To be clear I’m just talking about businesses here (not about creating and monetizing a personal blog).
This is a question I get asked a lot. I think today's business owners know that they need to be producing content to stay ahead of the competition but in many cases they don't know where to start and whether having a blog is even right for them. The first thing to consider is resources. Do you have someone in house - or can you afford to pay someone externally - to write for you? I would recommend blogging at least once a week - it can be more or less sometimes depending on the nature of the business - but there is nothing worse than seeing the last post as 4 months ago when you click on a blog.
If the answer is 'yes we're good, we can resource this', then you should absolutely create a blog. Want to know why blogging is such a good idea?
It gives you a regular way to communicate with your target audience, opening up channels of communication. If you deliver content which can add value to their lives and offers up free advice then why wouldn’t they want to read it?
It aids discoverability. By this I mean, it helps you to tap into a wider audience as you share links to that content on third party sites like social media platforms or guest blogs. It gets your brand ‘out there’ to the www!
It is a great way to drive traffic to your website. Publishing links to your blog posts to multiple locations across the internet means there are far more opportunities for people to click through to read it, meaning they arrive on your website.
It improves and updates your knowledge. When writing blog posts you tend to research what other thought leaders are saying about that topic. This in turn means you learn more along the way.
But where do I start? Well, in most cases the answer is just to start writing some content and see what flows! I know, I know easier said than done when you've been procrastinating about this blog for a while. So, choose a subject you are confident in or feel passionate about, research any areas where you may want to reference external sources or where you need some reassurance that what you are saying is accurate, choose some complementary images and video content and off you go.
Here are a few 'top tips' to give you a better chance of reaching and sustaining an audience for your blog:
Try to find a niche or at least a clear purpose. There is a lot of noise out there. You need to find a topic which a) you feel you know a bit about so you're confident to write about and... b) has a clear topic [or topics] which you can promote within a specific area. The main reason blogs fail is that they are too general and don't have a clear purpose.
Decide where you will host your blog and give it a name. In the case of most businesses, this will be on your website and you will most likely create a page on the website entitled blog/insights/musings or anything else which feels right. But in some cases it can be beneficial to host the blog on a platform such as Medium. Or to host articles on social sites such as LinkedIn in order to use your blog content as a means to drive traffic to your website. Maybe you're better on video and you plan to Vlog, in which case setting up a YouTube channel for your business can be a great way to drive traffic to your website. Don't miss the opportunity for your blog content to work harder for you as a means to build brand awareness for your business.
Don't be too 'me, me, me'. A lot of businesses use their blogs as a means to talk about what they have been doing as a business and to share successes. Whilst that can absolutely form one type of content for your blog, it should really only be a small percentage of the overall content (say 25%). Yes, really! This is because your blog should be a means to share useful and valuable content to your desired audience which enhances their lives in some way. It should add value to them. Otherwise what is their motivation to continue to read it.
Find the right tone. What I mean here is use your voice. Don't try to create a style or tone which is not your natural way of writing as this will make it difficult to keep a consistent tone and to sound authentic as you continue to blog over time. Imagine you are talking to a friend or colleague and once you start writing about a topic you know well, you will be surprised how quickly the words flow. Remember that if multiple people are contributing to a business blog, it's important to maintain a consistent tone and style in your blogs so create guidelines or have a 'blog guardian' to ensure that you are following the same approach.
Vary your content. Yes, you have a specialist topic or topics and you're communicating content within that niche... however you need to keep the content varied. Much like when you undertake a branding or content planning project, think about your content pillars. These are the topics you plan to create content within. 6-8 topics is good. Make sure that they are relevant and interesting to your target audience, varied and also, topics you feel happy and comfortable to write about. Visit these regularly to test whether your content is delivering in terms of variety.
Don't forget to interlink your content. You've probably heard marketing folk talk about internal linking. Well this is super important with blogs. Just think, you are sharing your blog on multiple platforms to increase its reach. Including a link within the content to your core service offer is another means to direct traffic to the transitional pages on your website. There is a fine balance between subtle promotion and proof of experience vs hard selling in your blog though, so do be mindful of this.
What next?
Once you have started to generate some regular content, you can push out your blogs onto your business' owned platforms - release articles to clients via email or collate them into a newsletter, share them to your social channels or reference articles within your sales processes.
Think about what you want the blog to do for you. Is it an awareness tool for your business or a means to validate your credentials as expert in your field. Do you want it to generate interest in your product or service or to help to generate sales. These questions will help you to set some relevant and measurable metrics to help your to monitor the success of your blog.
It will change and evolve over time and that's totally fine. The main thing is to start generating content and testing what interests and engages your audience in order to create great content which really resonates - suddenly your blog becomes a key marketing channel for your business.
If 2021 is the year you intend to start blogging then let me know in the comments. I’d love to help with any questions you have of any barriers stopping you from putting finger to keyboard. If you'd like to speak to me about how a blog can form part of a more strategic content plan for your business, please do get in touch and we can schedule a free discovery call.
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