How to Make a Blog That People Will Actually Read

25Feb

Contrary to popular belief, more goes into writing a blog than banging on a keyboard for 45 minutes every couple of days. It’s a lot of work and effort, but these are mandatory sacrifices for having a quality blog that your audience enjoys!

I’ve never been a fan of vague advice, so I’m going to walk you through the specific things and people you’ll need to have a great blog. Let’s get started!

1. Research
Nobody is interested in your surface-level analysis. If you’re not doing real research on your topic, then your audience has probably heard the same tired take a thousand times before. Really dive in! That extra effort will pay off when you’re able to offer nuanced perspectives that are actually valuable to your audience!

It’s also going to save you time in the long run since it’ll be easier to write once you have a lot of ideas floating around in your head. You can’t bleed a stone, and you can’t write a blog if you don’t have a comprehensive understanding of the topic!

2. Edit
When you’ve gotten the first draft of the blog written, it’s tempting to breathe a sigh of relief and step away from the keyboard. And that’s fine, provided you come back to the draft with a critical eye. No matter how well-written or well-researched you think the blog is, there are certainly going to be edits that need to be made.

I always suggest giving yourself a minute to breathe then going back and editing the draft yourself. Consider whether or not the information is presented in the most logical order, make sure there aren’t any awkward sentences, and overall just polish it as much as you can.

Then hand it over to an editor.

No matter how well you think you’ve edited your draft, I promise you you’ve missed something. And it’s not your fault! You wrote the draft, so it’s naturally harder to notice issues because your brain fills in the gaps that you might have forgotten to write down. Having another editor ensures that the blog makes sense to more people than just you, so I’d strongly advise you to never publish anything that hasn’t gone through editing (preferably multiple rounds)!

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3. Visuals
A good blog goes beyond just having great text. Without visuals, your blog isn’t going to be half as appealing. After all, who’s inspired to learn more by a wall of text? Nobody! I recommend having at least one image at the top of each blog post; something related to the topic that clues your reader into what you’ll be talking about while making the page more aesthetically pleasing.

If you plan on sharing your blog on social media (which you absolutely should), you’ll need visuals to accompany the post! Plain text is less likely to get clicks, so having an accompanying visual for your post is key to getting people reading your blog.

Where do you find these images? There are several free sites with stock photos, and some of my favorites are Pixabay, Unsplash, and Pexels. These are all great resources for finding visuals, but if you want to make them unique to your brand, they’re going to need some editing. I highly recommend that you delegate that task to a graphic designer who will be able to match your brand’s style!

Blog Away
Creating a blog is a pretty big deal, but now you know everything you need to be successful with it. If you want your audience to take you seriously, a blog is a must-have. Use this advice to make sure your new blog is successful and adds value for both your business and your audience!

Do you still have questions about how you can get a blog up and running? Schedule your consultation with The Go! Agency and we’ll talk about it!

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Why You Need a Blog

By Christopher Tompkins

20Feb

Copywriting

If you’re reading this, then you already know that blogs are great! They spread useful information and act as industry-specific news sources. Just because you like blogs, though, doesn’t mean you understand why your business needs one, specifically.

That’s why I’m here! I personally know how great a blog can be for a business, so I’ll explain some of the advantages of blogging that you’re missing out on!

Establishes Expertise
A blog is a platform in which you can show your audience how much you know. Sure, I can go on Twitter and tell you that I’m a great marketer, but why would you believe me without some proof?

Hence, a blog! I delve into topics related to my industry and get to show my audience that I know what I’m talking about. This way, it’s harder to write me off as another internet blowhard, and you’re more likely to take me seriously.

This isn’t exclusive to me, though—virtually every business’ blog works this way. If you’re going to claim to be an expert in your field, you’ll need to show some industry know-how and insight! A blog is the perfect platform, since you can tailor it to your business’ unique interests and voice!

