I was reading an article on Inc.com recently. The article – Management Secrets: Core Beliefs of Great Bosses – was a collection of ways the best bosses manage their companies and employees. The article is worth reading entirely so take a few minutes to check it out.

There was one snapshot of the article that got me thinking about blogging in particular.

Here is the snapshot:

Extraordinary bosses inspire people to see a better future and how they’ll be a part of it. As a result, employees work harder because they believe in the organization’s goals, truly enjoy what they’re doing and (of course) know they’ll share in the rewards.

This insight is powerful.

A vision is something essential to a successful blogging strategy. We’ve touched on this subject once before here at GBW.

Please see: Create A Blogging Mission & Vision Statement

I thought the idea of vision and blogging was strong enough to warrant another post.

Let’s examine the topic further…

The Need for a Blogging Vision

When you started your business you probably had a vision. There was a lot of work to be done, but you probably had an idea of what you wanted the business to look like in the future. Most entrepreneurs have visions of being busy all the time, but having the freedom to work on their own terms while providing a valuable service for a select number of clients. As the business grew the vision probably became more specific. There could have been specific goals added to the vision. When addressing co-workers and others vested in the company you probably spoke about the future outlook including your vision for how things might change.

I’m a big fan of vision from the leadership of a company. Employees appreciate the insight.

A business blog is no different from the overall business. A vision for the future of the blog is crucial to its success.

A vision provides direction. It provides purpose. It’s provides a challenge to each person involved so they can do the work necessary to reach that vision.

Personal Responsibility

The first important reason vision is needed for a business blog is personal responsibility. If you go into a blog with no vision or idea at all about how it will look in one, two, five years then you’re setting things up to fail. You can reach out to peers in the industry to see how their blogging efforts have gone. You can speak with bloggers in other areas about their success. This provides the proper expectations for your potential business blog and sets things up well for you to create the vision for yourself. Once it’s set you can hold yourself responsible for the execution and that’s probably most important.

Allow yourself to take a risk here. Just as with anything in business, not everything will look like a sure thing. Accept the risk, but prepare as best as you can for the attainable goals of your business blog.

Blogger Inspiration

The next important aspect of a blog vision is to inspire your bloggers. Whether they’re employers or freelancers, it’s important to allow your bloggers to see the vision for the blog. If they know the expectations and can see the potential it will help them work to achieve goals and make the vision a reality. If you are truly behind your business blog your bloggers will see the passion and excitement. They will want to be part of the success. They want to have successful items to their credit and a growing business blog is something great for them as well as for your business.

Creating a Blogging Vision

The next step is to work on creating your business blogging vision. It starts with the simple question:

Where do you see your blog in five years?

The number of years isn’t important. Just as yourself where you want the blog to be in a few years. You asked yourself the same question when you were first starting your business. You still do it with your general business. Apply those thoughts to your business blog and then share it with your bloggers.

It’s the best way to become an amazing business blogging boss.

It’s a true statement that I believe in. If you’re looking to increase your online lead generation and sales generation, the time to start building your network is now.

To clarify, for this post I’m referring to your network as the collection of contacts and friends you have in the blogging industry. These are folks that will help you as your grow your company blog. Just as in real life, it’s important to have friends that will help you with your blogging goals.

If you’re starting at Day 1 with your blogging efforts, here are some tips for building your blogging network.

How to Build a Blogging Network

I’m a country music fan. The Zac Brown Band released their second major label album a couple years ago and I thought the title was great. You Get What You Give is a great country record. I took the title as meaning that ZBB feels they need to really give their fans something special in order for them to expect anything in return. The guys put in the work up front and delivered something great. There was no guarantee of anything being returned, but that’s how you have to roll in business and in life.

You get what you give and the same is true when building your blogging network.

