Blogging for Business

You’re a technical person and you have to write a blog post. Great! You’re a smart person and you know the topic, so you’re going to explain it to your readers. Except you’re probably going to do it wrong.

Okay, so there’s no wrong way to write a blog post, but there are ways to write them better, and there are common traps that technical people fall into. The big mistake is that you will sit down and write linearly. You will start with the problem, describe how you addressed it, and then give a conclusion. But here’s the thing: your readers may not make it that far. Even when you’re writing a technical post, the blog is still ultimately a marketing instrument.

Start with your conclusion and then move on to the in-depth discussion. “Our product/service solves this problem for you by doing this thing. Let me show you how.” This helps set the context for your reader and gives them the important message up front. If you wait until the bottom of the post to say “and this is how our widget saves 45% of your grocery bill”, many readers will never know you’re going to save them 45% of their grocery bill. Not only will they miss out on the great thing you’re telling them, but you’ll miss out on them buying your widget.

The other thing you’re likely to do wrong is assume that your readers know the space as well as you do. Maybe you think you’re writing for peers, but you’re also writing for your peer’s bosses and other people. You want to grab as many readers as possible to build awareness of what you do. Spell out acronyms the first time you use them. Include links to in-depth explanations of technical topics (bonus: that helps your search engine optimization (SEO), too). Your technical readers will skip over the explainers, but you won’t lose the rest of the crowd. This will help you get your message out more broadly and help drive demand.

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Amy Masson, Web Developer
Owner/Developer

Amy Masson

Amy is the co-owner, developer, and website strategist for Sumy Designs. She's been making websites with WordPress since 2006 and is passionate about making sure websites are as functional as they are beautiful.

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