6 blogging tips for Chartered Surveyors

The business blog is becoming increasingly popular with companies large and small, but just having a blog doesn’t mean that you will be delivering results for your organisation. Here are five quick tips for getting the best return for your business out of your blogging.

1. Be Consistent

Everyone’s excited and supportive about the blog when’s its first suggested in that initial marketing meeting, but that initial excitement soon fades when everyone realises the need for regular content.

Consistency is the key to a successful blog. Ideally put an editorial plan together for the coming quarter so there is logic to what you post and enables you to prep for the future.

Setting the regularity of your posts is important – too little and you won't make an impact, too much and you’ll be seen as a nuisance. Really, you only want to be doing something once or twice a week, anymore and you’ll be flooding your audience and chances are they won’t read them. Remember, you’re not the only one blogging, so think of quality, not quantity.

2. Your Blog Is Not Another Promotional Channel

Tempting, as it may be to shout about how wonderful your commercial property practice is, doing so will only be counterproductive.

Channels such as blogs and social media platforms should not be seen as another promotional channel. These platforms are about delivering value to your audience. Look to provide insight and information that is useful and relevant about the commercial property market.

Continual self-promotion will only result in your blog being seen as no longer credible, useful and it will start to lose readers. Experts advise on anything between 75-90% of your posts being purely informative.

3. The Power Of The Picture

You may write the most insightful page of prose, but it's a picture that will grab your audiences’ attention and encourage them to read your blog posts. Multiple images in a post can also bring the words to life.

Take time to find the best images, but be mindful of copy write law.

4. SEO

Google loves content that's relevant and constantly changing, so a blog will help no end in getting you higher search rankings, but make sure you get your priorities right.

Write for humans first and Google bots second. Copy that's too heavily optimised will be hard to read, not engage and ultimately drive traffic from your website.

5. Engage With Your Audience

Blogs and social media are not broadcast channels. They foster engagement and dialogue, enabling you to interact with your audience and build relationships. In turn this can help you develop your authority on any given subject as well as learn more about your market and your audience.

If you are lucky enough to get feedback on blog posts – good or bad – make sure that you acknowledge this. It will give you the opportunity to provide further help, establish your authority and start a dialogue.

Philip Burrows, Marketing Consultant