A business blog can be a really useful resource for your customers. It can help you to establish credibility within your industry. It can boost the SEO of your website. And it can even form part of an influencer marketing strategy.
A business blog can do all this and more. But where to start when you are new to blogging? Take a look at our step by step guide:
Step #1 Find out What Your Customers Want
Whatever the purpose of your blog, it’s only going to be useful if it’s being read. Therefore, your content should be based upon what your customers want to read.
Your blog should be entertaining, informative and not too salesy. Your blog posts could answer frequently asked customer questions. Or address common customer problems related to your industry.
Look to your customer emails, your social media pages and the publications your customers like to read for inspiration.
Step #2 Create a Content Plan
Decide how often you want to create content for your blog. Then create a calendar with titles for the next few months. It may be that you want to write a post related to a big event – Christmas or Valentine’s – and a calendar will help you plan accordingly.
Make sure your plan is realistic, especially if you’ll be the one responsible for writing posts. And then stick to it. Maintaining your business blog often falls down a list of priorities when you’re in the midst of day to day responsibilities.
But if you’re dedicated to getting a business blog off the ground you need to be consistent and provide regular posts for your growing audience.
Step #3 Think About SEO
When your blog post is found through a Google search, you open up your post and your brand to new potential customers. To feature in Google search results, your posts need to be created with SEO in mind.
Pick titles that include commonly searched for phrases and then repeat this phrase throughout your post, featuring it in subtitles wherever possible. However, always remember that content needs to be readable and engaging (Google cares about this too). So don’t let SEO concerns cloud the quality of your blog.
Step #4 Learn about Links
Putting links within your website to other areas of your website (internal linking) is thought to boost your SEO. Your business blog is the perfect place to do this. Where relevant, add links to previous blog posts or other web pages.
Getting reputable media outlets or social media influencers to link to your blog (link building) is another sure fire way to improve your SEO standing. This is easiest when you’ve got hugely popular or useful information in your blog post. Referencing influencers or getting influencers to write a guest post can also help you get the links you need.
Step #5 Get Social
It’s not just about attracting new readers and customers. When you write a new blog post, spread the word to existing followers. Use your mailing list and social media pages to attract more readers for each new post. And get followers to share your posts with their own social networks too. Adding social media sharing buttons to your blog post pages makes this as easy as possible.
Step #6 Measure the Results
As your archive of uploaded blog posts grows, you’ll be better placed to judge which content has worked and which hasn’t. Head to Google Analytics to see how many views your post has had. Look on social media to see how much engagement it’s generating. And then develop future content with this analysis in mind. Your blog will only get better as time goes on.
Get in touch with the Press Loft Team if you have any questions: info@pressloft.com
