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 AEC clients will often ask us, what can we do to make our blog page better?
You can find all kinds of articles online with tips and tricks; some of them are very helpful. Some we have written ourselves (How to Blog Harder and Smarter in 2013), and some we have found in our research (in our ongoing effort to become better bloggers ourselves). We survey our clients from time to time as well, gathering insights we wouldn’t normally get (or worse, would have had to assume, correctly or otherwise).
We like this recent List of Tips as it covers off all the basics, and is consistent with our own internal research on what our clients respond to.
But before starting, it’s important to address your overall content strategy. Who are you talking to? Do your posts represent the beliefs and values your 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 as a whole?
Once you are satisfied that your post meets the strategy, let’s 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. Nothing replaces experience.
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 “case” 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. (Just like this point!)
Be visual. Statistics show that up to 93 percent of communication is nonverbal and that people process visuals 60,000 times faster than text. Use this to your advantage, especially in the AEC industry where there are lots of great pictures to showcase your work.
Lastly, 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.
SNEAK PEEK: A future post will talk about visual content creation. But here is a quick peek at a funny photo we found online– an example of a presentation slide that lands on our ‘Don’t’ list.
If you have any examples of good or bad content of your own, please share on Twitter (@industrialbrand) or send us a note @ ideas@industrialbrand.com