Commenting

The basic idea with building your blogging network is to focus on what is advantageous for your blogging friends first. It’s easy to think about yourself when reaching out to bloggers. I’m not sure why, but we all struggle with this concept when it comes to building a business or a network. We focus on why someone should do something for us. It’s crazy. I’m guilty of doing it and I’ve seen others do the same. We ask someone to do something for us out of the blue. It’s all about us.

Commenting is one way to open up the conversation with other bloggers, but you have to focus on what the other blogger wants. In the case of commenting, bloggers want comments that build on their posts. They don’t want simply “nice post” comments that include links back to your blog. I delete all of these comments on my own blogs if the commenting person is lucky. Sometimes I’ll mark them as spam because that’s really what they are at best.

It’s ok to link with your actual full name back to your blog, but make sure you offer something substantial in the comments you leave. Add your thoughts to the article. Add your own stories. Really provide something valuable. This usually requires some thought and effort.

But the more great comments you leave the more likely the blogger is going to take notice, respond, and even comment on your blog in return.

Social Sharing

Staying on the idea of helping your fellow bloggers out – social sharing is something bloggers love. This means promoting the posts of other bloggers. Share their posts on Twitter, Facebook, and other sites. Add your own thoughts when you share them. Recommend the post and give a reason why people should follow through and read.

Bloggers notice when their posts are shared. They pay attention to the people that share their posts as well. It’s a good way to get noticed.

Don’t go overboard with this. You want to make sure the streams on your social sites are full of quality content and not just junk. Focus on sharing only the best of the best content, but do it on a regular basis.

LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Etc.

Social sites are great for following people you admire and want to connect with. I’d recommend the other ideas mentioned in this post above this one, but I’ve connected with quite a few bloggers on Twitter and even Facebook. At the very least it’s a great way to stay up to date with what your favorite bloggers are doing. They may not follow you in return, but it’s at least worth a shot. I’ve seen a few great examples of people building their blogging networks via social media channels.

Linking

This is my personal favorite method of building your blogging network.

Linking means including links to other sites and blogs in your blog posts. It takes some effort. You have to actually read content on other sites and work it into your posts somewhere.

Bloggers love getting links. It’s good to get traffic from other sites and bloggers love traffic. If they are reviewing their analytics and notice a site sending traffic their way they will often check out the site for more information. Linking has also had great SEO benefit, but I feel this is lessening in importance. It’s still important, but not as much as it used to be.

It’s just a good show of respect to link to great content in your posts. Most posts offer the opportunity and it’s really a great way to give before you get.

Those are a few ways to build your blogging network.

If you have more please share in the comments.

Many businesses are considering working with freelancers as a way to bring their business blogs up to speed. There is opportunity for businesses to increase leads and sales with a blog. The issue is, these businesses, especially the owners and presidents, do not have time to write the posts themselves. As a result, bringing in a freelancer seems like a great way to solve the issue.

But working with freelancers can be tricky. It’s different than working with regular employees.

Here are a few tips for having a successful relationship with freelance bloggers.

How to Work with Freelance Bloggers

What sparked interest in this article was an article on the same topic on Inc. In that article – Rein in Your Freelancers – the authors, Lee Clifford and Julie Schlosser, offer great insight for working with freelancers. It’s worth your time to read the entire article to get even more insight into working with a freelance blogger or even a freelancer in another capacity. A few of my thoughts are similar to theirs, but hopefully I’m adding more to the subject.

Get to Know Them

Getting to know freelance bloggers can be tricky. I’m bad at this myself. I tend to focus on the aspects of work while leaving out the personal aspects of life with my work relationships. I think it’s my introverted nature. But the other areas of life are important too. I’m slowly realizing this.

With co-workers, employees and freelancers, it’s important to understand a bit about them on a personal level. You can ask about their hobbies and what they enjoy most about their work. I find it fascinating to get to know what people like to do when they’re not getting paid. If you can marry up something a person loves doing with something you need done then you’re likely on the way to hiring a great freelancer.

