For brands and businesses of all shapes and sizes, blogging has basically become a necessity at this point.

From improving SEO to attracting leads, there are many benefits of having a blog. When done right, blogging can be very effective (key phrase: “done right”). This means that as a blogger you must stay away from the five deadly sins that may be causing you trouble.

Not understanding your audience

The key to being successful in marketing is understanding your audience and how you should be communicating to them. Depending on the industry you are in, your customers will have different attitudes. Your voice and tone will be much different if, let’s say, you’re a financial service company writing about personal finance compared to a real estate business giving DIY home improvement tips. If you have a solid understanding of who you’re talking to, it’ll be much easier to figure out what you’re writing about and how you’re writing it. Research your target audience enough so that you are able to create content that is relatable and valuable to them.

Not having an editorial calendar

If you have a blog but don’t have an editorial calendar, stop what you’re doing right now and create one! An editorial calendar is crucial for organizing your ideas and being consistent with publishing. Fortunately, this is a mistake that is easy to solve. You can make one using Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets and share it with your content writers or the marketing group for feedback. An editorial calendar allows you to plan out the topics you want to cover over time and also holds you accountable for taking action. It’ll also make things easier for you because you won’t have to spend time cramming for ideas and staring at a blank screen. Your ideas will already be laid out for you!

Producing boring content

People like to be entertained, or at least interested in what they’re reading. Now that your editorial calendar is created, don’t treat creating content as a chore. If you are writing blogs simply for the sake of producing content by a deadline, your audience will be able to tell. Write about things that will engage, inform or solve a problem. Start by creating blog titles that will spark interest immediately. Say it in a way that will grab their attention and make them feel empowered to listen to you. If your content is boring, people will skip over it and stop visiting your blog.

Not promoting your content

Now that you have written your content, don’t let it stay stagnant. Part of earning brand recognition is promoting yourself well. The easiest way to promote your content is by sharing it on social media. Encourage your audience to join the conversation to get more people talking. You can also reach out to social media influencers and ask them to share or promote your content. This is a great way to catch the eyes of people who otherwise may have never seen your blog. Promotion is a key step that cannot be forgotten when blogging.

Being impatient

Lastly, it is important for you to realize that success takes time. The traffic to your site will not instantly triple overnight and you won’t jump from the third to first page of search results on Google. Be patient when blogging because your skills will only increase over time. As cliche as it sounds, practice does make perfect. Don’t get frustrated or discouraged if your blog isn’t doing as well as you would like. Keep on writing, because eventually your hard work will pay off.

About Lauren Usrey: Lauren is a student at the University of Texas at Austin and a marketing communications intern at Swyft. She supports clients with social media, blogging and tech PR activities. Swyft has offices in Austin, Denver and Houston and provides digital marketing and PR services for tech companies seeking rapid, sustained growth. Some of the services provided include content marketing, social media strategy and ad buys, email marketing, and media relations.