I’m Sorry, What Is It You Just Said in Your Business Blog Writing?

"What I see as the most pressing reason that websites don’t grab their visitor’s attention is that when someone arrives at your home page, it is not clear what problems you are solving and what it is that you offer," observes marketing blogger Phil Steele. The message needs to be obvious, Steele stresses, and the navigation also needs to be simple.

As a freelance blog writer offering corporate blogging training, the way I explain Steele’s point is that you must offer online searchers a treasure map. Remember, online readers have found their way to your blog precisely because there’s a match between the products, services, and information they need on the one hand, and what you have, what you do, and what you know on the other. Now that they’ve arrived, you cannot afford to tax their patience by making it difficult for them to

a) understand what you’re saying and
b) navigate their way around your blogsite and website.

You recall the adage "Brevity is the soul of wit"?  Well, clarity is the soul of business blog writing. Not only is clarity vital to maintaining reader engagement, keeping online searchers from quickly "clicking away" to another website to find what they want, but clarity avoids misinterpretation of the message in each post of a SEO marketing blog.

In offering business blogging help, of course, I stress brevity, because effective blog posts focus readers’ attention on one main idea, offering information that’s useful and which encourages action. The reason clarity is so vital to the success of business blog writing, though, is that consumers reading the blog are not trained in whatever the company’s specialty is and therefore do not always know how to judge either  the significance or the intent of the information provided! 

"Being clearly heard by our customers is what it is all about," Steel reminds us, "especially in a world where the information needs of our customer change so quickly."  In fact, the need to continually adapt is precisely why corporate blogging for business can be so effective a tool. Small and nimble, easier and much less expensive to create and change than traditional websites, blogs can provide new information with every post.

And, by achieving clarity in the blog post content, rather than "I’m-sorry-what-is-it-you-just-said?", blog content writers can achieve the "Aaah-that’s exactly-what-I-was looking-for" effect!