Writing a blog for your business will undoubtedly bring new traffic to your website. By sharing your expertise through a blog, you can build trust and value with interested readers as well as start to bring more qualified leads to your website.
In my last post, “Why Blogging for Business is Essential“, I talked about why your company should be blogging. Today, I will help you with the process of starting your blog!
Blogging for business can be a large undertaking but with proper planning, a solid strategy and decent writing skills, you’ll be able to launch successful blog. Below are 5 Steps for starting your company blog. Let’s get right to it!
1. Do your homework.
Do some research by following existing blogs in your industry to learn how it all works. I would recommend subscribing to 3 – 4 different blogs to gather ideas on the different styles, trends and perspectives. By subscribing, you’ll receive an email notification when a new post is available. Make sure the author publishes posts often so you can make good use of your observation time. Browse all of the categories and read past posts to get a feel for the author’s ideas. Take as long as you deem necessary but as a general guideline, you should observe for at least a few weeks. Feel free to follow blogs outside of your industry as well. It will allow you to think outside the box and come up with creative ways to illustrate your business. Take notes on ideas that are generated as you contemplate what yours would look like. Insider Tip: Not sure where to find blogs, Technorati.com is an excellent blog search engine that will help you find blogs by topic. You can also follow other businesses on Twitter as an additional resource for links to blog articles.
Questions to keep in mind for your own blog while doing your research
- What topics could I write about to give my blog a unique perspective?
- What images could I use?
- What goals do I hope to accomplish by publishing a blog
- Who can help me with my blog (guest bloggers, partners, employees, etc.)
2. Brainstorm.
After you have done lots of reading and observing, it’s time to review your notes and brainstorm ideas for your strategy. This is your opportunity to get all of your ideas onto the drawing board, throw them out to your colleagues and start to formulate a list of topics and organize them into blog categories. Remember, when you brainstorm, no ideas are bad ideas. If you have a team, make it a fun and productive creative session!
Note: If you are pressed for time, it may be good to establish the blog’s goals before your brainstorm session so that your topics and categories have a guideline.
The outcome of this exercise is to walk away with a robust list of blog post topics and a set of categories that the posts will fall under.
Don’t forget to think of a name for your blog! Make sure it’s interesting and easy to remember. It’s best if you can tie it in with your company’s brand so that it will stick in your audience’s head when they want to search for information.
3. Strategize.
Here is where you will determine your specific goals, target audience and main message. You want to strategically send out information that will get the attention of your potential customer. You want your content to answer his or her questions when they are searching on the web. It is now time to develop a strategic plan from your brainstorming session. Organizing the topics under categories are extremely important. Let’s use an example…XYZ Hair Salon wants to blog. The goal is to build value and gain repeat local customers by promoting the resources during the hair cut/styling process as well as finding new customers through their informative blog.
Topics from the brainstorm:
– Choosing the right hair care products
– Deep conditioning tips for women’s hair- Hair cut ideas for men
– Hair cut ideas for women
– Which hair style is right for your face shape?
– How to determine your face shape.
– Choosing the best color when I need a change
Categories:
Cuts and Styles
Hair Care for Women
Hair Care for Men
Hair Tips
As you’re writing individual posts, you’ll come up with brilliant and relevant titles but keep possible titles/topics in mind as part of your overall SEO/keyword strategy. You need good keywords in the headlines so that you can be easily found on search engines like Google. Your category names should also contain keywords. (Note: We’ll talk a little more about SEO in future posts).
Next, determine the best blog platform. WordPress and Blogger are excellent platforms for your blog. Is your website already on WordPress? If so, blogging functionality is already built in! Simply go to “posts” in your dashboard and start writing!
4. Plan.
Determine how often you will post, how you will integrate with your website and social media and when exactly you’ll be posting. I would highly recommend creating a content calendar that establishes which order you will post and when each will be published. Develop your process, write it down and distribute to everyone who will be contributing so that everyone is on the same page.
5. Ready, Set, Write!
It is wise to start writing blog posts way before you launch your blog site. You’ll want to have a few articles posted for visitors to browse through when the big announcement goes out. Set aside specific times when you will write. For example, if you want to release a post once a week on Mondays, you should set aside a couple of hours on Wednesday or Thursday to write your post. Give yourself a few days to write, proofread and perfect. Also, write when you are inspired and develop the article over time so that you don’t have to write under pressure and time constraints. Posting consistently will set the expectations for your readers. Keep a notebook nearby so that you can take down notes when a thought pops in your head. Ok..I’m still a paper person even though I’m a web geek so I still carry paper notebooks around (Sometimes I get funny looks ha ha). You can use your smartphone, tablet, voicenotes, etc. Whatever gets your writing going!
I hope this post motivates and inspires you to open up that laptop, turn on that tablet or grab a pen and start writing what you know. One last tip for you…Don’t forget to look at all of your existing content such as brochures, manuals, educational pamphlets, etc and revive the information into blog posts. How-To’s and care tips are the best and most useful types of posts for readers!