In the case of Ghost Blog Writers, I try to find writers that truly love writing. A great way to find this kind of person is to see if they have a personal blog. You can use this method as well. Look for a blogger that blogs on their own time, without pay. It’s a good sign that they actually like writing.

Respect Their Time

As a business owner or manager, you’re almost entirely invested in the success of your business. It’s difficult to work with freelancers that aren’t entirely devoted to your company. It’s difficult, but you have to be respectful of your freelancer’s time. They have other clients. They have other options. Lee and Julie write about this in the article linked above. If you push your freelancer past the point of comfort with their time they will drop you.

Understand that your freelancer partners have their own schedules. You’re paying them for work to be completed, but allow them time to react with a schedule for completion of that work.

Do Proper Vetting

Let’s touch on vetting once again. I’ve had the most success with vetting new freelancer partners by looking at their actual work. I can’t really remember looking at resumes or cover letters. The initial email is important. I look for basic understanding of language and writing of which I’m not the best myself. I also look for published work examples. The personal blog is a great indicator of a good potential freelance blogging partner.

But to go even a step further I’ve always required bloggers to have a trial period. This involves a sample post and in some cases more than one sample post. It’s kind of a trial period to see if the blogger will work out for a specific situation.

I don’t have an issue with trial periods for freelancers. They need time to get to know you and you need that time to see if they’re a good fit as well.

Judge Based on Deliverables

Another thing I’ve admittingly struggled with regarding freelancers is again based on their time. You can’t (at least in my experience) judge a freelancer by the time they put in. You have to judge them based on the deliverable. You aren’t paying for their time. You’re paying for a completed blog post or a series of posts. Obviously you need to evaluate their ability to provide something based on a schedule or due date, but it’s more about the quality of the deliverable. Don’t expect a freelancer to work nine to five and always be available for you. Focus on the posts they deliver. Don’t worry about the time they put into it.

Final Thoughts

These are a few thoughts from my experience working with freelancers. I’ve been lucky and have worked with some great ones. If I had to list the most important item from this article it would be finding someone that truly loves what they do and in this case that is writing. It’s hard to find this quality. You could go through 20 or more people before finding someone that fits. But the effort up front is well worth it in the long run. You save yourself time of having to find a replacement in a few months if the first doesn’t work.

The article – Why You Should Be a Shameless – Self Promoter – touched on the necessary evil of talking about yourself. In business, and in life, it’s necessary to sometimes toot your own horn. It can be necessary to advance in a business or to advance something like a personal or business blog as well.

Self-promotion is something I admittingly struggle with. I’m not comfortable discussing myself with friends or strangers. I typically offer a few tidbits of information, but then assume I’m just boring the other person. I’m also just generally uncomfortable discussing myself with people no matter if the topic is something to be proud of or not.

The same is typically true of my blogging. I’m typically not one to write about successes. I’m more apt to write about lessons learned from failures, though. I have in some instances forced myself to write about success stories in a self-promoting fashion. It’s still uncomfortable, but not too bad.

For business bloggers, the question of whether it’s right or wrong to self-promote yourself and your business is important. It’s something that has to be balanced and it’s different for every business.

These are a few things I follow when writing for my own blogs and those of clients.

Business Promotion in a Company Blog

Most companies start a business blog with the intention of increasing their sales leads. This is a great reason to start a blog. B2B businesses have found that a blog can generate new visitors via search and social. The blog serves as a discovery tool for potential clients. Readers turn into subscibers and eventually work down the funnel until they become potential clients.

But if there is too much business promotion in the blog posts you run the risk of scaring new readers off. That’s why it’s important to find the correct balance.

1. It’s About The Reader

The first thing I like to remember when starting a blog or when writing a blog post is that the blog needs to focus on what’s important for the readers. This statement might seem contradictory because you make decisions for your business with the business as the main focus. You can’t please every customer and it can’t always be about what the customer wants. But in the case of blogging, people simply won’t read a blog post if it isn’t about them. People are trained to look for something that makes their lives better or perhaps more enjoyable.

