Is your B2B blog looking tired and uninspired?

A change is as good as a rest. So if you think your B2B blog is looking a little tired or uninspired, perhaps it’s time to make some changes.

The crux of a good blog is educative and valuable content that addresses your audience's needs.

However, that content should also be presented in a delectable way. And it should be written in a clear and accessible voice that strikes a chord with your readers.

Yes, of course, looks can be deceiving. Just because something seems attractive, that doesn’t mean it has substance. But appearances are important online - people will often judge the book by its cover before they make a decision on whether it’s worth reading.

And even when they've committed to reading your blog, if the topic isn't delivered in a way that keeps them fascinated, they'll be gone. 

So how can you inject some energy back into your B2B blog?

Give your content a chance

It’s likely that you’ve invested a lot of time in creating blog posts. You’ve probably had meetings, carefully crafted an editorial calendar - and each writer will have drawn on their best reserves.

So you want the people you’re targeting to read your posts, right? Otherwise, you efforts will have been in vain. That means you need to present your content in an appealing way.

Writing on Blogging Wizard, Elna Cain says: "If your blog is hard to navigate, slow to load and doesn’t make [your content] easy to share, what good is your blog […]?

"At this point in the game, people are leaving your blog before they’ve even had a chance to invest in your content."

Say a reader comes to your latest blog post via social media. They see a link on Twitter, for example, and click through to your site. They’re intrigued…

However, we’ve all been on websites that stand out for the wrong reasons: they look dated; you’re not sure where to go next, and the whole thing jars somehow – there’s no cohesion. Add to that that the text is dense and hard to read; the images are cheesy, and the colours clash.

The headline alone isn’t enough. If the presentation of your blog doesn’t attract your readers’ attention - and keep it - then your content simply won’t stand a chance.

So think about how your site is laid out. Is it easy on the eye and user-friendly? Or are there areas that require improvement? Identifying and resolving issues can make all the difference to your blog's success. 

Create a reader-friendly experience

In a previous post, I discussed how you can make your B2B blog posts more reader-friendly by focusing on five key areas:

1. Headlines
2. Sub-headings
3. Bullet points
4. Images
5. White space

Each of these elements come together to make your blog posts look inviting to your audience. And once you’ve mastered these, there’s another factor to consider: tone of voice.

To an extent, the tone of your blog will be determined by your brand’s personality and the needs of your buyer personas – as well as the individual quirks of each writer. However, the way you structure your sentences, the vocabulary you use and the stylistic techniques you favour will all have an impact too.

Writing on HubSpot, Corey Eridon says: "A content creator that makes purposeful stylistic choices is ensuring their content reads in a way that resonates with their readers and makes it easy - even enjoyable - for them to consume that content."

You may regularly write about topics that are of the utmost interest to your readers – ground-breaking industry news; product and service developments; problem-solving techniques – but if the tone of your post is wrong, the value is too often lost.

Wake up your B2B blog 

Think about it this way. You decide to go to a café that you have heard serves amazingly tasty coffee. But when you arrive the sign is falling off the front, the windows are dirty, and the door is hard to open. You may change your mind about wanting coffee.

But let’s say you do go in and order a coffee. The person behind the counter is bored and indifferent. You decide you don’t want the coffee after all.

Alternatively, you pay for the coffee and drink it. It is amazingly tasty coffee, but your enjoyment of it is tainted by the experience you’ve had. You’re unlikely to go to that café for coffee again.

As you can see, you can produce wonderful content, but if it’s presented poorly and doesn’t engage the reader, its impact will be severely diluted. 

If you think your B2B blog is looking a little tired on uninspired, your audience will certainly think the same. Time to make a change...