Why Your Business Blog Isn’t Working and What You Can Do About It

unhappy-man

Simple Tips To Boost Your Business Blog

You run a business, and you have a website with a blog.

But it doesn’t seem to be working.  You’re not getting more traffic and leads.  And engagement (likes, comments and shares) is zero.

Here is why it happens:

Most business blogs are lame.

They don’t educate, they don’t sell, and they don’t motivate people to take action.

The sad thing is that most business owners don’t understand the power potential of a blog.

And because of this, the blog sits there – a mere addendum to your website.  An afterthought, a shriveled appendage.

Welcome to the blog dead zone.  Your blog was unloved and unwanted because you didn’t understand how to make it work for you.

But don’t despair.  There is a way forward.  Yes,siree – I have good news for you today.

You CAN turn your blog into a rolled gold success story.

So let me show you the main reasons blogs fail, and how you can ensure you run your blog the right way for future prosperity.

Read on….

Why Blogs Fail and How to Make Yours a Winner

1. Lack Of An Overarching Narrative

story telling 2

Just as a movie has a narrative that fuses the plot and sub-plots into a meaningful whole, your blog needs a coherent narrative.

To put it another way.

Stay focused on your core message.  Then, intersperse it with subsidiary messages or themes that add to the core.

The core message should revolve around the pain points and hot buttons of your target market and your USP – Unique Selling Proposition.  If you haven’t got these three things figured yet, you need to sort it out quick.  See Point 4 for more illumination.

(I also wrote about these issues on my last blog post 14 Marketing Mistakes That Most Businesses Make)

2. No Call to Action

call to action

Every blog post needs a call to action.  Give people good, helpful content, and end the post with an offer and a call to action – an offer too good to refuse.

Some business owners hesitate to include a call to action because they don’t want to appear pushy or overly aggressive.  But you have every right to do it, especially if you’ve given them good content in the blog post.

Including a call to action is the next logical step for the reader – they want and need to be directed.

Scroll down for an example of my call to action.

3. Too Much About You, Not Enough About Them

WIIFM

Heard of WIIFM?  What’s in it for me?  Everyone is selfish, so give people what they want.  Above all, when you talk about your products and services always do it in a benefit laden way.

After all, your audience has problems (and hot buttons) – so how are you going to solve them?

Bottom line: Successful bloggers are always creating content that solves problems and offers a better tomorrow.

How Not to Do It

Here is an example of boring, ‘me focused’ content:

From a health coaching business:

“I’m a health coach who is experienced in helping people achieve better health outcomes. I’ve got certificates in nutrition and weight management, and people tell me that I am very knowledgeable.”

And my version after a makeover:

“If you’re like a lot of people I talk to, you’re not exactly feeling on top of the world right now.  So, I have good news for you today.  Here is a way to discover how you can transform your HEALTH and your LIFE, just like me.    Read on……..”

4. Clueless About Pain Points and Hot Buttons

pain points

I wrote about this topic on one my blog posts.  Here is partly what I said:

“There are two things you MUST do before embarking on an authority positioning program:

Understand the Pain Points and Hot Buttons Of Your Audience.

Think of your ideal clients.  What are their defining characteristics?   What keeps them awake at night?  What itch do they have that needs to be scratched?  Can you identify problems they don’t even know they have?   (That last one could be a game changer.)

Simple truth – if people have a pressing issue, they’ll do just about anything to get some relief.

If your business is about pain alleviation, you need to remind them of their pain, before you offer a solution.  Bringing out the pain is more than stating the obvious.  Sometimes you must go further.  You do it by pressing the exposed nerve till they MUST have relief NOW!”

Read the rest of the post here:  14 Marketing Mistakes That Most People Make

5. Poor Visual Appeal

visual appeal

Obviously, your website needs to look nice and professional.  But so does your blog content.

The layout is important.  So, structure your content in a visually appealing way.  Break up the text into smaller paragraphs and sentences, then remove all non-essential words.

Also, consider using sub-headings, indents, bullet points, italics, highlights, and bolded words/phrases.