Gives You Content to Share
If you’re really trying to promote your business, you might not want to link to outside sources like news articles. After all, you worked hard for those clicks, and you want them to go to your site. If this sounds familiar, setting up a blog is a great idea!

Your audience gets the news they need, and you get to keep them on your website. This makes it more likely that they’ll look around your website, which in turn means better odds of converting your visitors into customers! You’ll find that this strategy is far more preferable than just inundating your audience with endless promotions!

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Keeps Your Readers Engaged
Whatever your online marketing strategy is, it can’t be entirely comprised of promotions for your business. Your audience needs something to keep their interest, and blogs are a great tool for that. Since you’re presumably marketing to people who are interested in relevant topics in your industry, writing timely blogs is a great way to create value for your audience by offering them your unique insight on these issues!

Balancing out your promotions with valuable blog posts is a great way to make sure your audience isn’t just tuning out your posts. And on sites like Facebook, the more attention they’re giving to your interesting blogs, the more likely they are to have your promotions appear organically on their newsfeeds!

Helps You Stick With Your Marketing Schedule
As a professional marketer, you should have a set marketing schedule. For example, what you share in April should build on what you shared during March, and all of it should come together to make a cohesive buyer’s journey for your audience.

Blogging is a great way to develop topics for your schedule! When your social media updates and blog content are all presenting a cohesive message, it makes it much easier to get your point across to your readers. Having more places for your audience to see the message of your content marketing strategy is never a bad thing!

It’s Worth the Time
I hear a lot that people are too busy to blog, and I can’t help but wonder how busy you’d have to be to give your digital marketing strategy less than 100%. If you want to have digital marketing support your business’ goals, then having a blog really is non-negotiable. Blogs are a lot of time and work, sure, but there’s no denying that they’ll help your business!

Are you interested in discussing how a blog can help your business? Schedule your free consultation with The Go! Agency!

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SEO for Amateurs: What, How, and Why

By Christopher Tompkins

16Jul

SEO

If your brand has a website, you have probably heard of SEO. This concept is frequently mentioned, but rarely discussed in lay terms. What is it? How does it work? Why should you care? We’re here to break it down and help you understand how to make it work for you.

The What

Search Engine Optimization (a.k.a., SEO) is the process of optimizing the content of your website for search engines (shocking, we know). People rarely look past the first few pages of search engine (let’s be honest, of Google) results, so the closer your website is to the top of that first page , the better. SEO is considered “organic,” in that you are not paying a search engine for your rank.

The How

Ask yourself how much you really want to know about SEO, because there is a lot of information to unpack here. At first glance, SEO might appear to be an ice berg: small on the surface, gargantuan beneath the waves. In reality, SEO is more like an ant hill: it looks simple enough above ground, but that unassuming mound of dirt hides an extensive and intricate network of tunnels guarded by hordes of zealous soldiers.

What we’re trying to say is this: SEO is surprisingly complicated. Here is a very brief, very broad overview of SEO mechanics.

Search engines (almost all of them, anyway) index sites using crawlers, computer programs that continually browse the internet. As crawlers travel the world wide web, they index and catalog all of the information they find. The search engine’s algorithm then sorts the findings according to two criteria: relevance and popularity. Relevance is influenced by myriad factors, including external links, meta data, and citations. Popularity is a factor because the algorithm–much like middle school students–assumes that popularity is a good indicator of value. (Generally, that holds true.)

You optimize your search engine rankings by incorporating keywords and key phrases into your website and content. How do you know which words are key? Well, what are the most common search terms used by your customers? What do people type into the search bar when they’re looking for your industry, product, or service? Some of this seems like it would be common sense (for example, a gluten-free bakery would use keywords and phrases like “gluten-free,” “gluten-free ingredients,” “celiac,” et cetera), but there are other aspects that you might miss (e.g., there is often an overlap between gluten sensitivity and other dietary restrictions). Most people use keyword research tools such as Google’s Keyword Planner or Keyword Explorer from Moz. SEO is more than stuffing your website with keywords and calling it a day. You must carefully integrate keywords into your content.

