Should I start a blog for my business?
Writing a blog to promote your business
The internet is bursting with blogs that have made businesses of all sizes more successful.
Likewise, the internet is a memorial site for the millions of blogs that crashed and burned.
If you’re considering how a blog might make your business more profitable, factor the following into your decision-making.
Establish your blog's business goals
Do you want your blog to pull more traffic to your website? Will your blog better inform your target audience about what your business does? Perhaps your blog will nudge your customers towards taking an action, such as making an enquiry about your services.
Carefully consider why you wish to introduce a blog to your business — or continue to manage one. This will help you confidently decide if the blog you have in mind is right for your business interests.
Will your blog achieve its business goals?
Tip: set SMART goals to build a base of evidence that shows whether your blog is helping or hindering your business.
SMART — in case you’re unfamiliar — is an acronym that refers to goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.
In the case of blogging, your SMART goal could be to produce a certain number of blog posts per month.
Another might be to reach a certain number of blog subscribers per month.
At the pointier end of the marketing funnel, you might set a goal to generate a certain number of business enquiries per month with a call-to-action button on your blog.
All of these goals can be specific, measurable, challenging-but-realistic, and time-capped.
Casting the SMART lens over your blog enables you to pressure-test your goals, and track your performance in the immediate and long-term.
Evaluate the time, energy and resources your blog will require
It’s great to have goals for your blog, and confidence your blog can succeed.
But keep in mind the time and resources you have.
Maybe you envision your blog to be an in-house job, or maybe you’re better placed to outsource the work.
Consider setting smaller SMART goals that won't stretch you too far to start.
Start with one. Track how you go. Refine. Scale up or down based on the performance data you collect from social media insights or website analytics.
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Inspiring facts to help you decide if you should create a blog for your business
Blogs benefit businesses in a range of ways
Blogging for authority
Your blog can build your brand authority and trust by providing highly valuable information for your target audience.
This information can help your audience decide if it wants to learn more about your business, get in touch, make a purchase or even share a testimonial.
Drive qualified traffic to your website
Planning a keyword-optimised content schedule for your blog is a big part of driving qualified website traffic from search engines to your business website. A strategic approach to your blog calendar can help position you for results.
Quickly repurpose great content for social media
You can produce targeted blog posts that serve as an additional communication channel with your audience.
Blogs are a great way to answer important questions your customers frequently ask. Show how your business can address their pain points and share important announcements that customers who visit your website want to know.
Proceed with caution and due diligence
We've discussed many benefits associated with blogging.
But it’s equally important to be aware why many businesses fail to achieve the goals they set for their blogs.
Don't forget your audience
Always write blogs with your target audience in mind.
It can be tempting to write about what interests you personally but that can be very different from what your audience needs to know.
Also remember that your broad target audience breaks down into many segments.
The audience you target might be different in different scenarios.
Consider if you are writing a blog that necessitates more specialised information aimed at your existing customers, or more general information aimed at increasing brand awareness amongst website visitors who aren’t yet your customers.
Fundamentally, it's a simple idea.
Know your audience. Understand the information they need along their customer journey and share that with them on your blog.
Make it informative, actionable, and engaging.
Promote your blog
It would be great if you could hit your blog's publish button and watch your content go viral.
Unfortunately, you’re looking at lottery odds.
Many content marketing experts argue you need to devote about 20 percent of your blogging time to producing content, and the other 80 percent to marketing your content.
If you're happy with your content but not happy with the number of people reading it, you can take a few quick steps to give it a promotional boost:
Add a compelling headline to your blog posts
Amplify your blog reach by linking to your blog on your business's social media accounts
Ensure you post on social media at the optimal time for your audience
Re-post a link to your blog on social media after a few days or a week, reminding people that your blog is live
Include social sharing buttons on your blog. If your audience finds your content valuable enough, they might well share with their social networks
Create an email marketing list and embed a CTA on your blog, inviting your audience to subscribe to your email list. Then you can notify your subscribers via email when a new blog has landed
Post consistently so your audience regards you as a dependable source of information. They are likely to return to your blog then