Blogging is undoubtedly one of the most effective ways to promote a business online. Blogging is becoming even more relevant each day as more and more businesses realise the importance of producing content and adapt a content marketing strategy. Today, blogging is fast becoming a vital element of any successful Internet marketing strategy.

There are distinct differences between blogging for business and blogging for personal reasons. When businesses invest valuable time and resources towards blogging, they expect to see results fast. This is usually increase in website traffic, enhanced brand visibility and new leads for the business.

Nearly 50% of small businesses now have a blog but not every business gets the expected results. Maintaining an active blog also requires significant investment in time and resources. For many businesses, the ROI can take very long to become noticeable. There are many things that can prevent your business from getting the desired results.  This article identifies some of the most common reasons why your businesses may not be getting the expected results from blogging. By avoiding these mistakes, you can ensure you can get the most out of your business blog.

Here are 21 reasons why your business may not be getting the desired results from your blogging efforts.

1. Writing For The Wrong Audience

Knowing your audience and writing for them in mind is essential if your want your business blog to succeed and attract the right visitors. You can learn from my mistake.

2. Not Using Your Blog to Generate Leads

Generating leads and acquiring new customers is an important objective for any business. Blogs offer an excellent potential to do this. Studies show a direct relation between publishing frequency and customer acquisition.

However, simply posting regularly is not sufficient to generate the desired results. It is important for businesses to make sure their blog is optimised for conversions. Displaying contact information clearly, effective call to action and lead capture forms and are just some ways to a business can generate leads and acquire new customers from its blog.

3. Not Using Your Blog to Build Your Email List

Blogs are a great way to build your email list fast. I personally find this to be one of the most important benefits of blogging for business.

There are many ways to leverage your blog to build your list. Offering a newsletter, encouraging readers to subscribe to blog updates, starting an email series or offering Webinars are some ways to do this.

4. Not Publishing at Optimal Times

The time and day of publishing plays an important role in determining the overall readership your content receives. Posts published in the mornings, for example, often get more views than late afternoons or evenings. Similarly, Monday to Wednesday seems to get more readership than end of the week. This can vary from blog based on several factors. Monitor your stats to find out what gets the best results for your blog and schedule your posts accordingly.

5. Publishing Less Than 3 Times Per Week

There is no ideal publishing frequency that applies to all business blogs. Every blog is different. Your publishing frequency is also affected by the time and resources your business can set aside for blogging. It is generally recommended that you publish at least 3 times per week.

6. Not Being Consistent

Consistency is important if you want to build a loyal following, particularly on business blogs. Being consistent offers several benefits. It makes it easier to meet the needs of your regular visitors and subscribers. Lack of consistency makes it difficult to build a following as your readers don’t know what to expect and when. This included consistency in when you post, the topics you write about, quality of your content, and more.

7. Writing For Search Engines

Publishing content that is aimed purely at influencing your rank on search engines is not likely to get the desired results. In fact, it can make your content appear as spam and be detrimental to your branding. Although it is important to make good use of keywords and optimise your content for search engines, it is even more important to write with your end users in mind.

8. Not Optimising Your Content

The ability to attract your targeted audience towards your business is an important objective for business blogs. Making sure prospects are able to find your content easily when searching on search engines or other content retrieval services is vital if you want your blog to be successful. Optimising your posts correctly is essential to achieve this.

9. Lack of Proper Branding

It is important for your blog to reflect the overall branding of your business. I have come across many blogs where it is difficult to find out that there is a real business behind the blog. Listing your contact details, displaying your logo clearly, including a good about page are some ways to reinforce your branding.

It is also important to have a consistent branding on social media, your company’s website and other digital as well as printed marketing material.

10. Not Crafting Interesting Titles

The title of your blog posts plays an important part in determining its success. Interesting titles motivate users to read your content and increase the overall readership. It also increases the chances of your posts going viral on social networks.