When considering that people want to read about something that improves their lives, it gives off the feeling that too much talk about the company in a post will be off putting. People don’t want to read sales pitches all day. They want to read about ways they can improve their lives.

I’ll use the plumbing example once again. If a person has a leaky sink they might look for step-by-step instructions for troubleshooting the issue. A blog post with only these instructions would be extremely useful. A blog post with one or two tips and then a “Call Us to Fix The Issue” might not work for the majority of readers.

This kind of strategy builds trust. You’re offering something useful for people and hoping that they think of you when their issues really are out of their capabilities.

2. It’s About Profit

Now let’s get back to your business. You need profit to succeed as a business. That’s the most basic rule. So you can’t always go about trying to please everyone. The truth is that you could find great readers, the kind of readers that subscribe to your updates and come back all the time to read your great posts.

But a great reader is not always the best client.

It’s best to analyze the way your best client will interact with your blog. You want to attract more of this kind of person.

Back to the plumbing expert. Maybe the plumber’s best client is actually a contractor that builds houses and remodels houses. In order to attract this reader the plumber needs to write more detailed posts on how plumbing works in complex housing situations. This could attract the contractor that likely knows more about plumbing than the regular joe, but needs a professional for the big jobs.

I could envision a blog like this having a bit more of self-promotion. There could be personal examples used in the posts to prove the experience claimed in the detailed instructions.

3. It’s About Storytelling

Finally, I like to revert back to storytelling whenever I have a question about self-promotion. If you can tell stories, you can work in mentions of your business without being too promotional. I felt this way when I wrote about Country Music Life with this post:

Niche Blogging Case Study – Ramping Up A New Blog From Scratch

I also like to tell stories that site and others here on the blog. It’s a way to talk about myself and the business without seeming too promotional.

If you can tell stories I think you’ll find it’s sufficient for self-promoting your business on your company blog.

Final Thought

My personal final thought with blogging is to not mention myself or the business in any post. Everyone is different, though, and success can be found in a number of ways.

I’m interested in knowing how you approach self-promotion with your blog and website.

Please share your thoughts in the comments.

The Marvel comic movie features a cast of characters that makes for one of the most epic movies of all time. All the favorite super heroes are in one place and people are loving every second. The movie is set to break records all across the globe.

It’s easy to say that the actors, producers, and companies involved really succeeded from collaboration.

If you’re looking for blogging inspiration, The Avengers can provide a good lesson.

Blogging Collaboration Strategy

Collaboration is something any blogger can do. When working on your blog post strategy, consider asking your friends, co-workers and even colleagues for assistance.

Collaborating on a big blockbuster involves cooperation from all parties. Everyone involved is looking to give up some of the limelight if the movie brings the stature of everyone involved to a new level. That’s what the stars of The Avengers were signing up for and it worked out wonderful. Now each of the stars can go on to star in movies for each of their characters (and cash in with more big paychecks, which is always good).

For blogging, collaboration could mean offering the insights of a handful of experts in an industry. If there is a big news story in your industry, you could gather the thoughts and comments of five of your colleagues and create a post. This would be great value for your customers and they would appreciate the effort you put in to get more than just one opinion on the topic.

You win because you get a great post. Your colleagues can win as well because they are exposed to a new audience. It’s a good situation for each person involved and that makes for a great post.

You can also use collaboration with others. You could do interviews with your employees or even your customers. I have seen great posts were employees have provided their opinions on a certain topic. It provides the reader with different perspective beyond that of the regular writers.

Even interviews are examples of collaborations. You could interview someone important in your industry. It’s a great way to get at the interesting details of what happens in your industry. Make it interesting for your customers and make it worthwhile for your interviewee.

When you’re trying to get the best of the best it can be difficult. It reminds me of another movie – Ocean’s Eleven. It was a huge collaborative movie with the biggest stars in Hollywood. Each of the stars involved had to give up a little bit in favor of making the collaboration a winning success for everybody.

