These are the most common mistakes I see businesses make when it comes to blogging (and how to fix them).
You’ve invested in a blog for your business because you want it to bring new leads into your pipeline and new revenue into your sales dashboard.
And with the right strategy, your blog can absolutely do that for you.
BUT (and that’s a big but), many businesses get a few crucial things wrong, limiting the results they see from their blog.
So to make sure that YOUR business doesn’t repeat the same mistakes, I’m bringing you the top 8 blogging mistakes I see business make. And of course, we’ll talk about how to fix them with actionable steps.
By the end, you’ll know exactly what to tweak in your blogging strategy so you can see those metrics jump up again.
(Intrusive thought: Speaking of top 8… Who’s been around since MySpace when we had to choose our top 8 friends? You could always tell who broke up because their “boyfriend” would suddenly disappear from the list. Anyway…)
The first mistake is so important, because if you’re making this one, your blog could be losing you money. Let me explain.
Mistake #1: Writing your content for the wrong person
Before you even sit down to write, before you plan out your content calendar, you want to make sure your blog strategy is solid.
That means you know exactly who you’re writing for, what they want, and how you’re going to use your content to draw them toward your products and services.
You start with mapping out your customer journey—from unaware bystander to loyal customer—and figuring out what people need at each stage.
What are they thinking, what are their biggest questions, and what do they need to know before they can move forward?
Your blog should be fine-tuned to the needs of people who are traveling *that* customer journey, no matter which stage they’re in.
Yet sometimes, businesses write content for people who aren’t on that journey at all.
Instead of writing for potential customers, they write for other business owners, they write for people without the budget to buy, or they write about things they like (aka writing for themselves).
But what’s the point of this? What’s the point of spending precious time, effort, and money to build a blog just to attract someone who will never buy from you?
Even I’ve done this. Sometimes it’s hard to see your own business from the outside and make sure your own strategy is sound.
But this is your chance to think about your current content and who it’s for. Is your content focused on someone who is or will likely be a customer if they just learn more about your products and services?
If not, it’s time to stop, refocus, and plan your strategy again.
Got this part down? Next, let’s talk about Mistake #2, which happens when planning your content calendar.
Mistake #2: Writing about your own interests (not your reader’s)
Many business owners log into their blogging platform and think, “Hmmm… what do I want to tell my customers today?”
WARNING… This is the totally wrong approach.
Your customers buy from you for a reason. They have real problems, and your products and services solve them. They have big shiny goals, and your products and services get them a step closer to those goals.
It was never about your products or services. And it was never about your business.
It was always about solving the customer’s problem, and helping them reach their goals.
Your blog should follow the same formula. Think about those problems you know your audience is facing, and what kind of information you could share to help them find a solution.
Each blog post answers one single question they’re asking or helps solve one single problem they’re facing. Between these, it’s okay to mention product updates, business news, and other things that you want to share.
When you do this right, your blog won’t be shunned as another boring corporate newsroom. It’ll be an exciting place for your customers to check into regularly, hoping they’ll find another nugget of goodness they can use to reach their goals.
That said, finding the topic is only half the battle to getting readers. The other half is what we’ll look at with Mistake #3.
Mistake #3: Writing boring or meaningless headlines and intro paragraphs
You can spend all the time in the world coming up with an awesome blog topic idea that propels your reader to her ultimate goals.
Maybe she’ll solve her biggest problem in the first paragraph and suddenly be able to earn tens of thousands of dollars.
You know your blog post is life changing and you can’t wait to share it with the world.
But if you don’t craft the right headline and opening paragraph of that blog post, no one will get to the million-dollar insights you’ve included inside.
So how do you create a headline that pulls your reader inn like an industrial-strength magnet?
Here are the points I consider when writing my own:
- Name the problem or ultimate goal in the headline itself. Make sure they know the content will solve the problem, answer the question, or help them reach a goal.
- You can create curiosity to read your article, even if the person didn’t have a question, problem, or goal when they came across it. For example, “What Happened to this Peanut Butter Cookie When Left Out in the Sun for 30 Days?” You probably weren’t asking this question before, but now you’re wondering…
- That said, don’t give away the punchline in the headline. You want to pique their curiosity so they’ll read, so leave part of the surprise for the article itself.