6. Lack of Grabber Headlines

headline

You can’t get someone to read the content if the headline doesn’t catch their attention and draw them into reading your post.  Each blog post must have a compelling headline.  It’s not optional.  Examples of headlines that work are:

How to Headlines:

Example: How to Use Authority Positioning to Give Your Competitors Nightmares

Tale of Woe Headlines:

Example: Blogging Nightmares and Other Horror Stories

Pick a Fight Headlines:

Example: The Daily Blog Post Myth

List Style Headlines:

Example: Eight Ways to Convert Uncommitted Lookers Into Hot Leads

7. The Content Is Boring and Fails to Engage

bored person

Content does not need to be boring.  It’s ok to spice things up a bit.  Try using questions to get them thinking, and draw them into your post.

Another technique is to use stories.  Customer stories work great – people love reading them.  So create mini case histories, testimonial stories (build a story around a testimonial), and team member stories.

Stories don’t always need to be business related.  Sometimes it’s good to give people a glimpse into the lives of key individuals (including you) in your company.

Along with stories, metaphors work well.  For example:

“Just as a blocked blood vessel can cause sudden death, a blocked downpipe can cause premature failure of your roof.”

“Our success is the fruit of many years of careful planning and market research.”

“They’re plowing most of the profits back into the business.”

“Like a hot knife cutting through butter, our forensic accounting system will help cut waste from your overheads.”

8. Not Using SEO Techniques

SEO-On-Page-Tips

Sometimes being too focused on SEO (search engine optimization) can cramp your creativity.  But, if you use SEO techniques, you will likely get some of your posts ranked on search engines.  A handy traffic boost for you.

Ideally, you’ll focus on ‘long tail’ keywords – keywords that don’t have too much competition and are easy to rank for.  Once you have your list, create some content around the keywords.

A blog is one of the very best ways to get more traffic from the search engines.  Why?

When it comes to search engines like Google, for local businesses the name of the game is location and industry relevance.

A blog can be a powerful relevance building tool.  It gives you enormous scope to publish location and industry relevant content, quickly and easily.  Your customers and the search engines will lap it up.

This is why sites with blogs tend to get higher rankings on Google than a website that doesn’t don’t have one.  Although a blog post may not get much traffic, it will help your overall website rankings.

If you add a new service and want to get the related keywords ranking fast, put together a blog post, then publish it.  You could do that in an hour or less.  And here is more good news: most of the time there will be no need for additional backlinking or off page activities.

9. Absence of a List Building Strategy

list building

They say the fortune is in the list.  And for affiliate and internet marketers, it is.  But even if you run a traditional business, the chances are that including a list building strategy will do wonders for your business.

A significant percentage of your website visitors aren’t quite ready to buy.  So, it makes enormous sense to grab them now with a lead magnet offer.  Then, follow them up with email, until they are ready to buy.

If you don’t do it, you’ll be leaving a heck of a lot of money on the table.

And here’s the thing:

Most of your competitors aren’t doing it.  So there is a golden opportunity to seize the initiative and go for the gold.

I always want to build my list of email subscribers.  You should too.

10. Lack of Consistency

consistency

Lack of consistency is one of the biggest reasons for blog failure.  You need to be posting content to your blog on a regular basis.  How often?  At the minimum, once a month, but aim for weekly posts, at least in the early stages.

Regular posts will help you get more traffic.  But it will also instill confidence.  Visitors will see that you’re a serious player and a reliable source of interesting, relevent, and helpful information.

The Wrap Up

You haven’t made your blog a priority because you don’t believe in it.

You started your blog because it seemed like a good idea at the time.  But soon enough it became another ‘dumb idea that fell by the wayside’.

Now’s the chance to get your blog back on track.  So, after reviewing the above tips you should now have a much better idea about how to make your blog a big success story.

Your Turn – Time to Comment!

What was your biggest takeout from this post?

After reading this post are there any ideas that you will now embrace?

Make a comment below!

 ****Special Free Offer****

I will give you 30 minutes of my time (by phone or Skype) for brainstorming, including specific strategies on your USP, customer messaging, and narrative development.  That’s a $300 value. I’ll always focus on skyrocketing your income by showing you how to attract clients who pay you top dollar.

All at no cost to you.  All I ask for in return is a testimonial and the opportunity to build a valuable relationship.

Results matter, so that will be my focus for you – to give you useful ideas you can use straight away.

Schedule a Time HERE

24 thoughts on “Why Your Business Blog Isn’t Working and What You Can Do About It”

  1. There are million of blogs and people are building new. But the problem is most of the blogs don’t get the visitors they seek for. The number isn’t enough.

