Write better blog posts

A lot of our clients have blogs but have no idea how to use or maintain them, let alone engage their readers and get a tangible return from their efforts. Writing a blog for a new restaurant opening is quite different from writing a blog post for construction or engineering clients. Our clients often ask what they can do to blog better.

It’s important to address your overall social media content strategy. Who are you talking to? Do your posts represent the beliefs and corporate identity you company stands for? Are you speaking about topics that are geared toward your audience and what they are looking for? Does the post tell the reader something about who you are?

Once you are satisfied that your post or article meets the strategy, take it to the next level.

Positioning yourself as the expert or a credible authority in a specific sector is very important. If you specialize in the AEC industry, then say so. Your content will likely already show your expertise, but there is nothing wrong with reminding the reader that you have experience and depth of knowledge that not everyone else has.

Provide value to your users by using case studies and specific examples to help clients and prospects relate to the issues and challenges they may face. Just like a picture is better than a thousand words, a well-documented case study will get your point across more efficiently and effectively than just telling someone what you can do. When you are presenting and looking at case studies, you can glean aspects of process and approach, but you also need to embrace that each is different. Case studies do have the added benefit of showing your range, since no two problems or companies are exactly the same.

Writing lists or making short, tight paragraphs is also one of our favorites. When a client or prospect is perusing an architetural firm’s website, they want to find what they are looking for quickly, and they don’t want to spend all day reading about it. We know that content is key, but get to the point and get there fast.

Be visual.  Statistics show that up to 93 per cent of communication is nonverbal and that people can process visuals 60,000 times faster than text. Use this to your advantage, especially in an industry where there are lots of great pictures to showcase your work.

What you think is interesting or “news” may not be exciting to the reader. We all fall into this trap. We don’t want to watch a slideshow of someone else’s vacation but we think ours would be fun to see. Know what your audience wants by asking, and then give them more of it. Look at your site analytics to confirm. Or better yet, pick up the phone and ask a client what they want to read.