7 Reasons Why Businesses Struggle to Generate Good Blog Posts

As social media consultants, we’ve helped a lot of businesses kick-start their blogging strategy, coaching them on things like blog content, copywriting, and SEO. And believe us, they need the help! These companies, for the most part, understand the benefits of blogging; how it helps build their brand, increase search visibility, engage customers—all that good stuff. In short, they “get it.”

So why, then, is the process of generating a good blog post such a struggle for them?

First, I guess we should define what makes a blog post “good.” A good blog post is one that is timely, relevant to the target audience, well-organized, and most importantly, engaging. It should have an attention-grabbing title or headline and contain useful, easy-to-digest content, visuals, and links (see also: The Ingredients of a Great Blog Post). All of this information is old hat for most bloggers. But for businesses who are new to blogging, adopting blogging best practices is a major part of the learning curve, and the reason we developed our Blog Optimization & Support and Blog Audit services.

In repeating this exercise over and over again with the companies we’ve coached, we’ve come to identify several distinct reasons why businesses seem to struggle with writing good blog posts, and blogging in general:

• Failure to establish blogging goals. “What should we blog about?” is probably the single most common question we get asked by newbie business bloggers. The answer, of course, depends on what they’re trying to achieve with each blog post. Do they want to capture mindshare? Entertain? Promote something? Discuss industry news? Gather customer feedback? It’s surprising how many companies don’t approach blogging with these types of end goals in mind. The result is often random, disjointed content that doesn’t serve much of a purpose other than filling up blog space.
• Initial fear or reluctance to embrace blogging as a new communication channel. In other words, they’re afraid to “put themselves out there.” Professionals who are used to conducting business and marketing by traditional means have a bigger hurdle to overcome when it comes to blogging (and social media in general, for that matter).
• Difficulty finding the company’s “voice.” Blog posts lend a human quality to companies, giving them a voice and personality. When a business is first starting out, it can be difficult to find the right “voice” in a written blog post, making things difficult on the writer. Should it be written in first person or third person? What is the right balance between casual and professional? Generally these questions are answered by trial and error as businesses experiment with blogging and begin to evaluate what seems to resonate well.
• Inconsistency and/or infrequent blog posts. The old adage “Practice makes perfect,” definitely applies to blogging. The more blogging you do, the better blogger you will become. When companies publish blog posts that are few and far between, they do a disservice not only to their readers, but to the blog itself. Blogging frequently and consistently helps hone writing skills and builds up a great wealth of information over time. Having a sizable repository of past blog posts to reference, learn from, and refer back to can trigger new blog post ideas and gives readers many reasons to return.
• Overwhelmed by the task at hand. Often the person who is tasked with writing the blog post is overwhelmed at the thought of producing the end product. But producing blog posts, like any other task, can be broken down into a series of smaller steps: (1) Brainstorm a rough idea for a blog post; (2) Research, refine, and flesh the idea out; (3) Draft it; (4) Enhance it (add links, images, keywords, etc.) and publish! Keep in mind, too, that blog posts aren’t meant to be formal. There are no rules for how long or short a blog post should be, but in general the more specific and focused the topic, the better. Remembering to keep things short, sweet and specific can help make the task a little less daunting.
• Boring company news and bad sales pitches. Yes, it’s your company’s blog, and yes there are sales, PR, and marketing goals tied to it. But that doesn’t mean the blog should be a glorified advertisement for your company. Occasional company news and promotions are fine to interject, but be sure you’re also providing something of value to your readers and not just pushing an agenda on them.
• The wrong person is blogging. Another issue we often see: The responsibility of blogging seems to have been assigned to the wrong person, or rather the wrong type of person. Usually the job has fallen into a reluctant person’s lap; someone with little to no familiarity with social media, or perhaps one who lacks passion for the topic. Small to medium-sized businesses in particular struggle with this issue, where hiring a full-time social media coordinator is not an option. Writing skills and tech-savvy are always a plus, but a good business blogger also needs to be knowledgeable about the industry, organized, resourceful, passionate and sociable. Does this person exist at your company?

The realities of blogging for business include all of the above issues and then some. But the good news is that everything on this list is fixable, easily overcome with a little planning, practice and advice. And there’s no shortage of great, free blogging advice out there. We recommend resources like Problogger and Daily Blog Tips as good places to start.

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