By the way, remember the ant metaphor? Much like the angry soldier ants who fiercely protect their queen and kin, Google doesn’t play. If there are indications that you’re gaming the system (keyword stuffing, manipulating back links, or any other black hat nonsense), you will be penalized. The algorithm won’t literally attack you, but you’ll lose rank. There is no appeals process, either: the only way to regain your standing is to reform your SEO practices.

The Why

There is no logical reason to abstain from SEO. A well-designed website is using at least a few keywords anyway–the process of SEO just ensures that the best keywords are being used. A brand has no excuse to avoid this powerful tool.

Need help with your SEO? Yeah, you do. Contact us today for a free consultation!

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Tools of the Trade: Let’s Get Creative!

By Christopher Tompkins

6Jun

Business, Content Creation, Facebook, Graphic Design, Instagram, Local Marketing, Marketing, Pinterest, Social Media

There are plenty of professional tools like Adobe Creative Cloud that can help you create amazing custom graphics and visuals for your social media profiles. However, if you don’t have a graphic designer on your team, those programs might seem a little bit intimidating. People who are new to social media marketing and veteran digital marketers who aren’t quite tech-savvy still have options! There are several tools that are quick to master and easy to use. Here are some of our personal favorites.

Canva
Primary Function: Design tool with a myriad of uses.
Pros: One of the most user-friendly tools available today. Enables users to collaborate with team members. Users can also create videos.
Cons: Users don’t have much creative freedom, as they are limited to Canva’s fonts and graphics. There are skills and programs that can help you circumvent this (e.g., creating a .png file with Adobe Illustrator and uploading it to Canva), but people who can do so would likely not need Canva in the first place.

Skitch
Primary Function: An application from Evernote that allows users to capture, share, and annotate screenshots.
Pros: Free. Intuitive. Easy to use. Quick.
Cons: Work cannot be saved to a local drive.

Pexels
Primary Function: Online source of free stock photos.
Pros: Massive amount of photos. Every photo is licensed under the Creative Commons Zero license–meaning that each picture is totally free and available for any legal purpose, whether personal or commercial.
Cons: Paid applications have even more photos.

Easel.ly
Primary Function: Create professional infographics from thousands of templates.
Pros: Easy to use. Intuitive. Lots of existing templates. Premium accounts are quite reasonably priced. Account options include one for companies who deal with sensitive data.
Cons: Free version has far fewer themes, images, and fonts.

Info.Gram
Primary Function: Data visualization tool that enables users to create interactive charts, infographics, maps, and more.
Pros: Designs can be interactive. Great for dealing with complex data.
Cons: Free designs require inclusion of its logo. The basic package does not allow rich text editing (no fiddling with fonts).

Prezi
Primary Function: Presentation software.
Pros: Cloud-based. Teachers and college students are eligible for free non-Public accounts. Mobile version is available.
Cons: Better suited to creative presentations (not great for, say, presenting the third quarter budget projections). The Public option is free, but public–anyone can view your work.

Piktochart
Primary Function: A tool that lets people with no design experience create professional-looking presentations, reports, posters, and infographics.
Pros: Cloud-based. Very intuitive. Suited for all experience levels. Over 200 templates are available. Lots of different options for accounts, including free basic plan.
Cons: The paid plans are a little pricey. Similar versions of some of the premium templates are available for free on other platforms.

Slideshare
Primary Function: A community for storing and sharing presentations, but also hosts documents, videos, and webinars. Owned by LinkedIn.
Pros: Claims to be the largest online community for sharing presentations. Cloud-based.
Cons: Freemium, meaning that you must purchase premium content and features.

There are hundreds of programs, applications, and tools available–these are just a few of our favorites. Each proves that you do not need an MFA in Graphic Design to create basic visuals for your social media branding materials.