- Look to viral content or popular blogs in your niche for ideas. Notice how they grab your attention and what articles you naturally click on. See what formulas they’re following with their headlines and remix them for your own articles. (I based this article’s headline on one from Jenna Kutcher’s blog.)
- Use numbers, deliverables, or specific timeframes to make your blog seem more actionable. People like to know that the content they’re about to read is short and useful. They don’t want to read a 30-page treatise. I like to make this clear with certain numbers: 3 ways, 65 ideas, in 30 days, or 3 templates you can download.
- Run away from “clever” pun headlines or plays on words. Just be clear with the value in the post. Puns are cute but they don’t work to get clicks, unless you’re printing a paper newsletter circa 1995, or you’re the New York Times. Not either of those? Okay then, don’t do it.
Secondly, what about the introduction paragraph? This is the mistake I see most often, so it’s worth talking about.
The introduction should be short and sweet, but accomplish a few important goals:
- Pique curiosity in the very first sentence. Just like the headline, the first sentence has to connect with the reader and get them to read. If this is boring, you’ll lose them, so make sure that this is good. (Look at other articles you like to see how they do this.)
- Reflect their question, problem, or goal back to them. Tell them what they’re feeling as they’re opening your blog post. Express the questions they have and what they want to know. Show them they’re reading the right article and that you fully understand where they’re coming from.
- Tell them what they’ll learn inside the article. Don’t give the answers away, but tease them. For example: “You’ll learn how to structure your content calendar, the 4 elements to include in every content calendar, and 5 common mistakes of planning content and how to avoid them.”
- Bonus: What they’ll be able to do by the end of the article. I don’t include this every time, but these phrases as so powerful: “By the end, you’ll know exactly how to…” “By the end, you’ll have a detailed plan to…”
- Finally, you want to transition into the content with a short transitional phrase to make the reading experience smooth like butter. The phrase “Let’s dive in!” is so overplayed that even ChatGPT relies on it, but I also use it because it works. You can use anything that you like here, as long as it helps bridge to the first paragraph.
Phew, that was a long one. But it’s so important.
Getting this right will help more readers get into your content, where all the helpful info reigns.
Next up is Mistake #4. Fix this to get more leads and sales from your content.
Mistake #4: Not structuring your content to build into sales
We’ve talked a lot about your readers and how to plan your content so it meets their needs first.
But content doesn’t exist solely to serve your reader’s interests. It’s a bridge that connects your readers’ objectives and yours, in one neatly-tied package.
That means every article you write should tie into your products and services, either directly or indirectly.
At the very least, each post should attract your ideal client. So if you’re a wedding planner, you could answer any and all questions that an engaged couple might have leading up to their wedding day. You might even answer questions about getting engaged, because you know those people will eventually get married.
Then inside each post, you want to include at least one of three things:
- A description of your business and what you do or sell, to build awareness of your business (plus a link to your contact page or another page to learn more)
- Suggestions or mentions of products or services or a recommended product carousel (choose ones that a reader of the blog would be interested in)
- Link to a free resource the reader can download to get more in-depth support in exchange for their email address (This might be an ebook, fillable worksheet, or other guide)
Some blog posts include all three, which only improves your chances of turning readers into customers.
So the next time you write a post, don’t just give your reader the information they’re looking for.
Help them take the next step by leading them into your mailing list or showing them products and services they can buy to make it even easier to reach their goals.
Now, the next mistake might surprise you.
Mistake #5: Only writing SEO content
Some people make it sound like blog content = SEO and that’s all that matters.
And yes, you should write a lot of your posts with good SEO strategy so you can get traffic from Google Search.
But if you’re only optimizing for SEO, you’re leaving a lot of money on the table.
Let me explain. When you’re optimizing an article for SEO, you need to find a keyword that people are actually searching for.
You choose a keyword, then write an article that fits what searchers are looking for.
But there’s one problem. With this strategy, you can only write articles about what people are already looking for.
What about the new perspective you’re bringing to the table, that no one has thought about yet? Who’s gonna search for that?
If you’ve mapped out your customer journey, you know there are some things your clients need to know to move to the next step. The problem is, they’re not searching for those topics because they’re not aware of them yet.
