You’ve decided that your company should have a blog. But do you know what kind of blog you want to launch? Will it be a “business blog,” or will it be a “niche blog?”

What’s the difference? And does it really matter?

Business-owned blogs offer many benefits including:

• relationships with potential customers
• increased visibility
• direct sales potential
• trust-building and thought leadership in your industry
• and so much more.

To get the kinds of benefits you’re looking for, you need to launch the right kind of blog. So let’s explore your two basic options.

Business Blogs vs Niche Blogs

What is a “business blog?”

This is a blog that’s meant to serve as a direct link between you and your customers. It’s where you share company news, announce product launches, offer special discounts for subscribers, post support updates, or focus on thought leadership pieces in your industry.

Now, what is a “niche blog?”

This is a blog about a specific topic, rather than being related to your company directly. It’s designed to educate, inform, or entertain its readers.

What Goes on Each Type of Company Blog?

Let’s look at how these kinds of blogs can differ. We’ll use a web hosting company as an example.

If a web hosting company was to launch a traditional business blog, its posts might include:

• sale announcements / discount offers;
• announcements about new service packages or improved resources for customers;
• maintenance and downtime updates;
• PR information, such as details about charitable acts and donations;
• answers to common customer questions;
• industry news about security threats that might impact its customers.

On the other hand, if the same web hosting company published a niche blog, its posts might include things more along the lines of:

• tips on choosing a web hosting company or getting your hosting account set up;
• comparisons of web hosting companies;
• tutorials on using common web hosting software (at least the software on their servers);
• other business tips and advice their target customers are interested in.

An easy way to think about the differences is this: “niche blogs” are about reaching readers interested in a particular topic, and “business blogs” are about connecting with customers (or potential customers) in a meaningful way.

No matter what type of blog is right for your business, it never hurts to bring a freelance blogger on board to help with the work. When you’re ready, get in touch and let’s talk about how I can assist with content strategy and blogging.

The post Should Your Company Run a Business Blog or a Niche Blog? appeared first on Pro Business Writer.

Here are three reasons you should consider pre-scheduling blog posts on your business blog:

1. Improve Efficiency

Sometimes you’re simply in the mood to write, you have a lot to say, or you have a nice flow going and you don’t want to waste it. At other times you need to get a blog post up but nothing comes to you. If you do most of your blog writing while you’re in one of those productive and creative stretches you can cut down on the overall time you spend blogging. But being virtually yappy one day doesn’t mean you need to send all of the posts live right away. Schedule them for future post dates instead (unless, of course, they’re incredibly timely and really need to go live right now).

2. Improve Quality

No one has “fresh eyes” immediately after drafting a blog post. That means you’re more likely to miss things when you proofread the post before publishing. The only way to get those fresh eyes is to walk away from the project between the writing and editing phases. If you’re writing evergreen content or at least something that can go up in a day or two, consider writing your posts a day or two before they’re scheduled to be published. Then you can proofread them and catch more errors before they go live to your customer base or other target audience.

3. Improve Consistency

When you pre-schedule blog posts you don’t have to worry about making sure you publish things at the right time each day or each week. Because things are written and scheduled early you can make sure each post is published as consistently as possible so readers know when to expect them (and you don’t have to rush out a blog post at the last minute, trying to stay on schedule).

Pre-scheduling blog posts could be a great idea for your business. But it doesn’t apply to every blogger or every blog post. If your blog is about timely stories (like a news commentary blog), you’ll need to put posts up shortly after writing them. But for most business blogs there’s a mix of content. So even if you can’t put up something like company news a few days in advance, your tips and advice can enjoy that cooling off period and you’ll still reap some of the benefits.

Are you ready to move forward with your content strategy and pre-schedule your posts? Contact me if you need a hand with content creation or planning.

The post 3 Reasons to Consider Pre-scheduling Blog Posts appeared first on Pro Business Writer.