    There are many reasons as mentioned here. Bloggers don’t concentrate upon the originality of their content. They just fill the website.

    Visual content attracts the readers. I like the list you have made.
    Informative post indeed.
    ~Ravi

    1. thanks Ravi. Yes, the blog has to look good, but also the content must be interesting, engaging and compelling. When we get those elements right, we get more customers.

      Thanks again,

      Kim

  2. Hi,
    The most of business uses Blogging for its digital marketing But many of them fails. The reasons are many;
    They are not able to interact with the customer. The “To Sell” Phenomena of Business Bloggers is hated by most of the readers. You have to smartly deliver your idea to customer such that they did not feel you are here to only sell your product. Retention is more important than Acquisition. A proper and regular Interaction with customer is also important to make them happy and satisfied. Solving their problems will help your business grow and will have a positive impact on customer.
    Adding a good review of your product can get you more traffic that you can’t expect.
    As per the trending Marketing strategy also changes thus for a Marketer it is important to implement that too.
    Thanks for updating us with changing trend.
    With regards,
    Saurav

    1. Thanks Surav,

      Solving customer problems is the name of the game. Almost.

      Not all customers have problems. They may have ‘hot buttons’ based on the emotions of greed, avarice, pride, and ego. This is the other way we make money

      Kim

  3. Hi Kim,

    Lots of valuable tips there and I think I’m guilty to some extent of most of them. Except I’m pretty good on consistency with my weekly posts.

    Possibly I have tried too hard to make my blog and marketing like me – but that’s who I am LOL.

    I know my weakest point is headlines. I try so hard not to hype things up because people have been let down so many times,,,, which is a “Pain point” in itself I guess.

    I like your suggestions 🙂

    Joy – Blogging After Dark

  4. Hey Kim you’ve put lots of great things forward here. The stand out points for me personally are number 6 and 7. As you may know I’m currently obsessed with experimenting and testing with headline titles to see which one gets the most clicks.

    I love the examples you’ve given here too, I wrote a post on my blog recently compiling over 100 conversion focused headlines title examples.

    As for making content less boring, I think this is something a lot of business bloggers overlook the importance of.

    It’s important to add human touches to content. Like you say asking questions, getting them to think about their own circumstances, issues and problems. Using call-to-actions in the right places to get them engaging with you too is important, along with great problem solving content will make any piece of writing less boring.

    Thanks again for a great list here Kim, very useful for those business bloggers needing to get on the right track. Have a great rest of the week.

    – Fabrizio.

    1. Hi Fabrizio,

      First up I’m gonna check out your recent post on headlines. Writing headlines is one of my hobbies, so it’s good to see you think the same way.

      As you say making our content less boring is vital. We want people to read the entire post and of course that won’t happen if we’re not involving the reader, and making the experience satisfying.

      In the YouTube era it’s even more important to create good written content that people want to read.

      Thanks Fabrizio

      KIm

  5. Hi kim,
    I was looking for this kind of post, You post simply explains the reasons for the failure of the bloggers.
    I would say that you have done a great job.
    Thanks for the share.

  6. Hi Kim,

    Each point is so valuable…like pieces of a puzzle that needs to be all fit together. I do believe the biggest one for me is not monetizing my blog from the beginning. I had no idea how. I came into blogging with an affiliate program and was taught to just put that on the sidebar….the guy who was running that program not me lol…

    Then just write whatever you like…no rhyme or reason. Hmm….I found that just made me run in circles. When someone starts a blog it is important to have some kind of marketing plan and also branding information before they set it all up.

    -Donna

    1. Hi Donna,

      So what you’re saying is that back then you didn’t take a strategic approach to blogging. I can identify with that!

      When I look at your blog today I see you have a clearly defined way to use your blog posts to feed people into your sales funnel.

      Way to go!

      Kim

      1. Hi Kim,

        Yes, I came into the blogging world and had no plan…only what I was told and that was to make the other guy rich lol. I had to educate myself with courses and such in order to build a platform that was sturdy for business.

        This is why I do have a strong passion to help others because I know that pain up close and personal of not having a clear direction.

        -Donna

        1. Hi Donna

          I’m glad you mentioned self-education. I don’t come from an academic family. All of my family members were self-taught. It seemed to pay off for them, though – a couple of them are multi-millionaires.