There is something about people coming together to brainstorm and mixing ideas. Sometimes it can be difficult to find that inspiration for the next post. Reach out to your buddies in the industry and see if you can come up with an idea for a collaborative post or even an entire collaborative series of posts. You could make it a weekly or monthly deal that’s fun for you and the readers.

Collaboration is something your blog can benefit from. Try it on your next post and see if your readers like the new format.

According to a survey at Problogger, there are three big issues for bloggers:

1. Finding Readers
2. Monetization
3. Finding Time to Blog (I think most people just don’t love blogging as much as they think they do…)

I would like to add one to the list.

• Finding blog post ideas

It’s something I run into myself. Sometimes there are just days when I look at the empty WordPress text area and wonder what I’m going to write about. Over the years, though, I have developed a few methods that allow me to always have inspiration for a blog post topic.

After reading this post from Inc.com – Twitter Tips: 11 Things to Tweet When You Don’t Have Anything To Say – I thought it was the perfect inspiration for a post about blog ideas.

11 Things to Blog Right Now

1. Other Blog Posts and Website Articles

You probably recognize this strategy of mine because…well…you’re reading a post that is an example of this method. When I’m out of ideas I look to other similar websites and blogs for inspiration. I’ll see what others in the industry are writing about and try to find ways to add my own perspective or insight. Don’t copy what others are saying. Find topic inspiration and add to the conversation. Also be sure to give full credit.

2. Latest Trends & News

There is likely much happening in your industry. It seems there is always something newsworthy that your customers are reading about. Take inspiration from the news headlines and provide perspective. Provide your point of view. This is more valuable than reporting the news. Your customers will appreciate your recommendations and understanding about news topics.

3. Personal Profile

You could write a blog post about yourself, an employee, or someone in your industry you admire. These featured stories always do well. They add a personal touch to your blog and your company. People connect with people. This is true for real life and for your blog and your business.

4. Answer a Question

What was the last question a customer asked you? Now use your answer for a blog post. It really can be that easy. Ask your customers what they are struggling with and see if you can turn that into a blog post. Of course you’ll want to solve problems with new products and services, but sometimes a blog post will suffice.

5. Say Thank You

A blog post could simply thank your loyal readers for their commitment to your blog. You could ask for feedback on past blog posts. You could gain an understanding for what readers want. They might even share suggestions for future posts. You’ll get a new post, great insight, and even some new post ideas.

6. Share a Customer Story

Your customers always have stories about your products. Even if they aren’t flashy and funny they can still be useful. Interview one of your customers and ask them if you can share their story in a blog post. Once again, people connect with people and their stories. A customer story is a great blog post idea.

7. Update An Old Post

If you have been blogging for a little bit of time there is a chance your old posts are out of date. It happens. It can happen especially if you provide perspective on the news. It’s Ok to go back into your archives and then provide an updated analysis of a topic. Leave the old post. This adds authenticity. People realize that you can change perspective. We are always learning and evolving. Update an old post with your expanded knowledge.

8. Company Update

Did something exciting happen at your company? If you want to be transparent then you can share the details in a blog post. Your readers will love it and feel connected to you. People like to feel like they are part of something especially if it’s successful.

9. Write About a Partner

Share the success of a partner. As a business, you likely work with other people in business. Share their stories. Share a mutual story about how their product helped you with a problem. Recommend their product to your customers. Your partner will appreciate it and your readers will too if the recommendation is truly a good one.

10. Compare Things

The best example I can think of for this is Copyblogger. They are always comparing things with their blog. Here are just a few crazy examples:

• How Doctor Who Can Help You Craft a Timelessly Engaging Marketing Message
• What The Bachelor Can Teach You About Hooking an Audience
• The Downton Abbey Guide to Irresistible Narrative Marketing

I love this blog. They write interesting posts and somehow comparing things makes a topic easier to understand.

