As much as you might read and re-read your blog

posts after you publish them, you're not the only

reader, or the intended reader.
When you start blogging, ideas will come to you at
random times -- in the shower, on a run, while on
the phone with your mom. While the ideas may
come at random moments, the ideas themselves
should never be random. Just because it's a good
idea in general -- or something that interests you
personally -- doesn't mean it's a good idea for your
company.
Solution: Align your blog posts with company
growth goals.
The reason you're blogging is to solve problems
for your audience and, ultimately, to grow your
business. So, all of your blog post ideas
should help serve those growth goals. They should
have natural tie-ins to issues in your industry and
address specific questions and concerns your
prospects have.
Need help figuring out what those goals are and
how to address them? Chat with your manager
about the larger company goals, and then schedule
a meeting with someone on the sales team to hear
what questions they get asked most often. After
both meetings, you should know which goals you
need to achieve and have some ideas on how to
achieve them.
2. Write like you talk.
Mistake: Your writing is too stiff.
Writing a blog post is much different than writing a
term paper. But when bloggers first start out, they
usually only have experience with the latter. The
problem? The style of writing from a term paper
is not the style of writing people enjoy reading.
Let's be honest: Most of the people who see your
post aren't going to read the whole thing. If you
want to keep them interested, you have to compel
them to keep reading by writing in a style that's
effortless to read.
Solution: Try to write blogs that feel
personable.
It's okay to be more conversational in your writing -
- in fact, we encourage it. The more approachable
your writing is, the more people will enjoy reading
it. People want to feel like they're doing business
with real people, not robots.
So loosen up your writing. Throw in contractions.
Get rid of the jargon. Make a pun or two. That's
how real people talk -- and that's what real people
like to read.
3. Show your personality; don't tell it.
Mistake: You think people care about you as a
writer.
It sounds harsh, but it's the truth: When people first
start out blogging, they think that their audience
will be inherently interested in their stories
and their interests ... but that's not the case. It's no
knock against them as a person -- it's just that
when you're new, no one is interested in you and
your experiences. People care way more about
what you can teach them.
Solution: Infuse your personality without
eclipsing the topic.
Even though people don't really care that
it's you that's writing the post, you can infuse parts
of your personality in your writing to make them
feel more comfortable with you. How you do that is
entirely up to you. Some people like to crack jokes,
some like to make pop culture references, and
others have a way with vivid descriptions.
HubSpot's Director of Content Corey Wainwright is
particularly good at this. Here's an example from
the introduction of one of her posts: