How to write a blog post which engages

It’s really important to be yourself – people buy people not faceless businesses  so  please remember that corporate speak has no place when thinking about how to write your blog posts.

Your potential clients and customers are searching high and low for an element of personality that stands out from the crowd.  That style has long been central to the copywriting I do for businesses and, of course, your blog is where YOU have to copywrite in a way which engages.

This means having a chatty style.  However, you may squirm at it not sounding correct; however you imagine your old English teacher tutting over your style this is the place for:

“We’ve” rather than “We have”

“You’ll “rather than “You will”

“We’d rather” instead of “We would rather”

For your blog to work you’ll need to be serving up a mixture of information, opinion and controversy – even if that just means acknowledging a problem with your product or service and then listening to feedback.

Now some of you will no doubt feel a little worried about putting your business out there in terms of engaging with customers and “leaving yourself exposed”.  I saw a lovely response to this – thinking in that way is like an air hostess saying “I’m not talking to the passengers today – I might get a complaint “.  Yes folks, blogs are all part of good customer service.

Finally, your blog is not a” look at me” platform, that tried and tested marketing acronym – WIIFM – still applies.  That’s your customer thinking “What’s in it for me…to follow your blog”

So what do you think?  Does the casual style make you squirm or have you mastered your inner Grammarian and found it works well for your corporate communication on the blogosphere?

If you liked this post you might also enjoy How to blog successfully - 23 key things to remember

Thanks to Trinesh Champaneri on Flickr for the image