You can also take advantage of list posts and how to articles as they tend to be popular among readers.

11. Stealing Content

Copying other people’s content without permission is one of the biggest mistakes you can make in blogging. This not only applies to text but also to images, citations or other statistics that you include or reference within your content. There is nothing wrong with referencing relevant data or external content. In fact, it is recommended to do so as it improves the overall quality of your content. However, it is important to credit the source and include a back-link where feasible.

12. Not Making Your Posts Easy to Scan

Most readers do not read the entire content on a web page. Instead, users prefer to scan through a web page, reading parts that they find most relevant and useful. Good formatting including paragraphs, line breaks, bullets, headings and sub-headings, is a very effective way to make your content easy for readers to scan.

13. Self Promotion

Blogs are not designed as a direct marketing tool to promote your business. There are other more effective ways to do that. Blogs should be used to share quality information with your targeted audience. The real purpose is to build a following, establish your expertise and create brand awareness, and not to market yourself directly. Not using your blog for direct marketing is important if you want your blog to be successful.

14. Not Staying the Full Course

It takes time before the true ROI from blogging becomes noticeable. In my case, it took me over a year before I could see the benefits clearly. Today, after a few years of running a blog for our business, the results cannot be more prevalent. Over 80% of our entire website traffic is generated by our blog and significant share of leads and new customers are also acquires through our blog. I have come across many small businesses that give up or fail to maintain momentum after a few months.

15. Not Syndicating Your Content

To get the best results from your blog, it is very important to syndicate your posts to several external websites and social networks. This is typically done with the help of your RSS feed. Most social networks including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn allow you to share your new posts automatically by adding your RSS feed. You can also use external tools such as Twitter Feed or HootSuite to syndicate content automatically on several social media sites.

You can also add your feed to various RSS directories and feed aggregators like My Blog Catalogue, and more. The more places you syndicate your posts, the more coverage and traffic to your blog will receive.

16. Not Using Google Keyword Tool

Google Keyword Tool is a very useful asset to get the desired results from your blogging efforts. It helps at various stages of blogging. I find it very useful to run my titles through the tool to ensure I choose the right title – one that users are actually searching for. I also find it useful to get ideas for new topics to write about. I simply enter a topic or title, and it returns an extensive list of suggestions together with search volumes.

17. Not Promoting Your Blog Actively

There is more to business blogging than simply publishing content regularly. To get maximum benefit for your business, it is important to market your blog and to take steps to promote your content. Not promoting your blog effectively will result in missing out on potential traffic and resulting leads

18. Not Realising The Full Potential of Social Networks

Social media and blogging go hand in hand. Social media is not only useful for promoting your posts but is also the ideal medium for engaging your audience and starting a conversation around your content. Successful blogs are great at leveraging social networks. Make it easy for readers to share your content by using the right social plugins and features on your blog and take steps to encourage participation. It is also important to use the right tools that let you share content across several social networks with ease.

19. Not Networking With Others

Networking with others is vital for the success of any blog. If you are not actively networking with other bloggers or connecting with others on social media, you are missing out on the potential to build a following and obtaining the best possible reach for your content.

20. Not Engaging With Your Readers

If your business is not putting effort into engaging with your readers, you are missing out on the opportunity to interact with your customers and building a community. Cultivating relationships with others is a key benefit of blogging and it is important for businesses to take advantage of it. Offering interactive features, responding promptly to comments and feedback are some ways to do this.

21. Not Leveraging Guest Posting

Almost all successful bloggers I have come across agree that guest posting is vital for a blog’s success. This includes both, making guest contributions on other blogs relevant to your niche and inviting contributions from guest authors.

Conclusion:

Like any other business activity that require investment in valuable resources, businesses expect to see a quick ROI from their blogging efforts. Discussed above are some of the main reasons why many business blogs fail to see the desired results from their blogging efforts. By addressing these concerns, you can improve the chances of your business blog succeeding and get better results.