There are many ways businesses and entrepreneurs earn their audience’s trust and build a personal connection with them. One of the tried and tested methods is blogging.
Despite the ever-increasing appetite for short-form video content on social media, blogging remains a powerful tool for sharing expertise, establishing trust, and driving brand growth.
But it can be challenging to design a blog that hits the mark.
Organizations and individual creators may create a blog with over-cluttered layouts, share impersonal content, and offer confusing navigation to their visitors. This can reduce dwell time as the readers will struggle to find relevant and relatable information quickly.
Fortunately, these roadblocks can be navigated with a thoughtful design approach.
In this article, let’s look at how to design a blogger site that builds trust and feels personal.
1. Show Your Authentic Self
There are plenty of tried and tested ‘best practices’ for blogging. While these tips help companies and solopreneurs hit the ground running, they prevent creators from building a unique identity in their niche.
Consequently, their message feels inauthentic, making it difficult to earn the readers’ trust and foster a connection.
An easy way to start is by using real photos instead of stock images. They could be messy workspaces, team members in meetings, or behind-the-scenes shots. These pictures will reflect the true personality and increase content relevance.
Moreover, teams and individuals leveraging AI tools like large language models (LLMs) to write content should do so with a structured approach. It is pivotal to humanize AI text before publishing the draft for the world.
Finally, develop a consistent brand tone. It could be semi-casual, witty, or technical, depending on the audience’s preferences. This makes the blog ‘human’ rather than a faceless entity.
2. Craft a Clean Layout
Modern no-code website builders make it easy for everyone, including non-technical stakeholders, to create dynamic blogs. Adding interactive elements, pop-ups, and animations has become easier than ever.
However, they could clutter the blog and distract readers from the core offering — content.
Each element on a webpage demands attention from visitors. Too many can cause cognitive overload, decreasing dwell time and conversions.
Follow the KISS philosophy — keep it simple, stupid.
The blog page and post pages should be clean and minimalistic, featuring the elements that are necessary to enhance the reading experience.
Additionally, ensure straightforward navigation with easy-to-find links in the header for key pages like About, Services (or Products), and Contact. Visitors can quickly get the hang of it and explore different aspects of the blog.
It can also be advantageous to include a search bar in the blog. This will help curious readers find relevant content, boosting retention.
3. Deliver Valuable Content
Whenever a visitor lands on a blog, they are taking a leap of faith. They hope that the content will be worth their time. When it matches or exceeds their expectations, they become a follower or a fan. Otherwise, they may leave and never return.
Therefore, it is essential for businesses and entrepreneurs to deliver value through their blog articles to ensure the sustained success of their platform. Whether it is educational articles or entertaining posts, the readers must deem the content valuable.
The content should be factually correct, insightful, actionable, and presented in a user-friendly manner.
Maintaining a healthy frequency of publication is important as well.
Too long a gap between two posts can lead to reader disengagement. Erratic publication schedules can make the blog appear inactive and unreliable, affecting trust and brand affinity.
4. Interact With Readers
Encourage visitors to share their opinions in the comment section and, when they do, reply to them appropriately. Creators and brands can also interact with their readers and fans on social media, where the blog posts are promoted and distributed.
This engagement shows appreciation for readers and makes them feel valued. Additionally, these comment sections are a goldmine for ideas to improve the blog further.
These comments could be content suggestions or design update recommendations that are tailored to the audience’s needs.
There are other ways of interacting with blog visitors, too.
Quizzes, surveys, and interactive (gamified) elements on the post pages can be effective tools to boost reader engagement. Bloggers can also create opportunities for user-generated content (UGC), such as guest posts and testimonials.
This enriches the blog’s content pool by bringing in a diverse range of creatives while fostering a sense of community among the audience. They no longer feel like a spectator but an active participant in the content production process.
Wrapping Up
Blogs are still quite effective in building brand authority for both businesses and entrepreneurs.
Teams and individual creators must aim to earn their readers’ trust and establish a personal emotional connection for their blog’s long-term success.
The first step toward that is to be authentic. Sharing real stories and creatives with consistent branding can help build a unique identity.
Then, focus on delivering a clean, minimalistic, and straightforward reading experience.
Third, only publish posts that deliver value. The value could be education, information, or entertainment, depending on the visitors’ preferences.
Finally, engage with the readers and encourage them to participate in the blogging process.
