical and practical steps for successful business blogging, whether you’re an accountant, marketing firm or manufacturing behemoth.
Business blogs get off track easily. You start off with the good intentions of helping your clients and prospects and before you know it, you’re publishing excerpts from your Slack channel.
A devolving blog doesn’t happen because of maliciousness or apathy. It more likely happens because of overwhelm, inconsistency, being in a hurry and possibly being afraid of having nothing to say.
One simple question to keep your business blog on track
This drawing reminds me that I miss visio.
There’s a quick and easy way to take the decision-making angst out of your business blog. You ask one question about each blog posting or idea: “Is it useful or funny?” If the answer is yes, then you go ahead. If the answer is no, you take some advice from Stephen King and you kill that darling blog idea. Yes, it hurts, but not as much as publishing embarrassing and brand-weakening content.
Why useful or funny?
Businesses are successful because people decide to buy from them, repeatedly. Sometimes people make logical decisions but we often make an emotional decision that we then back up with logic. People buy from businesses and brands they like. And your clients come to like you because you help them. And they like you even more if you can make them laugh every once in a while.
Businesses that care about service (and act that way) develop a loyal following. You can take that service to your blog with useful and/or funny articles.
How to be useful
It’s nice to be interesting or clever but not when it comes at the expense of helping your clients and prospects. If you’re only delighting your own artistic senses, your blog will lose readers quickly. Instead, be practical. Tell them how to do something they need to know. Talk about decision-making factors for purchasing a whatchamacallit. Give them something to think about that can change their lives for the better.
In part 2 of this series, we go over 5 ways to come up with useful blog topics but first let’s get into the funny business.
One question to guide humour in your business blog: does it pass the Ellen DeGeneres test?
Ever notice that some people who aren’t funny think they are? Sometimes attempts at humour go awry for innocent reasons and that’s fine. Other times, mean-spirited and nasty comments are defended as funny. And though sometimes they are, a business blog isn’t the place for humour that leaves a poor impression.
Okay, but what next?
‘Don’t be nasty’ isn’t useful as a humour-decision tool. Instead, ask yourself, “Would Ellen DeGeneres say this?” If you use Ellen as the North Star of hilarity, your attempts at humour will be good-natured, open-hearted and life-affirming. People like that and they’ll like you for bringing good vibes into their day. Not sure what Ellen would do? Take 10 minutes to study this Charisma on Command video about what makes Ellen funny and likeable.
One recommendation for including humour on your business blog
You and your team aren’t likely professional comedians so don’t think of your blog as having two overarching categories: useful and funny. Instead, go for useful articles and pepper in the funny. Sometimes, something funny can take centre stage but it won’t be often. Unless you’re Steve Martin.
Now you have two guiding principles—usefulness and light laughs—as the foundation of your blog. But what’s next? Stay tuned for part 2 where we talk more about creating a blog to serve your audience.
I'm Andrea Bassett, an executive ghostwriter and content marketing writer in Toronto and I’ve spent the last decade serving executives.
I write thought leadership content marketing for executives and/or their content marketing teams. My specializations are corporate wellness, benefits, employee assistance programs, leadership & coaching, encryption & cybersecurity and strength training for seniors.
To talk about a content marketing project, call me at 647-502-3187 or send a note to andrea@redsailwriters.com.
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