That’s why you want to follow the tips under Mistake #4 to build up a mailing list (and optional social media following) where you can promote new blog posts to your audience.
This is how you’ll share new perspectives with your audience and challenge them with new information they didn’t know they needed.
So don’t write only for SEO. Think outside the box and give your audience the content they want, but don’t know how to find.
Next up, a mistake I often see experts make that can actually alienate your client instead of attract them.
Mistake #6: Using insider terms instead of your customer’s language
When you’ve been inside your business for a while, you get really used to your industry, topics, products, and services.
You know all the acronyms and product features like the back of your hand.
The problem is, your readers have no idea what that stuff is.
They’re not the expert—that’s what they need you for!
You want to get inside your readers’ heads and understand the language they’re using to describe their problem and need.
They might not say, “I need to get my carburetor looked at because my car isn’t accelerating correctly.” Instead, they might be saying, “My car’s making funny noises and isn’t driving smoothly. What’s wrong?”
Make sure your topics, headlines, intro paragraphs, and all the copy inside your blog is mirroring your customer’s language.
Pssst… where to find examples of customer’s language? Conduct customer interviews, read through your survey data, read book reviews in your niche, dig into Reddit questions, look at reviews of your business and competitors, read blog comments, etc. etc.
Just as you naturally feel close to people who think and talk like you, your readers will feel the same way about your business.
After starting out in layman’s terms, you can explain your acronyms, products and services, and all the features. Help them to become the expert. But don’t start there.
With that, we’ve fixed all the mistakes that can hamper content from reaching its full potential. Now let’s talk about what comes after that, namely, how to get your blog post in front of readers.
Mistake #7: Waiting for traffic to magically appear
Some people fall prey to the “McDonald’s phenomenon,” a name I just came up with as I was writing this intro.
McDonald’s ran a series of ads from the 70’s on with a famous jingle that said, “You deserve a break today.” (Don’t watch this unless you want an awesome new song stuck in your head.)
A ton of businesses jumped on this bandwagon and we were told “You deserve it” in a hundred different ways.
Now when we post content on our blog, we feel that somehow we’ve “earned” traffic. We deserve it! And we sit and wait for that traffic to show up.
But the truth is, that traffic is not coming. At least not for a long while.
That’s why bloggers often talk about the 80/20 rule of content, meaning that you should spend 80% of your blogging time actually promoting the content.
Maybe that’s too much for your business right now, but anything is better than nothing.
What can you do to promote a blog post?
- Post it to your personal social media, company social media, LinkedIn, or whatever channels you have.
- Reach out to people you’ve quoted or influential people you think might be interested in the article and share it with them. (They might share it or link to it.)
- Run ads for your blog post.
- Share the blog post in your weekly email newsletter.
Remember that people are waiting for your content so they can get another step closer to their goals. Make it easier for them to find it.
Finally, if you’ve been struggling to actually create content with your busy schedule, you might be making this last mistake.
Mistake #8: Creating content only when you “find time” for it
Content creation is a full-time job. I mean, literally, thousands of people create content as their full-time job.
So it’s no wonder you don’t have time to create content. You have a million other things to do to keep the business running.
That said, if you feel that content is a worthy investment for your business (check out these benefits of blogging if you’re not sure), you want to have a system in place so content gets produced like clockwork.
If you wait for inspiration to strike or for a few minutes to free themselves up in your schedule, it’ll never happen.
If you approach content writing without a plan, you’ll spend hours on a single post and have nothing to show for it.
Here are a few resources that can help you with this:
- Check out my free content brief template that can help you quickly plan out a piece of content and hand it off to other writers
- My blog is aimed to give free help to business owners. Let me know in the comments what you need help with in terms of blogging and I can write an article about it.
- If you’re ready to outsource, I’m a blog strategist and content writer, and I can take this whole thing off your plate. Get in touch with me on my Work With Me page if you want to chat more about this.
Takeaway
If you’re ready to create a professional blog for your business, and you’re ready to start seeing more traffic, leads, and sales through that blog, you want to do everything in your power to avoid these 8 mistakes.
Tackling all of them at once can be overwhelming. I recommend narrowing it down to just one or two that form your biggest bottleneck, and working on those first.
Which one sticks out to you most?
