How To Start A Business Blog
Starting a business blog might seem like a daunting task but we’re here to assure you it isn’t. Today we’ll explain the importance of having a blog and then outline a basic roadmap for getting started.
Why You Should Have A Business Blog
A blog will help generate traffic to your website. If you’re optimizing your posts for search engines, overtime, they will begin to rank in search results. Blog posts also serve as great content for social media! If your topics are interesting enough, you can expect to see clicks to your website as well as shares.
Step-by-Step Guide For Starting Your Business Blog
1. Research your audience.
A business blog differs from a personal blog in that it focuses on a specific niche and audience. In order to craft blog posts that will draw in your target audience, you first need to identify exactly who your target audience is.
“If you have worked with your company for a long time, you may feel like you have a good grasp on who your customer is, but it still helps to actually put those ideas to paper. Are the majority of your customers male or female? Where do they live? What do they do for a living? What are their buying habits? What are their needs and challenges? What questions do they ask?”
By gaining a deep understanding of your target audience, it will be easier to develop content that truly interests them. Through this process, you’ll also learn what style your messaging should be delivered in and where you audience goes to seek information.
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2. Plot out your keywords.
In order to get found in Google searches, the content on your website and blog needs to reflect what potential site visitors are actually searching for. Make a list of as many long-tail and short-tail keywords as possible.
A long-tail keyword contains three or more words (i.e. chocolate wedding cupcakes Middletown). A short-tail keywords are typically under three words and essentially more broad in nature (i.e. chocolate cupcakes). You’ll want to include a healthy mix of both throughout your website and blog.
“Naturally, short term keywords are bound to give your website more hits since they are less specific. These short tail keywords are able to capture a bigger share of your target market. However, long tail keywords are more about giving quality hits than a large number of traffic. Targeting short tail keywords, however makes yielding positive results difficult and are often time consuming and expensive.”
(Quora)
3. Create an editorial calendar.
Once you’ve developed a list of keywords, coming up with topics to write about will be a breeze. If you’re still left feeling stumped, you can read our post, “3 Ways To Come Up With Blog Post Topics.”
We like to use an editorial calendar so we can tie our blog posts into our other marketing efforts such as social media campaigns and paid Google ads. By planning out our posts in advance, we can easily build other content around each topic and avoid the headaches associated with scrambling for new ideas each week. It’s all about being prepared!
4. Devise a plan for CTAs.
If you’ve enticed a visitor to read a blog post, don’t miss the opportunity to engage them even more! Include a call-to-action that fits the context of each post. Let the reader know what action you’d like them to take next. If you published a post about The Benefits Of Hot Yoga, offer them a Beginner’s Guide To Yoga Poses or a coupon to try a free class. The idea is to keep the visitor active on your website for as long as possible.
5. Track your success.
Whatever platform you use to host your blog, make sure you’re getting the most out of it. Regularly analyze the traffic and CTA clicks for each post so you can see how it stacks up against the rest. Having these insights will allow you to better leverage your hot topics in the future!
6. Share your posts with the world!
Put your social media sites to work and be sure to share each and every blog post with your networks! Include an inspiring image that relates to the post (along with the link) and encourage your followers to share. This will help drive traffic to your blog and hopefully score you new subscribers!