Business Blogging 101: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started
Sarah
Like many business owners, you might not see the immediate benefit of starting a blog. In fact, you may balk at the amount of work that goes into the upkeep of such a project, not the least of which involves penning daily posts that provide added value for readers. After all, you’re busy managing your company and may not have time for business blogging.
But you’ll find that there are also plenty of benefits that come with starting an on-site blog. For example, it’s great for raising your page rank, getting found by search engine users, and increasing your traffic. And as these metrics improve, so do your sales.
It also gives you a way to connect with your customers in a personal way and offer them added value. Whether you use it to offer information, entertainment, or product tutorials, your blog is a great way to reach customers and inspire brand loyalty.
But first, you have to actually create your blog, which can be tough for busy professionals that don’t have the appropriate knowledge or skill set. So if you need a crash course in business blogging, this is the place to get started.
Why Your Business Needs a Blog
Let’s start by answering one of the most common questions among business owners: Does blogging increase SEO?
Absolutely. Business blogging is one of the key ways to increase your ranking and make your brand more visible on top search engines like Google. Blogging also provides ample opportunity to stay on top of what’s trending and take advantage of current happenings to draw attention and grow your business. If you want organic traffic from search, you need to start blogging.
But there’s a lot more to business blogging than simply increasing target numbers. It’s also important to keep your readers happy. You can do this by offering timely and useful content to your readers.
By providing product tutorials, offering insights on industry news, interviewing experts, and more, you can add value for your current customers and connect with prospective ones, developing relationships and encouraging patronage.
How to Get Started Blogging for Your Business
Business blogging requires a certain level of finesse. It’s not enough to choose relevant and timely topics; you also need to write in a style that is authoritative but interesting to readers. It’s a fine line, and it’s all too easy to miss the mark, especially for inexperienced writers.
You’ll want to start with blog topic creation, and this can be difficult in and of itself. But a good rule of thumb is to develop a library of evergreen blog content ideas (that is, topics that are always relevant) that you can keep in your back pocket. This way, you can use current trends to drive the majority of your content but still have topics on hand when there’s not much going on.
You must also develop a voice that readers can connect to. Finding ways to exhibit the passion you have for your industry can really help to promote you as an authority in your field, as well as engage the interest of readers.
Setting Clear Objectives and Realistic Expectations
A well-managed blog will deliver results over time when properly managed. However, this isn’t necessarily what you can hope to expect when you first start a business blog. And it’s important to set clear objectives at the outset and keep your expectations realistic if you don’t want to face disappointment.
Objectives will vary from business to business, but common objectives include connecting with and retaining customers, increasing traffic and sales, offering added value through education and entertainment, becoming a noted authority within your industry, encouraging sharing, and even forming an online community.
As for setting realistic expectations, this can be hard to do at the outset since you have no benchmark for success. The best bet is to establish a pattern for growth over the first year. As long as your blog is steadily gaining steam among your target audience, you’re on the right track. Even if you only see marginal progress each day, you’re still moving in the right direction. Of course, you could always speed up this process by using professional content writing services.
Create Personas (for Your Readers and Your Voice)
Usually, you’ll need to become accustomed to frequently writing before you can really find a voice and determine a clear persona for your target reader.
But you don’t have to go it alone. Your employees can help you here. If one of your goals with a business blog is putting a personal face on your company, business blogging 101 dictates positioning the faces behind the corporate facade front and center.
Just as your customers represent a variety of demographics, so too do your employees, who come from different backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, religions, and socioeconomic situations. They also focus on different aspects of your business and your industry. So right away, you have an array of personas at your disposal, and they can speak to the various demographics you serve by presenting their unique viewpoints related to the topics you choose.
Essential Business Blogging 101 Ingredients: Keyword Research
Of course, the main thing you have to focus on when you begin business blogging is getting consumers in the door. After all, your blog will not serve you well if no one knows it exists. Especially when you’re starting out, you need to capitalize on strategies to draw attention to your blog and develop a readership.
Search engine optimization (SEO) and keyword research in particular are essential to reaching the public and letting them know that your blog is the premier source for industry knowledge and goings-on. When you stay abreast of trending keywords relating to your content, you have a much better chance of being found by both search engines and their users.
Whether you opt to manage your business blog yourself or you decide to hire help, you cannot forego the advantages that only SEO can provide. Without keyword research, optimization, and blog post promotion, you may as well be operating in the dark.
The Ultimate Business Blogging Hack: Professional Content Writing Services
Creating blogs for businesses is not quite as hard as writing a timeless classic, but it can certainly be a tough task, especially if turning a phrase isn’t your thing. Even if you can channel your inner Hemingway, managing your own blog takes a lot of time and effort.
While there may not be many shortcuts in running a business, this is a rare exception. You can outsource blog writing to Write Collective and let us help you grow your business blog.
Using our SEO content writing service is a breeze. Just pick your content marketing package, place your order, and we’ll assign it to a writer that specializes in your niche. We’ll have your publish-ready copywriting delivered in a flash, letting you grow your business while publishing effective content that converts into sales.