We have a team of marketing and design experts who can take your branding materials to the next level!
Contact us today for a free consultation!

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3 Obsolete Practices All Social Media Marketers Need To Stop

By Christopher Tompkins

21Feb

Social Media

It’s 2018– let’s market like it. Social media marketing has been around for quite a few years now and as we’ve mentioned in previous posts, there are always new strategies that should be incorporated. On the other hand, there are also tactics that should be erased and left in the archives.

You should always make sure your brand is competitive and staying in-tune with the times. As a result, certain antiquated strategies may age your strategy.

Here are three techniques we recommend you should stop using and what we would recommend to do instead:

1. #Overload. For some time, many marketers felt the more hashtags the better. #As #a #result, #some #posts #looked #like #this. While you should ALWAYS use hashtags, you don’t want to clutter your content. Obviously, you don’t want to do that. No only does it saturate your content, but it annoys your readers. Additionally, it misses the point of hashtags, which is to incorporate searchable and vital keywords. You should chose 2-3 for Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn and 7-10 for Instagram.

2. Is that a blog or a novel? Let’s face it — people’s attention spans are not getting any longer. With that in mind, you should make your blogs shorter. Some marketers see blogs as an excuse to share extremely long articles. Even though these pieces may prove to be helpful, you’re likely to exhaust your reader and instead of getting a take away out of the blog, they’ll be annoyed. If you have a very long piece of writing you’re excited to send out, we recommend breaking it up into a series of blogs. That way you can share your thoughts without cutting down the copy. You will also engage your customers by promising the next installment in your series.

3. Making a tweet a party. Are you mentioning another social media user? Tag them! Are you mentioning them and the magazine they were just referenced in? Tag the magazine too! But after that, you should probably stop. Unfortunately, some people didn’t get the “three’s company” memo and waste their space with a ton of tagging. Not only will this annoy the people you’ve tagged, but your content’s quality will suffer greatly. We have seen this happen a lot when someone who is overly eager to get followers will tag everyone that had followed them recently. The result is a list of 10-15 tags per tweet, and with the new 280 character limit, it could be worse. If you feel inclined to engage with every person who follows you– an act we would not recommend– a simple private message is sufficient.

When social media first started, it was a bit like the Wild Wild West. There may have been rules, but not many followed them. As a result, you saw content like above. Make 2018 your year for professional content, writing that follows the rules of the web. Trust us, your customer engagement will come back to life if you avoid the above ideas.

At The Go! Agency, we are constantly restructuring our strategy to stay modern and in touch with the most effective marketing methods of today. We would love to work with you and give your brand a competitive edge.

Click here to learn how we can help: http://ow.ly/Qw4w30iqrhm

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How SEO and SMM Work Hand-In-Hand For Your Brand

By Christopher Tompkins

31Jan

SEO, Social Media, Social networking

Does your business need social media marketing?

Yes.

Does your brand need search engine optimization?

You bet.

While some marketers think these two online marketing strategies are completely separate, they’re actually just different parts of the same strategy to increase your brand awareness.

It’s time to set the record straight.

First off, let’s explore these two concepts.

Search engine optimization is a process which allows a web page to appear in the most viewable placing possible in search engine results. For example, if someone looks up “fishing supplies” on Google, Bing, Ask, AOL, or Yahoo, they will get a list of related web pages that feature fishing supplies. Businesses that incorporate SEO strategies will, in theory, appear above others.

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Social media marketing, on the other hand, is a tad bit different. Entirely different, actually. This method allows businesses to not only appear in search results on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest, but it also allows them to interact with customers through a variety of avenues. Marketers can represent their brand via profiles and pages. They can also share a constant stream of original and curated content, similar to an individual’s activity on these platforms.

We may be tempted to ask ourselves which one is better. SEO or SMM? Well, these two are not competitors. Instead, they cater to completely different aspects of the online marketing industry. The two are essentially completely different crafts despite contributing to the final product of increased online visibility.

