Blog content design to improve acquisition

The new year represents fresh beginnings. For a business, fresh beginnings do not happen automatically, but the perspective your team brings to the game, does help inspire, restore and renew. Additionally, updating brand assets help inspire employees, partners, customers and leads. One area we notice a lot of organizations can improve is their blog. Updates to an organization's blog content design can be low hanging fruit.

Simple updates to the design and presentation of content can have a resounding effect--leading to more subscribers, social sharing and potential leads. Here are a few, straightforward tips for giving your blog a fresh start for the new year.

Improve content design

• Scan the blog for dead links. Consider Google Webmaster Tools to help with 404 link errors. Dead links are bad for SEO and visitors.
• Ditch the clutter. Remove any extraneous elements that distract from the content. This will also make room for engagement tools and better utilized social sharing tools.
• Don't overuse too many fonts. Some authors try to decorate their blog with multiple fonts to create emphasis. This can be a turn-off for readers. It creates clutter and makes a blog look like a mangled scrapbook.
• Get into the practice of breaking up large paragraphs of text to make it more comfortable for readers. Big blocks of text scare away curious readers. This will make for scannable blog content, which will improve social sharing, Likes and bookmarking.
• Add media to make your content more attractive. Spend a little extra time acquiring or creating images for your blog, and your readers will be significantly more enticed to stay.
• Consider spending a little extra time creating (rather than just buying) images and media for your blog. This additionally investment can help make your blog more unique and remarkable for visitors.
• Consider overhauling the blog's theme and using a mobile responsive web design approach to improve engagement with mobile-enabled users. Most emails are opened on a mobile device.

Improve engagement

• Include strong calls-to-action. Ensure that the visitor knows how to engage with your brand--encourage it. Don't hide the call-to-action amidst the assortment of other content, images and navigation items. Let your calls-to-action stand out clearly.
• Measure your engagement points. Calls-to-action should be trackable. Consider setting up Google Analytics event tracking or conversion tracking to better understand which calls-to-action, user-pathways and engagement messages work.
• Consider building a subscriber base. For business blogging, a subscriber base can be an often neglected concept. If your organization creates compelling content, then, yes, your blog may attract subscribers. These subscribers may be your best and most committed advocates, leads or fans. Their activities can also help you better understand which content engages and which does not--over time.