11. Make a List

This is a timeless classic. People love lists. You can create a list about anything related to your industry. Make sure you put some thought into it. Add some context and explanation with each item. Make sure your reader can scan the post and then dive deeper into each item.

You’re reading a list post right now. The titles are catchy.

List posts just seem to work well. If you’re out of ideas. Pick an industry topic and make a list.

Prior to this we’ve analyzed the strategies of other popular companies and sites:

• Kissmetrics Blogging Strategy
• Stacy Adams Blogging Strategy
• Wayne DeFrancesco Blogging Strategy
• Woot Blogging Strategy
• Lady Antebellum Blogging Strategy

This series is popular here on GBW so I thought it was important to continue.

HubSpot, like Kissmetrics, is a blog often referenced to me by prospective clients. People view the HubSpot blog in high regard and use it as an example of what they aspire to be. So it makes perfect sense to look at what HubSpot is doing so you might be able to use the same or similar strategies with your own business blog.

HubSpot Blogging Strategy

HubSpot is a marketing software company. Their entire focus is on inbound marketing, a term I believe they coined or at least helped build into a very meaningful phrase. The company’s solutions help business managers get found with online content. The focus is to bring people to a company instead of the other way around. The only pushing done in this strategy is when a person creates content and publishes it online. The inbound strategy begins as this content is shared and found on various Web channels.

HubSpot’s marketing software allows business managers to save time and be more efficient in their inbound marketing pursuits. It’s a company that appears very successful.

HubSpot also has one of the most success business blogs (Inbound Marketing Blog) and that’s what we will analyze today.

Frequency

From my quick analysis, HubSpot publishes a new post twice each business day. This works out to approximately 10 posts per week and about 40 posts per month. Relative to other businesses, that’s quite a few posts. One thing to note is these posts are not short and sweet. They offer substance. That doesn’t mean they always long in word length (sometimes they are), but they always offer something meaningful and can’t be that easy to put together.

It doesn’t surprise me that HubSpot blogs quite often. They were the ones that cited that blogging increases leads.

I’m a big advocate of high blog frequency too. The blogs that post more often get more traffic, leads, and sales. If you’re looking to really take over your industry with a blog then you need to consider a blog that posts about 20 times or more each month. It takes quite a bit of work, but in the long run it’s worth it. The more content you can provide to your target audience the more likely they are to discover you, contact you, and share your content with their peers.

Lists Are Still Popular

HubSpot has been using a tried and true blogging format (or formula) since they began publishing posts. Today, their most recent posts are list posts:

• 11 Apps Every Marketer Should Download
• The 10 Best Marketing Infographics of 2012 (So Far)

Looking back a few years you can see that this has been a strategy for some time. These posts are from 2007:

• 3 Hot Marketing Tips from Heat Map Analysis (images)
• 5 Free Magazines Every Small Business Should Receive

List posts are popular with readers. They are easy to scan and review quickly, but in order for list posts to really do well they need to have some explanation and substance.

Lists posts also make for great headlines. They are eye-catching when shared on social channels. They stand out in an email inbox.

Lists posts are typically a part of every successful blogging strategy. Maybe I should change the title of this post to 4 Blogging Secrets from HubSpot. It’s catchy isnt’ it?

Interviews & Stories

It seems like this used to be more of a focus for HubSpot with their blogging, but in their archives there are wonderful interviews and feature stories.

Here are a couple of examples:

• Interview With Copyblogger Founder, Brian Clark
• 5 Lessons of Enchantment from @GuyKawasaki [Interview]
• The Power of Long Tail Keywords: an Interview with HubSpot’s Favorite 80′s Hair Metal Guitarist

These are great posts. I find that interviews or profiles of successful people do really well.

People connect to other people. Stories and interviews are great for bringing your readers closer to you and the people you profile and highlight with your posts. This connection is what leads to opt-ins and leads. People want to trust your brand. There is something about a good interview or a good story that makes your blog more personal. People really respond.