That being said, social media marketing contributes to online marketing efforts in ways that SEO, in its nature, cannot. Here are the top advantages social media has over SEO:

Immediate customer and audience communication.Businesses on social media have the ability to respond to customers who are trying to reach out via messages, tagging, tweets, etc. After all, it is social media.
The ability to send out constantly fresh and updated content. SEO allows you to be in the spotlight in search engine results. Social media allows you to be in the spotlight of social media news feeds. The average Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram user checks their feeds multiple times a day, thereby increasing your chances of getting engagement.
Quick personalization and “damage control.”Are there negative comments about your business on social media? No problem. You can immediately respond to the “crisis” in a positive and professional manner. Does a negative comment pop up on search engines? You’re in for quite a headache.
The benefits of “peer reviews” and user-generated content.People like to read reviews from their fellow consumers. While places like Angie’s List and Yelp are helpful for this, social media is one of the most popular places for reviews and offers a special advantage- companies have the ability to respond and tell your side of the story, whether the review is positive or negative.
Considerably less expensive promotional options. Social media isn’t completely free if you want to be successful. Facebook advertisements, for one, is a very helpful albeit paid service. Still, social media promotional services may prove to be inexpensive when compared to premium SEO options.

SEO, on the other hand, is an extremely important tool for online marketing because once you reach the top of the rankings it can keep sending highly tarted traffic to your website. It will take some time to climb the results pages, but the boost to your brand can be extremely valuable.

Effective SEO requires several strategies, from constant, fresh content to regular usability updates and link building strategies. These activities contribute to your site’s ability to attract customers and give them a reason to do business with you.

When it comes down to it, SEO is a visibility tool. SMM is a communication tool.

There is a place for SEO. No smart online marketer would say otherwise. It can help service-based businesses show up when people are searching for solutions.

However, SEO in no way replaces social media marketing. By representing your business on Facebook, Twitter, and the other platforms, you’re essentially giving your customers the opportunity to benefit your company by tagging your business, giving 5-star ratings, sharing your posts, and much more.

It’s a completely different marketing animal, and one that is proven essential for online brand awareness.

Editor’s Note: This blog has been updated and republished to reflect current information. The article was cleaned up, recommendations were reassessed, and references refreshed.

Coming Up With New Content Ideas

By Christopher Tompkins

Copy of Go! Blog Image Templates (900x350) (4)

17May

Content Creation, Copywriting, Local Marketing, Marketing, Social Media

Coming up with new content ideas for your website can start to get tough after a while. Once you’ve ticked off the obvious topics in your industry, you may find it a bit of a struggle to come up with new ideas.

It doesn’t seem to get any easier either. The more you write, the less there is to write about.

The upside is that this creative chasm can challenge you to come up with more engaging content that isn’t on every other website in your industry. The downside is that coming up with ideas takes a little more work.

Below are a few exercises and routines we follow to keep ourselves inspired. To lessen the work of idea creation.

1. Start With An Image

Whenever we make a piece of content, we also make an image afterward. Whether it’s a blog post or a social media update, once the copy is done, we move on to the picture.

But who says the copy has to come first?

Sitting down to create an image without any copy to restrict you is a great way to find some inspiration. Once the image is done, you can allow that to inspire your copy.

Ask yourself, “What type of article would this image be good for?”

2. Read

A good writer is also a good reader.

We write about marketing, so we also read a lot about marketing. News articles, emails, blogs, social media posts, and books. Reading the views of others in our industry keeps us in the conversation and aware of current trends.

But we also dip outside of marketing too. Marketing, like many other industries, is something that can be relevant to many other things.

Whenever we find out about a new idea or a new trend, we wonder, “Can this be applied to marketing?” This can often lead to inspiration for content.

Could the last book you read apply to your industry in some way? Does a trend in the news also point to something in your own industry?

