Blogs; what are they and why are they so popular?

By Marie Pettit.

What makes for a successful blog? And how do you make yours one that people want to read?

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a blog can be defined as “a regular record of your thoughts, opinions, or experiences that you put on the internet for other people to read” or “a website on which one person or group puts new information regularly, often every day” or from a business perspective a blog can be defined as “a record of news, people’s opinions, photos, and videos about a particular subject that someone puts on the internet and adds information, pictures, etc. to regularly”.  You only need to spend  5 minutes online and you will find there are blogs on every subject all over the internet. From students posting recipes to companies offering cybersecurity tips, the limits are endless when it comes to blogging.

Blogs are an incredibly useful tool in the world of marketing. They can be used to showcase exactly what it is that you do and the knowledge that you have, by providing free, helpful, and educational information for all to access, including of course potential customers. When writing a blog remember that you are providing information on your industry, not on yourself or your company, effectively you are trying to guide strangers to your company by providing them with interesting information.

5 things to consider when writing a blog.

Here are our top 5 things to consider when writing, to help your blog stand out and be more reader-friendly:

1. The reader. They are of course the number one priority, try to focus on them. It’s easy to get carried away writing about how wonderful you are or what great cybersecurity solutions your company can provide but this isn’t the purpose of the blog. Think ‘What do I wish people knew about the cybersecurity industry?’ or ‘what topics are interesting or helpful?’…… If your blog contains interesting, informative content, the reader is more likely to stick with it and you are therefore more likely to gain a new regular reader, newsletter subscriber, or even a client.

• The title. The first thing that people will see, the title should grab your reader’s attention. A title sets the precedent for what is to come. When planning a title it is important that it lets the reader know what the blog is about without being too long-winded,  Moz recommends a title of under 60 characters for optimal SEO. Hubspot analysed how their own titles performed and discovered that headlines containing 8-12 words were shared the most on Twitter, headlines of 12-14 words were liked the most on Facebook, and headlines ending with bracketed clarification performed 38% better than those without. It is also essential to consider your keywords, these will help both the reader as well as the search engines in finding your blog in an ocean of millions.

• Structure. Once you have the topic and the title, the next thing you should consider is the blog’s structure. The structure is the blueprint. Having structure gives direction to your writing, allowing you to be more efficient. The structure shouldn’t be too complicated so that your readers are able to easily follow and comprehend what you are saying.
• Links. The links that you decide to include are also important. Links are used to verify the point you are making or to back up the statistics you are sharing, but they can also be used to link to other helpful blogs on your site, to further demonstrate how great and helpful you/your company are. When adding links, they should always open in a new window, you don’t want to encourage a distracted reader away from what they are currently reading.

• Writing Style. Lastly, you need to be aware of your writing style. Nobody wants to read a boring, complicated blog with fancy words and confusing phrases, and cybersecurity, in particular, can be a complex topic, which at times can even be a little dull. Translating technical jargon into a language that executives can understand can be challenging, but remember, if you aren’t finding it interesting why would anyone else? Keep things easy to understand, friendly, and most importantly relatable. Make sure your blog is one that people want to read.

Blogs are one of the most widely used, popular, and effective forms of cybersecurity marketing nowadays. Used correctly they are a wonderful platform to showcase yourself, your company, and your knowledge as well as aiding and subtly showcasing what cybersecurity solutions you offer to potential clients. If done well, there really aren’t many better ways of advertising yourself and attracting new clientele.