3 Reasons I Read This Blog Over That Blog

Every morning, I try to update myself on the most current events and relevant industry information. This ritual helps keep me focused and educated on topics that are important to our business and our customers.  Today, I paused and thought about what resources I find most engaging and valuable to me during my morning research and more importantly, WHY?

Two of my personal favorite resources come to mind when thinking about WHY I consistently find myself immersed in their content.  The first is the OpenView Partners blog and the other is the Smartbrief on Social Media.  Let me share the 3 things I love most about these business blogs: 

1.  Titles: Eye-catching, engaging titles that make me want to read the post

2.  Value Up Front:  a few short sentences that introduce me to what I will learn from reading each particular post

3.  Newsletter:  sending the best blog content in email newsletter format to loyal readers on a consistent basis 

All three of these factors lead me to open, click and read the content that they produce.  Writing great post titles is not my personal forte.  But it is so important.  In my next post, I’ll elaborate on what I think are great blog post titles.  Some people are naturally gifted at this art, but for those of us who are not so lucky, there are specific formats that you can emulate.  After a great title, telling a reader what they will gain from spending the time to read the post is incredibly valuable.  Just like your high school English teacher used to ask me, “What’s Your Thesis?”  Those first few sentences are crucial for getting people to read on, so try and give the value up front. 

Finally, the fact that I receive this content weekly or daily in my email inbox is one of the biggest reasons I’m a loyal reader.  If your company is investing in quality content creation for your blog, it’s simple to feed a consistent newsletter with your best content.  Integrating your blog into your email marketing is a great way to build thought leadership, make your content more shareable, and offer your newsletter subscribers a variety of great content.  At Compendium, we help our clients execute on this strategy.  Make the company blog the hub of online content.  Then, use that repository to fuel your social media engagement, your email efforts, your web site home page, and all other places your market consumes content.