Ever felt like you’re writing for an audience of…one? Don’t worry – we’ve all been there.
While everyone says that content is still king, it’s only fair to admit that the crown only belongs to that content that’s actually read.
Otherwise, content is just a bad investment.
My agencies, Idunn and Copywritech, have helped dozens of small businesses create blog content that gets read, shared and, better yet, ranks high in search engine results pages.
But it hasn’t always come easy – not even to us. It has taken us a while to learn how to convert blog readers into paying customers. It all started with getting more eyes and, more importantly, the right eyes, on our content.
So, if you feel like you’re doing everything right: keyword research, creating long-form content that you know should draw more eyes, even adding the odd photo and promoting your content, but you still don’t get the results you wanted, keep reading.
Let’s take a look at the possible reasons why your company blog isn’t read as much as you hoped (disclaimer: uncomfortable truths coming up).
1. Your Blog Content Is Not Good Enough
Sorry to be harsh but you’ve been warned that this article won’t sugarcoat things.
Over 4.4. Million blog posts are published every day. EVERY DAY!
Sure, you can argue that not all of them are in your niche.
But do take into account the fact that we’re only talking about blog posts here.
You also have to add what magazines, newspapers or media outlets like BuzzFeed or BoredPanda push every day. The numbers are staggering.
Even those pieces that aren’t in your industry compete with your blog posts for user attention. And, say what you will about the likes of BoredPanda, BuzzFeed and their hundreds of clones but the truth is that even the busiest executives would sometimes rather take a test to see which character from Game of Thrones they are than read yet another business article.
The competition is steep and only the best survive. In other words: you need top notch content if you’re ever going to get a real readership.
How to solve it
Before publishing anything, ask yourself this: would I share this on social media?
Not as the author, of course. But as someone who’s just finished reading the article. Would you consider it relevant and good enough so that your connections enjoy it?
Did you go in-depth enough? Did you answer all the questions your topic raises? Did you offer enough sources, enough visual aids and a valid personal point?
Finally, is your writing good enough to hook someone from the first sentence?
If you can’t answer yes to all these questions, you have two options: invest in upping your writing skills or hire a content writing company to take things to a whole new level.
2. You’re Writing for You
This is a very common mistake – my team and I have actually been there in the early days of my business. You’re eager to showcase your expertise, so you write about things that interest you.
Or, even worse, you write about things that might interest your competitors, but not the audience you really need, aka those people that have the potential of turning into paying customers.
If your topics clash with your business goals, your blog will never be a success. Your readers need to see a consistency between what you’re selling and what you’re writing about.
How to solve it
Go back to the drawing board. Think about your buyer persona, their needs and wants. Which of their problems could you solve with your content?
Choose topics that are relevant to both you and your buyer persona. Solve real problems that you identify in social media, via your customer support department or even through asking your newsletter subscribers what they want to read about.
Case study time: Copywritech, the agency I run, managed to get the right readership to an iPaaS company by making significant tweaks to their content calendar. We dove deep into their audience to figure out what they want to read about.
The result? The content we planned and created for them helped them generate 50% more leads and close 25% more of those leads. You can read the full case study here.
3. No One Knows about Your Awesome Content
You’ve covered 1. and 2. flawlessly but you still don’t get enough visitors? The problem may be the fact that they don’t know where to find your amazing content.
In an ideal world, the moment you hit publish on a new blog post, readers flock to it and share it on all their social media profiles.
But this is not an ideal world.
So you have to do some extra work.
How to solve it
Don’t limit yourself to a plugin that shares your new posts to social media automatically. That isn’t nearly enough.
Here’s what to do instead:
- Promote each post on your social profiles several times. You want to reach more people and not everyone is online on the same day or at the same time. You could re-post the same article bi-weekly for at least a year if it’s evergreen content.
- Send it to your email list.
- Invest in social media ads. You don’t need a huge budget. Even $10 per article could make a world of difference. It can be enough to get the ball rolling and get you some of that coveted organic reach.
- Get really social: answer to questions and engage in meaningful conversations on social media – the kind that attract views to your business profiles.
- Tag the influencers you mentioned in your blog post.
- Link to each of your posts from other posts (inbound linking).
- Always follow SEO best practices when blogging.
Ideally, you should spend 20% of your time writing a blog post and 80% of it promoting it. Don’t worry – this is just until you get a sizeable readership. After that, promotion won’t take up that much of your time.
4. You Don’t Publish Consistently
Published three blog posts in September and then nothing until January? Not a good idea.
Sure, you can keep on promoting older posts on social media (see above) but your readers need consistency.
You don’t need to publish something new every day (although that would be ideal). But you do need a consistent publishing schedule.
Humans are creatures of habit. If they like a blog and decide to follow it, then they expect to see new content regularly. It can be once a week, once every two weeks or even once per month (although not ideal). However, it needs to happen regularly.
How to solve it
Think about how much you can realistically write. You don’t have to stretch yourself too thin. If you do so, you’ll either end up missing publishing deadlines or churning out poor quality content.
Create a content calendar and stick to it. Ideally, your content calendar should contain:
- Title or topic
- Main keyword
- Short outline
- Publishing date
- CTA
Once you have mapped out a few titles in advance (at least for the upcoming month), things will be much easier to track.
If you really want to make sure you don’t miss your deadlines, start by creating a few posts in advance. One to three posts should keep you covered in case emergencies appear and you have to focus on something other than writing for a short while.
Or, you can always hire someone to take content off your plate entirely. This way, you make sure that your content isn’t just ready on time but also of top quality.
Why Is No One Reading My Blog? Wrapping Things Up
Content writing is one of the most outsourced marketing activities, especially in the B2B industries. And for good reason.
Writing authority content that gets read and enjoyed is no easy task. It takes years of practice and a strong grip on marketing notions, as well as industry-specific knowledge.
If you feel like you’re not leveraging content marketing as much as you could be, it might simply mean that you need a bit of help. Trying to do everything on your own or with a small, in-house team isn’t the best solution.
In fact, the number one reason why company blogs fail is that their owners can’t afford the time a blog needs to work.
A great blog post takes between five hours and a few days to be written. And most small business owners simply don’t have that time.
If this sounds like you, take a look at our content writing and copywriting services. My team and I have helped dozens of small business owners meet their blog KPIs and we’d love to do the same for you.