If the answer is yes, you’ve got something to write about.

3. Take your time and forget about inspiration

Inspiration is the strangest thing. The more you try to grasp it, the further it seems to be.

One exercise we often do on team building days is we ask our Go! Agents to come up with an interesting fact about themselves.

Most of the time nobody can think of anything. They’re stumped. But all of our staff are creative and interesting people, so why is it so hard for them to come up with something?

The issue is, nobody likes to be put on the spot. When you force yourself to come up with an idea that’s exactly what you’re doing. The hardest way to come up with an idea is to think, “Idea, idea, idea!”

Our best ideas happen when we’re not trying to come up with them at all. When we’re driving home, taking a shower or just before we go to bed.

It’s good practice to carry a notepad with you so you can collect ideas. Even when your deadline is weeks away.

As counter-productive as it seems, not thinking about coming up with an idea makes ideas appear on their own.

4. Revisit Old Content

After my last tip, I’ve either got you nodding your head, or I’ve completely lost you. You might be frantically screaming at your monitor, “I NEED AN IDEA RIGHT NOW!”

Maybe you have a deadline in 2 hours and you haven’t even started your piece yet. Worst of all you can’t seem to find any idea at all.When this happens to us, we always find it’s good to revisit our old content. Often this helps to remind us of old ideas.

But at the same time, creating content that is a direct response or follow-up to old content can be a winner.

One thing we like to do is find our most popular older content and write another post that expands on it. If lots of people loved your post about skincare tips, chances are they’re hungry for more!

The best thing about this is you’re giving your audience more of what they want. So your content is defined by others instead of yourself.

4 Ways Simplicity Is Best For Social Media

By Christopher Tompkins

9May

Social Media

When people log on to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or another platform, they are immediately bombarded with enough content to make their head spin. With millions of tweets to read, comments to like, and live videos to stream, just viewing social media could be a full-time job! This, in a nutshell, is why simplicity is key.

People do not have time to try and decipher your message. They like clear-cut, concise ideas that are presented in the most convenient fashion possible. How can your brand adapt this simple philosophy?

Check out these 5 methods of keeping things simple with your online marketing.

1. Short, punchy sentences.

When you are writing social media content, take a step back and try to determine which words are absolutely necessary. Take out anything extra and while you’re at it, replace weak words with stronger ones. This will help your message get across in a reader-friendly fashion.

2. “Iconic” imagery.

A rule of thumb in the world of graphic design is “if your design can’t be recognized when it’s on a billboard and you’re speeding by a 70mph, then it’s not an effective design.” Simplicity is the answer for designers and as such, your visuals should be instantly recognizable as online viewers “speed scroll” through their news feeds.

3. Call to actions.

Don’t make your readers have to go very far to visit your website. Provide a link and most importantly, make sure it takes them to exactly where you want them to go, whether a homepage, landing page, contact form, etc.

4. Numbers and bullets.

Imagine this article without these ideas being broken down into numbered points. It would be just a blocky mess. Breaking down information, specifically blogs and social media articles help your reader to take easy, digestible bites and understand the overarching takeaways.

So, let’s not waste any more time. It’s simple. Get to work on social media marketing!

Need help with social media? Contact us today!

Build Up Your Flock: 5 Ways To Be The Top Bird On Twitter

By Christopher Tompkins

27Oct

Advertising, Business, Copywriting, Social Media, Social networking, Tailwind, Twitter, Uncategorized

Since its incarnation in 2006, Twitter has become a major social media marketing staple. Few businesses use social media for marketing without utilizing the microblogging platform. We call it “microblogging” because it mainly performs the feature of a regular blog, only at a microscopic scale. Are you able to tell your story with 140 characters or less?

Twitter is the place for speed, efficiency, and effectivity. You need to hit your readers hard and don’t let them forget it! Are you looking for the best ways to approach the platform that has over 310 million users?