Interviews and feature stories take a lot of work. You have to chase down information and do a lot of formatting. If you can pull it off, though, you’ll have an advantage over your blogging competition. Most bloggers aren’t willing to do this work and that’s where opportunity is for someone like you.

I’m sure HubSpot still does this often. I just didn’t look far enough back in the recent archives.

Timely Insight & Perspective

If you look at some of HubSpot’s most recent posts and pretty much their history of posts all the way back to 2007, something they are really good at is providing up-to-date perspective on the latest trends in online marketing. HubSpot understands that their customers are tuned in with all the latest news.

Online marketer are plugged in with all the latest info, which right now might be Google+ or a change with Google or a new interface on Facebook. HubSpot understands this, but they actually provide an added benefit beyond just reporting the news.

HubSpot takes the latest news that their customers care about and provides insight, perspective, and recommendations. This is incredibly valuable. When news breaks, people wonder how they should react.

When Facebook makes a change, marketers wonder how they should react. A person might think about how they should change. Then they will look to trusted sources for further insight.

HubSpot has become one of those trusted sources and that’s really powerful.

We’ll stop there for now.

Is there anything else you would add to the discussion about HubSpot?

What are some things you like (or dislike) about their business blog?

Also, do you have any requests for more blog analysis topics?

This time, the site is highlighting some interesting insight into the minds of small business owners. For some, this is a prime target customer. So it’s good to understand the frustrations these folks have because that means opportunity.

From Mobile Is the Gateway to Small-Business Owners, SMBs:

In March 2012, marketing agency Cargo and Inc. Magazine found the majority (52%) of US small-business owners felt companies did not market to them effectively. Along similar lines, 45% said companies made little effort to understand their business and 43% said B2B marketers did not understand their individual needs as small-business owners.

I found it interesting that nearly half of small business owners felt that B2B companies did little to actually for a relationship with their target clients. It seems there is a big opportunity for B2B companies. I’m sure having a product or service that fills a void and is useful is still the most important fact of making a sale, but if your company can also show effort to form a relationship with clients you might be able to gain an advantage over competitors.

The question then becomes, how does one form a relationship with small business owners?

How to Use a Company Blog to Form Relationships

In the article linked above there is an insight that small business owners are short on time. As a business owner yourself, you can probably relate. You’re busy. Your clients are busy. When is there time to really hone a business relationship that yields results for all parties over time?

One way to improve relations with clients and potential clients is with a company blog.

Part of a relationship is showing the other person that you listen. Blogging is a great way to show that you listen to the problems your clients have. You can use their problems as inspiration for blog posts. You already do the same thing when developing products and services. But if a problem just requires some insight, you can provide the answer in a blog post.

For example, on this blog I try to listen to the questions clients have about blogging as well as the questions other bloggers have. A recent question that turned into a blog post was How Do I Give Credit For Blog Ideas? This is a big issue. I often use other articles for blog idea inspiration. I always try to include all links to original articles. I also try not to use too much content from the original article. The idea is to add to the original article with more original insight.

The article turned out to be popular with readers and seems to be helpful. The fact that a common question was answered seemed to be important to clients and readers.

This is just one simple example of how a blog can be used to improve customer relations. It’s important to listen to your clients to better understand their business and what they expect from you. With a blog, you can have another outlet for providing proof that you listen and useful information that can help clients with their questions and problems.

Depending on who you ask this question to you will get different answers. The reason you will get different answers is because there is no right answer.

A recent article on Inc.com, Design vs. Cost: Who Wins, told the story of two co-founders and how they disagreed on an issue with one of the products. The argument for design won out in their example, but is that always the case?

When it comes to blog design, my feelings skew toward design being very important. But I have seen very successful blogs with basic templates. The official Google blogs are a good example. They look like they are the most basic of basic templates, but they are still some of the most popular blogs on the Web. How is this possible? Because the content is interesting.

