10 Ingredients of a Tasty Blog

You ready to start a blog for your business, AWESOME!  Now you want to make sure you are creating one that is not just read/consumed BUT devoured/savored.

 

 

Let’s look at the 10 ingredients you want to make your blog eaten up like a hot pizza on a Friday night.

 

1 –  Strategy. Why are you blogging?  What is the result you want from blogging?

• Brand awareness
• Customer Service
• Grow Your Expertise

When you start off with the end goal in mind and make sure you are consistent with your business goals then you will have a great crust to start that Pizza.

2 – Who’s In Charge. Are you writing every post.  Do you have people in the company who can contribute.  Is this an opportunity to get a college intern.  Make sure your goals stay clear and focused-what is expected of your internal Blogger/bloggers. What are you expecting of them or yourself? You want to know how many cooks are in the kitchen and who is putting in the salt.  How many cooks do you need in your kitchen?

3 – Editorial Calendar. Create a calendar of topics first then lay them out according to the needs of your customers.  Do you customers have different needs in winter than spring?  Can you coordinate your post to coincide with events like Mother’s day or SuperBowl?  this also makes it easier to write the actual posts.  When you know what is expected you can deliver with more reliability.  This is your recipe, do you cook without knowing the ingredients?

4 – RSS subscriber buttons. This is what helps your readers subscribe to your blog and make it easier for them to connect with you.  A simple way to use RSS is to open an account with Feedburner , there are instructions how to use and how it is beneficial.  Giving your readers their choice in how you deliver their pizza to them is what a RSS will do for your blog.  They can subscribe via email or a feed reader.  So whether they want take out or dine in, they are in charge.

5 – Who Are YOU? Laugh if you may, how would you like it if your prospect says this make sense lets see who is telling me this message AND then they can’t find anything about you anywhere.  Can you say SLAM the DOOR?  They will leave and slam the door on you and any business you could have acquired.  Simple about US page.  Like the description on the menu telling you what is in your pizza, that’s how your about page helps your blog.  Keep them informed means keeping you FULL

6 – What Are People Saying. Comments are one way your readers talk with you.  It is a great place to learn about needs they have you might not have thought of before.  It is a place where they feel they are a part of the family.  Like Cheers, everyone wants you to know their name, so make sure you are responding to all the coments.  This is non-negotiable. You wouldn’t let someone walk into your place of business and not acknowledge them and talk with them would you?  This is the sauce to your pizza, without it your pizza is dry and uneatable.

7-  Connect Them with More Solutions. Point your readers to other solutions your business does not offer that are a part of what makes the solutions work well.  If you are an photographer and you write about how frames can make of break a picture, you want to give them resources to find frames.  Have a section of resources to show you are being helpful and it will go a long way in building your reliability. This is where they can add their own ingredients, do they like olives, or ham-more pepperoni?  Let them deiced what they want with their pizza and you will look like a Pizza King.

8 –  Use Images. Have you read those blogs with no pictures?  Like a college text book.  Puts everyone to sleep? Half your message is in your pictures.  Make sure you use good ones and without breaking someone’s copyright.  Plenty of stock photos available for pennies. Would you eat a pizza with no cheese?  It is what gives you satisfaction when eating a good pizza lots and lots of cheese!

9 – Please & Thank You. This is a MUST.  Are you using your social media manners?  Are you being personable?  Are you asking them their opinion?  Do you request their feedback?  Do you express thanks when they come visit, pass on your blog post or leave a comment?  Whether in your comments, acknowledging a Retweet or a Like, the little things go a long way  with people.  Here is your opportunity to serve them that pizza on a plate.  Your Momma taught you manners right?

10 – Leave Them Wanting More. You do not have to tell them the whole story all in one blog post.  Give them enough to answer their questions and pay attention to where you stop and can lead into the next blog post.  Like any good meal if you have to eat until you are so full you throw up , will you want pizza again?  Leave them satiated and wanting to come back for another tasty blogging meal.

If you business blogs what did I miss?  Do you have other ingredients for a good blog/pizza?  Which ones do you think are the most important ingredients?