          In the blogging and online marketing world, we don’t learn from colleges and the like. Rather it’s about on the job education and plugging into people like yourself to learn the finer points. Its the way learning is increasingly being done now.

          Thanks Donna

          Kim

  7. Thanks for your ten awesome tips Kim!

    And I don’t why, but it just seems like a lack of long term
    blogging consistency, plagues a lot aspiring bloggers.

    They often come out of the box on fire, but for whatever reasons, they quickly
    cool off, to this particular marketing strategy.

    Is there any truth, to the rumor, the average blog is abandoned altogether,
    after just 90 days!

    And like you pointed out, an active blog, or website with a blog as an added component, offers business owners, an incredible, low cost marketing alternative.

    Even if they can’t write compelling headlines like yours!LOL! Strategic blogging
    is still a great way to reach out to their target market and provide some
    extremely viable solutions.

    Great job as usual, for making the case!And big congrats on being featured as one of Peter Beckenhams 8 bad a_ _ bloggers!LOL!

    My current post, is a much deserved tribute to our mutual friend, and affiliate
    marketing expert.

    1. Hey Mark

      Great to see you again.

      Yes, lack of consistency is a big one. And I admit that I have sometimes been guilty of this blogging ‘crime’ too.

      Blogs work the best when there’s a real business behind it. People who start blogs for the sake of starting a blog are kidding themselves

      I’ll check out your new post, Mark

      Cheers

      Kim

  8. Hi Kim

    This post is a bit of a shock to my system and one that jolted me right back into reality. Its so easy to get lost in writing the content that the marketing side of things fly out the window.

    There is a lot of food for thought in here. After reading I am confronted with a whole new challenge and that is to to turn my ramblings into an actual business blog. All your points make perfect sense and they are doable. I am taking a lot away from this post mainly the need to restructure my posts to tell a story that helps others and reminds them of the need to take action.

    I have one question though. I do not see share-buttons on this page. I have tried them without much success. I apologize if this point is covered in some of your other posts but what do you think about the whole idea of sharing posts on social media?

    Great guidelines

    Thanks

    1. Hi Igert

      Sorry to shock you!

      In relation to shares, yes the share buttons are there, at the bottom. But I do think we need to give them more prominence. Thanks for letting me know

      In relation to your blog, making your content a bit tighter will help a lot. Be ruthless about removing words that don’t add value to the post. Even words like ‘actually’ are often superfluous, and not needed. Avoid waffle like the plague. Keep the content tight and on point, always

      Thanks for dropping by

      KIm

  9. Kim, you made me realize that I need to make my blog look more attractive for making more money out of it.

    The number of blogs will keep increasing, and that’s why we too need to become better.

    It may be the perfect time to bring some changes and implement them.

    If we are determined and doing all things properly, then definitely we will be able to get success with any type of blog. It’s all about having the right thinking and following the right strategies.

    1. Hi Mohit

      Making a blog look nicer is certainly a good thing to do. But there are many, many blogs out there that look nice, but don’t gain traction with visitors for one simple reason – the content sucks.

      That’s why I am always trying to improve my messaging/writing skills. I know I’m better than I was 2 years ago, and am confident I’ll be better in the future.

      Keep moving forward, Mohit

      Kim

  10. Hey Kim,

    Loved this post. I work at a digital marketing agency, and many of our clients simply don’t realize how powerful a tool their blog can actually be.

    The I vs. You language section was the most pertinent tip to me. Too many business owners and bloggers alike are deaf to the needs of their audience. I would also add a research element of finding out the exact phrases they say to use them in your copy as well.

    Keep up the good work.

    1. Thanks Ayodeji.

      I think we need to make every effort to educate business owners about the value and the potential of having a well-sorted blog. It starts with an awareness of our audience, including a thorough understanding of their pain points and hot buttons.

      Kim

  11. Hello Kim:
    Great post! This post was insightful and very informative. All ten of your points were spot on. Having a social media management service, this headline caught my attention and I feel you made some very relevant points. And I agree with you too many business owners are not listening to their clients and do have solutions to their problems. Again thanks for sharing this value-packed post.h

    1. thanks for dropping by, Darrell

      Thanks also for your comments – listening to clients then giving them some leadership when required is the name of the game

      Kim

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