On the other hand, Google themselves admit the importance of design in the future. They are pushing for better design. They focus on user experience when it comes to the content they crawl. They want to reward the best sites (site that load fast and are easy to understand) with good rankings in both natural and paid results.

The biggest point about Google’s view on design is that they focus on people. And people are becoming more demanding of design.

But a good design doesn’t always mean something pretty. It means something that is easy to understand and something that makes sense for a particular person.

When designing your blog it’s not really about how important the design is. Design is important. You just have to make sure you get the design right as it pertains to your targeted reader. You want to appeal to their senses. If you have a reader that is a 30-year old single woman that has an artsy streak in her then you’ll need something that is visually appealing and interesting. You will lose her interest if you go with something like a basic Google design.

On the other hand, if your target reader is a 40-year old computer programmer you probably don’t want to make your site pretty. In fact, you want to make it as simple as possible. No frills. No accents on the edges. Stick to the basics and stick to the facts. The design is not important for this person. Make it functional because this person wants to learn and read.

There are a variety of different people out there. Your goal with blog design is to focus on what will be appealing, useful, and easy to understand for your target reader.

The answer to the question in the title is yes, blog design is important.

Design is important, but that doesn’t mean it has to be pretty. Depending on who your customer is you might be able to get away with a free blog template. If your target reader is more demanding of design than that you will probably have to spend money to get a custom design that impresses.

Evalutate your customer and you’ll have your answer about investing in blog design.

The article, What a 9-Year Old Can Teach You About Selling, focuses on how salespeople can better sell to companies. The article highlights three common questions a 9-year old may ask their parent about their job. With the right answers, it is easy for the 9-year old to understand. The takeaway is that selling is really like speaking with someone that doesn’t fully understand what you do. So in order to effectively sell them on your company you need to make things easy to understand.

I feel there are some parallels between selling and blogging so I thought I would take inspiration from this article and write about what a 9-year old can teach you about blogging.

Keep The Message Simple

There is a lot of information available to people today. The folks that read blogs likely read many other blogs and it can be difficult to remember the details from every post. The article linked above makes a great point about sales calls; people don’t really remember much from sales calls. This is obviously frustrating for salespeople. They go through all the effort to make the perfect pitch and within a week or a day or even an hour the person on the other end of the line forgets everything they said. Some research shows that people might remember one thing.

The same thing occurs in blogging. People can read an entire post. They can be really interested in the post. They might even spend a good 15 minutes reading a couple thousand words, but within just a little bit of time they might only remember one key point from the article.

This is a key point in your company’s relationship with this person. If that memory is something important to the person you might get them to come back to the site. Maybe they even felt good enough about your company right after finishing the article that they subscribed to future content.

It’s difficult to control the one thing people remember about your post, but one way you can kind of give yourself some control is to have one main focus for each post. You can have a main focus and emphasize it in the title and with the largest heading on the page. Also speak to this point the most in the article.

You can have further sub-points in the article to support your idea, but don’t stray too far off track or you’ll risk losing the interest of the reader. And even worse, you’ll risk confusing them when they later try to remember the most important thing about the post.

A couple other tricks you can use in your posts to entice rememberence are humor or shock. It might seem juvenile, but people remember funny catchphrases or shocking statements.

Add More Details Later

So to take my own advice I’ll add two sub-points here, but won’t get too far off track.

Something that works well in blogging is the idea of a blogging series. Just as salespeople will work in more details as they form a relationship with a person, you can do the same with your readers. Entice them to subscribe by ending posts with cliffhangers. Get them enticed so they come back for more details later.

Focus on The Reader’s Needs

This is important. Salespeople can sometimes get caught up with mundane details about their company. For the most part, potential clients don’t really care about your company. They care about their own company. The same is true for blogging. People don’t care about what you have to say. They care about how what you say can help them.

There’s a difference.