The success of your business blog is dependent on multiple components, and three of the most important components are: brand, design and usability.
Think of it this way — your business blog content is only as good as how it is received by visitors. That means you need to not only write shareworthy content, but you also need to adhere to your brand promise by presenting a business blog that is well-developed and designed. In other words, brand, design and usability must live cohesively in order for your business blog to be the best it can be.
Let’s look at those three keys to business blogging success more closely:
1. Brand
Your business blog is an excellent channel to communicate your brand promise, messages and image and enables you to connect with and build relationships with consumers around the world. It gives you a unique opportunity to develop loyal brand advocates who will help you spread the word about your brand, defend your brand, and build your business both on and off the social web. Follow the link to learn about business blogging and brand building.
2. Design
Your business blog design creates an immediate perception in consumers’ minds about your brand and instantly creates expectations for the business behind that blog. It’s essential that you invest the time and money necessary to design a blog that clearly communicates your brand promise. For example, when I created my blog for women working in the field of business, Women on Business, one of my goals was to bridge the gender gap that’s inherently part of the business world. Therefore, I avoided using pink and other overtly feminine elements in the design. Ensure that your blog design is appropriate for your business, brand and audience for maximum impact.
3. Usability
Your business blog should be easy to use. In other words, it should load quickly, have clear navigation, and just work. For awhile, every new website and blog was filled with flash animation, pop-up ads, and other nifty features that seemed cool but really only hurt the user experience on the site or blog. That’s because people want to be able to find the information they want or need quickly. The Internet is a cluttered place and people are fickle in their travels across the web. If they can’t find the information they’re looking for on your business blog quickly, then they’ll leave and find another blog to suit their needs.
For example, visit the Walt Disney World website when you have a few minutes (or perhaps many minutes). This is a perfect example of a website that is simply not usable. It takes forever for pages to load, often they load incorrectly, and it’s simply a cumbersome site to navigate due to all the extra animation, features, etc. cluttering every page. I love Disney. I live near Disney World. I have reasons to visit the Disney World website often (e.g., to check park hours, make dining reservations, etc.), but I dread every time that I have to visit because I know I’ll end up annoyed and spending five times longer than I should have to in order to accomplish a simple task. That’s exactly what you want to avoid on your business blog, so invest both the time and money necessary to ensure your business blog is very usable.
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