HOW TO MAKE YOUR BLOG ONE-OF-A-KIND IN A NICHE
With business blogging on the rise and generating more leads for B2B companies compared to those that don't blog, you might want to focus on your blog for more SEO benefits and long-term ROI for your business. However, it's not all that simple. It is true: a stellar blog can boost your sales. But it is also true that 53% of marketers consider blogging a #1 priority of their campaigns. More than that, 65% of marketers have increased their use of blogging this year. To cut a long story short, competitors never sleep. To overtake them, your business blog needs to be exceptional. It is not enough to write interesting articles, post them several times a week, and share updates on social media. Everyone does this.
Not very inspiring, huh? Why then do some business blogs stand out, get noticed, and start generating more conversion than traditional marketing efforts? What makes them rock? And what can you do to get into the top league with your blog and make it one-of-a-kind in your niche? Keep reading to find out.
NO FREELANCERS
Blogging is time and energy-consuming, and that is why most marketers delegate content creation to remote writers. If you hire freelancers to write posts for your business blog, I have bad news for you: Your blog will never sparkle.The problem is, no one knows your product or service better than you. They may be great writers, but freelancers are still not competent enough to create a comprehensive, in-depth content for your niche.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Engage in-house employees. Working in your niche, they know it inside out and can provide you with interesting data or facts from behind-the-scenes of the niche. Even if the copywriting is not absolutely perfect, such content outshines wishy-washy, samey texts found in most blogs. Publish articles from experts only. Guest blogging is a great way to generate content for your business blog but, as with freelancers, be careful when choosing guest writers. If you want to make your blog one-of-a-kind, accept posts from niche experts only.
COMPREHENSIVE CONTENT ONLY
Sorry, but great content doesn’t work anymore. Exclusive does.
According to Dr. Carmen Simon, people forget 90% of what you share with them. In today’s world of information overflow and content shock, when every Tom, Dick, and Harry has a blog and believes they might be helpful to others, we all need content that is actually useful. For your blog to be exceptional in the niche, you need to generate posts which are in-depth, data-driven, and actionable. To win the audience, your blog should teach, solve problems, and give something no one else has. So, no rewrites, no poor paraphrasing of competitors, no generic articles, and no topics other than those related to your niche. A great example is Neil Patel's blog. His research-based long reads on topical issues, written with an authoritative opinion, and presenting valuable knowledge to the audience, are what makes Neil stand out.
SHOW, DON'T TELL
Your comprehensive content attracts visitors and drives traffic to your business website. But what makes people stick around, read rather than scan, and finally convert? Use the techniques of content creation to hook the audience and hold their attention. For your business blog to stand out, forget about writing baseline descriptions and widely known copybook maxims. Instead, show them how to solve their pain points. Make good use of visual storytelling, which enables readers to experience your content through feelings, actions, and visuals.
OKAY, STORIES FIRST.
We retain 70% of information through stories and only 10% from data. Remember those page-turner books you couldn't stop reading? They grabbed you because you felt the story truly happened. It evoked an emotional response from you and a connection with the book’s characters and author. The same works for brands: consider storytelling techniques when writing your blog posts, and your audience will resonate with them.
You don't need to be Stephen King or Ernest Hemingway to craft stories. Just define these key moments:
- What is the problem you are solving?
- What was the insight that inspired you to start?
- What do you do to fix the problem?
- What is your mission?
In her blog, Henneke Duistermaat best described the process of connecting all four moments to eyebrow-raising stories. And the brilliant proof of this technique's efficiency is Jon Morrow's post "How to Quit Your Job, Move to Paradise and Get Paid to Change the World." It became the most shareable post at ProBlogger and touched the hearts of more than five million people.