Business blogs are becoming increasingly common. Especially in B2B industries. B2B, for those of you who don’t know this is the following:

Businesses that sell products or service to other businesses.

However, some business blogs are getting better results than others. 

Because some blog post strategies lead to better results than others.

But what mistakes are the most common among business blogs?

And what can you learn from them?

Because the mistakes I’m discussing today are stuff I see pretty much…um all the time…

You might be making the same mistakes without knowing it!

Please note that I included some affiliate links. However, I only endorse apps and businesses I actually love!

1) You blog when “inspiration strikes”

I don’t think there’s any way to break this to you gently.

Publishing “when you feel like it” won’t lead to results. 

Because it will just lead to one of the most fundamental principles of good blogging being left out of the equation:

Trust and relationship-building. 

That’s exactly why consistency is so important.

For instance, did you know that everyone from Mashable, to Lifehacker, and the Buffer Blog are popular because they produce quality content in a timely manner?

All three of these websites pull this off through pumping out new content every week that isn’t just about filling a page.

It’s also about producing something that their audience could learn something from. And they keep coming back for more because it follows a comfortable formula in terms of what gets published and when.

However, consistency isn’t just about being “timely”…

It’s also about sticking to a schedule.

In fact, organizations like SnapInspect have gone from no online presence to an active roster of subscribers, followers, and readers, along with a top-five ranking in Google.

And that’s 100% thanks to their decision to stick to a twice a week publishing schedule.

But why is that result so important? 

Alex Holden explained it best:

When a new customer finds you on Google Places, when engagement on your Facebook Page is seen by others, when someone subscribes to your email list from an archived email they found in their search results, or when someone simply finds out about you through online word of mouth, you know you’re doing something right online.

Doing something “right” is a spot on way of putting it. Because more website visitors means more people to convert to leads and sales.

So, what’s the best day and time for business blogs?

Well…a lot depends on how you’re trying to reach. In his article, The Science of Social Timing, Neil Patel illustrates this beautifully by using businesses with US-based customers and followers as an example:

The Central and Eastern time zones account for over 80% of the population in the United States. Publishing to Facebook at 9 pm in Los Angeles means it’s midnight on the east coast. You’re excluding a huge chunk of potential targets. 

No matter where a majority of your target audience is based, priority number one is to reach them at a time when they’re actually logging into their social media accounts.

And if you’re not sure what times are best, combine tools like CoSchedule, which determines the best times to post based on the times that are popular with your social media followers, with basic user testing.

User testing is basically about testing out different publishing times until you find a time that gets the most amount of results.

It’s also important to keep in mind other factors too, like what deadlines are the most ideal for you and/or your team.

2) You expect instant results…

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. And anyone who has told you, or will tell you that business blogs are the magic pill that instantly solves everything is lying.

Because the results are what happens when you produce a lot of content. Or…to be more specific:

Businesses that produce 16 plus posts a month get 3.5 times more traffic than businesses publishing zero to four articles.

And the solution is simple…

Just keep blogging. And if you don’t have the time or resources to blog consistently hire me, or another blogger to write your content and/or keep your content organized.

But it can be really hard to keep track of your content without a good system…

That’s exactly why editorial calendars are so important. 

They allow you to keep track of ideas, and what stage of the process your content is in.

Not only is the great for businesses who outsource the content writing they produce on their business blogs.

Because it will mean that no deadlines will be forgotten about, and everyone will be reminded that there are deadlines to meet!

It’s also fantastic for solopreneurs who are already managing a lot, and just want to have a system that keeps them organized and motivated to blog regularly.

That’s exactly why I use Trello to keep track of everything that I feature on my blog.

And if you’re not sure what to include on a blog editorial calendar, here’s what my content calendar looks like:

Other details that are worth adding to your editorial calendar include:

• Your writer(s) first and last name, to keep track of who is writing what
• Whether or not writers have been paid (if applicable)
• Status updates on what’s going on with your content, and tasks you need to complete to discuss these issues
• Deadlines (important to keep the consistent stream of content going)
• What category the post falls under (notice the colour coded labels I used)
• Images, research and company updates worth adding as calls to action 

3) You don’t promote your content

If you’re not putting just as much work into promoting your content, as you are putting into the blog content creation process you’re missing out.

A great example of this is Grow and Convert…

Who combines social media group interactions, and conversation on sites like Inbound.Org and Growth Hackers to build relationships with members who are interested in the subjects they cover.

And this has really paid off over the long-term. In fact, it has allowed them to go from 0 to 32,977 unique visitors (users) and built an email list of over 1,767 email subscribers.

They focused exclusively on the communities who are interested in content marketing-related topics and consistently showed up to offer them a great deal of value over the long-term.

In return, those same people came back for more and spread the word to their friends, family, and colleagues. 

So basically the best way to apply this to your business blogs is the following…

There’s a concept that Derek Halpern of Social Triggers calls the 80/20 rule that actually works!

And it goes like this:

Spend 80% of the time promoting the content you’ve already produced, and 20% creating new content from scratch.

This concept was a huge influence on how I typically promote everything from my blog to my podcast.

That’s exactly why Facebook group interactions and email subscriber list building activities are often squeezed into my week.

Whenever I get comments like this, I know I’m reaching the right person:

The best way to get these kinds of results is the following…

Join groups that consist of like-minded people, who are passionate about the topics you cover.

And then take a bit of time out of your day every week to offer value to them, and expect nothing in return. Every once in a while, share your post with group members. But don’t share it in a salesy way.

Share it only when you feel like what you wrote about can offer value to group members.

Even though that sounds like a lot of work…

It’s what is 100% necessary to get your business blogs the return on investment you’re hoping for.

Because you can’t just sit and wait for readers to find you.

And if you’re still not sure how to build a blog from scratch, that is actually worth every penny…

Check out my E-Book, Blog On to boost the reach of your blog content.