What Makes a Blog Memorable?

• September 17, 2020

Zappos.com has one of the most entertaining blogs I’ve seen on a corporate web site. Zapponians, as they call themselves, use photos, videos, and attention-attracting headlines combined with compelling stories. They’ve raised the blog to an art form.

Anyone who would like to develop a blog that appeals to customers and clients can profitably spend some time studying the Zappos model. This company highlights the power of imagination and innovation.

https://www.zappos.com/about/stories

Your Blog Checklist

 Did you vary your blog content? The relative shortness of a blog post compared to a newsletter article allows more flexibility in some ways.

• You can do a series of inspiring quotes illustrated by photographs or within a photograph. Unsplash.com and Pixabay.com have some of the best free photographs on the Internet.
• You can choose one quotation and comment on it at length.
• You can tell anecdotes about your business that give it the human touch.
• You can highlight how your company serves its community.
• If you have individual employees who made outstanding contributions, write about them.

Did your blog posts follow the 80-20% ratio? That ratio means 80% information and 20% sell (preferably soft). You might mix up how you follow this ratio. You might have a single blog post that builds to the announcement of a special offer or sale. It could mean several posts devoid of promotion followed by one promotional post. You may use a news item to highlight your company values and/or mission statement.

Were your blog posts brief? Three hundred to five hundred words is the ideal length; people expect blog posts to be short. If you have a topic that will take up more words, break it into parts. This tactic can also create greater readership. Link from one post to the next.

What kind of response rate did you get? As with evaluating newsletter unsubscribe rates, you need to do some detailed analysis using Google Analytics. Both subscribe rates and comment rates indicate the popularity of a blog in general, and it can also show the interest in specific subjects.

You might find that people are most interested in hot topics. That won’t give you specific topics, but you will know to focus on current news as subject matter.

If you find that your blog posts generally don’t draw comments, think about different ways to encourage responses. But don’t take It seriously, People are less likely to comment on blogs than they used to.

Do you link your blogs and newsletters? Always look for ways to make these connections, and link both newsletters and blog posts to your web site. Ideally, your blog is on your web site, but you can link to the more business-oriented sections of the site. A useful way to do this on a blog is to write brief summaries of new information on your web site with links.

If you were not the blog post writer, check in with whoever is. It’s sometimes hard work to churn out blog posts on a daily or even weekly basis. People may need help or relief. Your company should pick a reasonable schedule and stick to It.

Maybe you need a new approach. It might make sense to have a team of people contributing to the blog. A suggestion box where people can put topics they’d like to see in the blog might stimulate ideas.

Creativity needs new sources for renewal. Again, study the Zappos.com model.

Pat Iyer is a C Suite Network Contributor, one of the original 100. She started blogging in 2009 and has written thousands of blogs since. Executives hired Pat to help them share their expertise in non-fiction books. Connect with Pat through her website at patiyer.com.