Blogging for Business—the Crucial Preparation Phase

Pre-reading task

You are going to read an article about the importance of planning and preparation when blogging for business. Before you read， think about your own company. Does it have a blog？ Do you know who it is aimed at？ Is it popular？ Can you think of any ways in which it could be improved？

A

If you want to get your business noticed online， simply having a website is no longer enough. Unless you have an extremely specialised product or service， the chances are that hundreds， if not thousands， of your competitors are fighting for your customers’ attention. They are all desperate to be on the first page of results for the world’s major search engines. Optimising your website using keywords and back links from other sites to get Google or Bing to notice you will only get you so far. A regularly updated blog can take you the rest of the way. If your business learns how to blog effectively， it will strengthen relationships with your existing customers and bring new ones to you， building trust and reinforcing your brand. Get blogging wrong， however， and you’ll see little in the way of rewards.

B

As with any marketing campaign， running a successful blog requires planning and dedicated resources. This is no quick fix for shrinking sales figures. Your business needs to invest in a strategy that may not yield significant or easy-to-measure results for several months. Long before the first blog post goes live， it’s crucial to consider the who， what， where， when and how of blogging for business.

C

Do you have the talent and resources in-house to set up and manage a blog？ Even one blog post a week requires several hours of work. If you decide that an existing member of staff is your ideal blogger， make sure they get the time and training needed to do the job well. If you can’t spare the resources or simply haven’t got anyone suitable， consider hiring a freelance blogger or an agency to run your blog for you.

D

If you decide to use in-house bloggers， they must be able to write in an engaging， error-free way and some specific training in writing for the web will be necessary. Nothing drives readers away faster than dense blocks of text written in overly technical or formal language. Paragraphs need to be considerably shorter than they would on paper. Simple sentences using accessible language work best. There’s an art to writing headlines that make people click， and subheadings are vital to help readers skim an article and decide whether to read it or not. It’s also important to end with a ‘call to action’： tell the reader what you want them to do next. You could encourage them to leave a comment， sign up for a newsletter or ring your helpline.

E

If your company already has a website， it may have a built-in blogging facility. If not， it’s possible to create a blog under a sub domain of your main site and link directly to it from your homepage. If this sounds too technical， hire a web designer to set up and customise a blog to fit your brand. Bear in mind， however， that your in-house blogger will need to learn how to use blogging software to compile and publish posts， and to deal with reader comments. Your blogger should also learn the basics of Search Engine Optimisation （SEO） and how to find and link to relevant information and source images.

F

Depending on your resources and goals for the blog， you may decide to publish daily， a few times a week or less often. Remember that quality is always more important than quantity. That said， you should aim to publish a new post at least once a week， preferably on the same day of the week. There are two main reasons for this. One is that the search engines will notice the regular fresh content and treat your blog as more relevant and important than one that hardly ever gets updated. The other is that people are creatures of habit and your regular readers will come to expect a new post to arrive in their inbox on a certain day and， if you’re doing it right， look forward to reading it.

G

‘Content is king’ is a phrase that’s constantly referred to in blogging circles. No one cares what the director had for lunch， unless your company specialises in certain foods. Likewise， people aren’t going to read the blog if it’s a continuous sales pitch for your products or services. For people to want to actually read what you publish， your content needs to be of value to them. Try to provide the answer to a problem your target customers are experiencing. The more urgent their need to solve it， the better. This is the kind of information people use search engines to find. Look at common customer queries and the exact language your ideal clients use in forums to identify helpful topics and craft searchable headlines. Plan ahead and create a content calendar so that your blogger isn’t left staring at a blank screen with no idea what to write about. By scheduling your topics in this way， it’s easy to avoid repetition and to factor in seasonal and newsworthy events.

H

Blogging platforms may claim that you can create a free blog in a matter of minutes but a successful business blog needs plenty of preparation， resources and commitment. Planning for the long term is essential if you want to avoid the fate of the countless abandoned blogs that litter the internet.

You should spend about 20 minutes on questions 1–13 below， which are based on the reading passage.

Questions 1–5

This article has eight paragraphs， labelled A–H. Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings （i–ix） below. You do not need to use all the headings.

1. Paragraph B ______

2. Paragraph C ______

Headings

i. The cost of blogging

ii. When should you blog？

iii. Take a long-term view

iv. Spreading the word about your blog

v. Blog technicalities

Questions 6–9

Complete the sentences below. Use NO MORE THAN FOUR WORDS from the text for each answer.

6. There is an enormous amount of competition for attention on the internet if you don’t have a particularly ______ product or service.

7. Getting other websites to link to yours and including words and phrases that are commonly used as search terms are two ways of ______ for better searchability.

8. An alternative to having an existing member of staff write and run your blog would be to employ a ______.

9. When reading information online， people tend to avoid ______， especially if the language is complicated.

Questions 10–13

Choose the appropriate answer （A， B， C or D） for each question.

10. Which of the following writing techniques are NOT suggested by the writer as good practice for bloggers？

A. Keeping sentences brief and uncomplicated.

B. Creating enticing headings.

C. Using bullet points.

D. Prompting the reader to take action.

11. According to the writer， businesses should publish new content …

A. on different days of the week.

B. whenever there is something relevant to write about.

C. as often as possible.

D. regularly and predictably.

12. According to the text， the most appealing content for your blog …

A. contains valuable information for your customers.

B. shows the human side of your business by sharing staff eating habits.

C. highlights the most important features of your products.

D. contains images or video.

13. According to the writer， setting up a business blog …

A. is a quick way of gaining new customers.

B. only takes a few minutes.

C. requires preparation and planning.

D. should only be done by professionals.

Answers

1. iii; 2. viii; 3. ix; 4. v; 5. ii; 6. specialised; 7. optimising your website; 8. freelance blogger; 9. dense blocks of text; 10. C; 11. D; 12. A; 13. C