audience

If you want to start growing your business’ marketing campaign from the ground up, a blog chronicling both your company’s projects as well as industry happenings might be the strategy for you — after all, it’s free, relatively easy to get started, and accessible to the whole wide web. What better way to get the word out? Still, some of the rules on the “what, when, and how” of updating your blog can be murky. Though there’s no official standard, here’s a list of things to consider when deciding how often you should post content: Your Audience This should be the main consideration for deciding how often to update your blog. While the tech or media industry might be more conducive to multiple posts in a week, blog posts for personal development and personal/spa industries might warrant longer posts. (Need proof? This blogger monitored the most popular blogs in eight different industries, and found that the average length for “gadgets” blogs was 181 words, while the average for a personal development blog was 1470.) Length It’s good to vary the length of your posts occasionally, but short, punchy blogs will probably do the trick. A good way to try this is to link to an industry-relevant news item and write a few paragraphs summarizing/offering pithy commentary. Think of your blog posts as conversations: Your e-mails with friends aren’t typically the same length, so don’t try to constrain yourself with strict word counts. (You’ll avoid adding superfluous fluff when you can say what you want or need to say in just 300 words, for example — rather than drawing it out to 1,500.) (Use the ballpark figures under the previous heading for guides, not hard-and-fast rules.) Special Events/Promotions You should always post content when your business is about to offer a special promotion, hold an event, give away free items, be showcased on a major media outlet, etc. Take the time to get personal and in-depth about your projects, and your customers will thank you in return. Your Timespan/Commitment Ability Remember that search engines will visit your blog every time it’s updated — and readers will, too — so you risk losing status or customers if you lag behind on your blogging. Still, assess your availability (and capability) to write good, interesting topics on a regular basis — writing lackluster posts to meet self-prescribed deadlines won’t help your business much. Additionally, you don’t want to start off with a high volume of posts toward the beginning and then slowly drop off — you’ll disappoint readers that expect a high volume of posts early on. A helpful hint: Write a few posts when you have an extended amount of free time, then schedule them to post on a future date. Also, invite guest and contributing bloggers to fill in when you’re busy. Your Goals Whatever you decide, remember that consistency is key — readers love predictability. Find your own schedule and stick with it as closely as possible. If your goal is rapid growth, then you’ll need to post as often as you possibly can. Don’t forget that more content on your blog encourages more links and references to it, thereby boosting your SEO. If your blog is a secondary (or even tertiary) facet of your marketing campaign, or even more of a hobby, then you can relax a little. About the Author: Jason Robbins is a freelance writer who specializes in personal credit. Robbins has written various pieces about credit repair services and what to look for when checking out credit repair companies.