1. Use an Image – EVERY TIME. Good news! Twitter no longer counts visual media against a tweet’s 140 characters. Because of this new advantage, you have no reason for a bland, image-less tweet. None. Make sure you incorporate eye-catching imagery, so people hone in on your update.

2. Analyze trends. Twitter is the king of current events. As such, incorporate contemporary happenings into your content. While treading controversial waters can leave you burned, there’s plenty of positive, unbiased news you can use.

3. Call Upon Your Team. The beginning of a successful social media marketing campaign is your team’s efforts. Ask them to help your marketers promote their brand with their own following. Their genuine marketing efforts can go a long way.

4. Consistency. There are several social media poisons. Radio silence is one of the worse. NEVER let more than two days go without a post. People will quickly move along to the next best thing.

5. Make Your Tweets Self-Contained. A common trend in the Twitterverse is to tell a longer story in a series of tweets. This is a big no-no. What happens if one of your tweets is read out of context? “(cont’d)We would love to see you there! Make sure to come early so you get a good spot so you can see…” Do you want something like that popping up on your feed? It’s against the laws of Twitter.

6. Promoted and Sponsored Tweets. There are paid options available on Twitter to give your marketing an extra boost. Once you have a grasp on how Twitter works, advertising is the next natural level.

7. Study Data. Don’t be a dodo. Study your current performance and see how you can improve. Is news related content doing better than promos? Maybe videos are getting more attention (they most likely are). You won’t ever know if you don’t look at your data at least once a week.

As you can see, Twitter is a bit like chess – easy to learn, hard to master. At the Go! Agency, our social media experts handle over 100 Twitter accounts for clients. Contact us today to discover how our expertise will land your company on cloud nine!

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5 Ways To Be A Terrible Blogger

By Christopher Tompkins

2Oct

Copywriting

Look at your online marketing as a multi-layer, albeit unified machine. Your website, email blasts, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and even your Angie’s List page should all work together. But there’s something missing. A blog.

This handy tool will help you speak your mind in a unique and customizable way. Hundreds of millions of writers already found a home on the internet as bloggers, but not everyone has perfected this art form. In fact, there are some downright awful blogs out there.

Does your company have a blog? It should! But before you sign up and start fooling around with your layout, be wary of these 5 BIG mistakes even the most experienced bloggers may find themselves making:

1. Going in blind. One of the greatest sins in the world of blogging is leaving massive gaps of time between posts. It’s the best way to lose all your followers. The most common reason for this is a lack of strategy. You just don’t know what else to write! While that’s understandable, it’s not acceptable. Before you publish that first blog, get a calendar and plot out a few weeks to a month’s worth of content. Don’t run out!

2. Isolating your blog. Remember what I said about your brand’s online marketing being a multi-layer, albeit unified machine? Don’t forget to promote your blog on your other avenues. Post about your new blogs on Facebook and Twitter, have a link on your website and spread the word via email blasts.

3. Being a copycat. Yes, everyone needs a spark of inspiration at times and tends to find it by reading other people’s work. But do NOT plagiarize their info. It’s a good way to get into a whole mess of trouble. If you need to reference another’s article, do so in a courteous and professional fashion.

4. Sloppy writing. I’m not just talking about typos or grammatical errors. (although you should definitely check your work. Have you tried Grammarly yet?) Before you hit the keyboard, get your thoughts straight. Stick to a solid plan, get your point across, and keep your thoughts in order.

5. Readers won’t learn anything. After reading a blog or article, a person should have taken away something from the experience. Whether it’s a new tip or a grudge against the reader’s opinions, your blogs should have an impact. Share knowledge, tips, tricks, and facts. Data always dominates (but make sure it’s correct). Whether people realize it or not, a blog tends to have an educational element at its core.

Are you ready to start blogging? It’s an integral part to a company’s online presence. Not a big fan of writing? No worries! The Go! Agency’s experience copywriters create powerful and knowledgeable articles for our clients every single day!

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