Before you write a blog, it is important to define expectations, which involves a three-step process.

1. Identify a specific goal. The obvious goal is to sell your product or service, but there are other goals along the way.  These include improved clickthrough rates, shares, retweets, and/or downloads or increased lead generation.

2. State the conditions under which the desired behavior will take place. Examples include: “When they read this blog, they will…” To be able to predict behavior requires knowing and understanding your target market. For instance, a first-time home buyer is going to behave differently than someone buying a second home.

3. Finally, define your expectations for achieving the goal. Be clear and be specific about what signals success. What are your benchmarks? What are your competitors achieving? Set minimal and optimal measures of success. Then decide what corrective steps to put in place if you don’t achieve the optimal goal. At the end of the day, re-evaluate, restate new goals, conditions, and expectations.