But how can you make your business blog an authority blog in your niche? Here are a few tips to point you in the right direction.

Talk About More Than Your Company

There’s nothing wrong with company-focused blogs. For example, support blogs can be popular resources when customers need to be kept up-to-date on problems. Web hosts are an example of a group that tends to use this blog model effectively. But it’s not how you make an authority blog.

If you want people to see your blog as an authority source, you need to talk about things they care about rather than only talking about yourself. Major company news? Sure. But don’t plaster every tidbit on your business blog. Have a dedicated news section for that. For an authority blog, focus on giving insight into serious issues your customers and industry peers care about.

Don’t be Anonymous

There’s also nothing wrong with having more than one person write content for your company blog. But don’t go with the anonymous “we’re all one big group” mentality. If you want readers to trust your content and view you as an authority source, it’s better to include names. Some companies need to hire a professional blogger to help them out if they don’t have staff available to manage the business blog. If that outside writer is an authority source in their own right, make them by-lined rather than having them ghostwrite your blog content. If you have company reps well-known in the industry, try to get them on board with the blog. Any existing authority you can throw behind the blog can help.

Get the Head Honcho on Board

Sure your company’s owner, President, or CEO is busy. But precious little will lend more authority to your company’s blog than having the guy or gal on top directly interacting with readers. Even if they’re just an infrequent contributor and others manage the blog on a more regular basis, attention from them can get the attention of others.

These are just a few business blogging tips to get you moving in the right direction. Having your business blog recognized as an authority source of information in your industry can be the difference between blogging for the sake of blogging and seeing a real return for your blogging efforts.

Do you need help with your business blog? Hire a freelance blogger who can help you get the industry attention you deserve.

The post How to Make Your Business Blog an Authority Source in Your Niche appeared first on Pro Business Writer.

• Corporate blogs are a way to disseminate important and timely information to your visitors, customers, or other audiences about your company, before that information is sent out by someone else (and more directly than using a press release alone). This allows the company to appear more transparent with members of their market.
• Blogs offer benefits over other social mediums of connecting with a target audience due to the fact that editorial control (over posts and comment approvals) is in the hands of the company or their blogger.
• A corporate blog allows the company to be officially represented by an authority individual (CEO, other executive, etc.).
• Blogs are a natural networking tool, allowing a company and its owner to network with others in their industry (which can lead not only to connections, but also backlinks leading to targeted traffic and greater exposure).
• Blogs are usually updated fairly often, which search engines love. A well-optimized blog can help to draw in additional search engine traffic that might be interested in what the company has to offer.

Corporate blogging isn’t for all companies. Not all owners, CEOs, or executives are good bloggers naturally, and not every company will realize every benefit of business blogging. As with all things, know your market / audience, and tailor your efforts to them.

The post Benefits of Corporate Blogging appeared first on Pro Business Writer.

1. Using the business blog to present company news, or the owner’s (or other high level executive’s) take on industry news issues.

2. Using the business blog as a way to educate the public, and more importantly your target market, about your products, services, etc.

3. Using the business blog as a tool to offer free industry information or articles, as a means of then driving Web traffic to other areas of your business site.

By creating a business blog for any of those reasons, you also have a free or inexpensive, yet powerful, PR tool. There are a variety of public relations benefits to business blogging, such as:

1. The ability to disseminate news.

2. The ability to quickly and directly gather feedback from your target audience.

3. The ability to build a company or personal reputation as an authority source in an industry or niche.

In order to best take advantage of the PR benefits of blogging (sometimes referred to as the marketing benefits of blogging), it’s important to keep the blog honest and ethical by industry standards. As much as blogging can be a PR benefit, it can also lead to negative publicity just as easily (such as if you were to release false information or just hype about a new product release), so always keep your business motives in mind when deciding to launch a business or corporate blog, and when deciding whether to blog yourself or hire a ghost writer as your business blogger.

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