How (and Why) to Jumpstart your Blog

From eye-catching social media posts to dynamic content in marketing emails, we use a variety of channels to connect and communicate with our customers. No matter how awesome it is, a website alone does not always provide enough information, personality, or authority to set your brand apart from the crowd.  

‍

This is where a thoughtful, carefully curated blog can really shine and earn you more dedicated followers and loyal customers. While your website's content and tone may be more pragmatic, a blog offers you to engage with clients and communicate updates to reflect who you are and why you’re awesome, instead of simply detailing what you do.

‍

Truth be told, there are numerous reasons to begin blogging as early as yesterday. In this post, we'll go over the many benefits of blogging for business and share some tips to get you started, so you can catch up to and outpace your competition!

Blogging with a Purpose

The face of marketing is rapidly changing, especially as technology becomes more pervasive in our daily lives. More consumers than ever are managing their business connections without human involvement, including the search and discovery process. The journey a customer takes, before arriving at your doorstep, begins with content.

‍

Without face-to-face connection, a solid blog is the best way to get your brand and message in front of consumers. However, it’s worth noting that blogging for the sake of blogging is a waste of time and resources. The solution is to begin blogging with the purpose (the purpose being increased visibility and authority in your industry).

Setting clear blogging goals, right from the get-go, will provide you with a sense of direction and help you create value with a purpose. So, if blogging is really worth all of the effort—with about 6,912,000 new blog entries made every day—how do we set ourselves apart from the mainstream? 

Creating an Effective Blog Strategy

Unfortunately, creating a great blog for your business that generates a lot of traffic and new clients will not happen by itself. Keep these tips in mind when you’re carving out your blog strategy.

Utilizing SEO and Keywords

The first rule of thumb, when starting a blog for your business, comes down to location, location, location! Host your blog on your own website. Using external sites to post your content isn’t going to do you any favors in terms of SEO, link building, or brand visibility. Period. 

‍

If you are really serious about developing a successful blog, you should start with on-page SEO, which begins with keyword research. If you haven’t already done it, go do it now. Knowing which keywords are going to drive users to your site is imperative.

‍

Once you’ve completed your research, make sure you’re using relevant keywords both on your website and within your blog posts. Including relevant, but not duplicate, content on as many pages as possible will help you rank higher in searches. 

‍

Having a good handle on your strongest keywords will help you come up with valuable, relevant topics for your blog. To come up with blog post ideas, many newbies rely on their best guesses or take a shot in the dark. You don't have to do that when there are keyword tools available to help you determine what your users want. 

‍

The next step to optimizing your blog’s SEO is to make internal linking a habit. Internal links are links to your own blog posts, pages, and different website regions that you establish within your content. Internal links enhance page views while also assisting search engines in determining the context and relationship of your content.

Deliver Serious Value

Here's the deal: Valuable blog content assists you in gaining brand trust and loyalty. At least 70% of people would prefer to learn about a business from blog entries than from advertisements.

‍

Many consumers consider blogs to be the most beneficial type of content that a brand can provide. 

‍

In a single blog post, you can share unique details about your brand or services, while providing insightful tips, tricks, or industry-specific information that your readers won’t find elsewhere. This value is what encourages consumers to trust you as an authority, and will keep them coming back for more. 

Catchy Headlines are Essential

Like a book is judged by its cover, so are blog posts by their headlines. You need to make catchy headlines if you want to collect views, reads and shares. Catchy headlines will boost your CTR (click-through rate) and create intrigue around the topic matter. 

‍

There are a lot of strategies for creating a catchy headline, without wandering too far into the realm of clickbait. Keep your headlines relatively short and simple; they should be clear and to the point—but not boring! Appeal to natural human curiosity or hunger for knowledge, ask a question or announce exciting news. When all other creativity fails, simply telling your reader what to do is a great fallback. 

Consistency is Key

You are not required by content law to publish every day, but you should maintain a steady schedule that your readers can rely on. Determine how regularly you can reasonably post, and then stick to it. 

‍

A general rule of thumb is to start in a neutral zone that you know you can handle, maybe once per week. Keep in mind that writing, editing and posting a single blog will require a few hours each, so be sure you have the time to dedicate to it. 

‍

It's easy to fall off of the blogging wagon if you're not in discipline, and this is honestly how most blogs expire. Having an experienced content writer on your team will help you get there, but there are also lots of resources for finding writers if you need them.

‍

Keep yourself motivated, and try not to take your eyes off the prize (the prize being growth, of course).

Signing Off

It takes real effort to keep up with a great blog. Even after the writing, editing, and posting, you still have to publish on a regular basis, promote your articles on social media and in newsletters, and lean on your network when you can. 

‍

Many bloggers (like us) have had ups and downs. But over the past decade or two (are we old?!) seasoned bloggers and entrepreneurs have mapped out the road to great blogging, based on their hard-won experience. 

‍

A great blog can help you attract, educate and convert valuable customers. It also gives you a great platform to promote new ideas, make exciting announcements or have a little bit of fun—yes, that’s allowed. 

‍

All you have to do now is put these blogging tips into practice and get to work. 

‍