Want to learn more about blogging for businesses? Register for our upcoming 15 minute Coffee Break webinar on Thursday, December, 17th at 11am, PST.
Starting and maintaining
an informative blog for your business can be one of the most rewarding,
challenging, and productive marketing tools you can develop as a business owner.
A blog is a great way to bring fresh, new content to your website, driving
higher SEO for your online properties, as well as branding you and your
business as an expert in your industry. If you want to drive clients to your
business and build trust, start blogging.
Running a blog means
keeping up with your industry and consistently delivering new content—a lot to
ask if you’ve never posted content online. If you’re a beginning blogger, here
are a few tips to help you get going.
Develop a blogging schedule
When it comes to creating
new content, it’s imperative that you set up some sort of regular publishing
calendar as well as set aside specific time to write. Make sure you are real
with yourself about what you can and can’t do. If you know you’ll only have
time for one post per week, set aside that time, and don’t skip.
To keep yourself on
track, create a weekly content calendar. A simple spreadsheet is a great way to
lay out your publishing schedule and makes it easy to collaborate if you have
multiple blog writers in your company. Download our free blog schedule template
or build your own—whatever you use, have a plan and stick to it!
Come up with blog topics
Beyond creating the
content itself, one of the next most challenging parts of keeping a business
blog is coming up with relevant, interesting subject matter to write about week
after week. For me, ideas for blogs often come to mind randomly—never during
any scheduled “blog writing” time.
Make sure you record
these random inspirations! The beauty of our mobile devices is you have a great
place to take notes at any time, wherever you are. Whether it’s a spreadsheet
or a simple note file, I recommend keeping all of your blog ideas in one place.
Download our free blog schedule template and check out the Topics sheet for an
example of how to record and track your blog ideas.
Be enthused and interesting
Staying engaged as a
writer can be difficult at times, as not all business topics are all that
interesting. But, if you can press your enthusiasm into your writing, it will
come through to your reader. Whether you’re writing a targeted how-to guide or
a fun weekend read, make your content easy to consume, keep things interesting,
and get your point across with as little fluff as possible.
Make sure to distribute
If you are going to take
the time and effort to write a blog, make sure you do a good job at
distributing the content. Here are a few things to keep in mind to maximize
your reach:
Make sure your content
includes keywords and #hashtags aligned with your SEO strategy
Don’t forget other
SEO-related components, such as page meta titles and descriptions
Share on social media
Distribute through email
marketing
Distributing your content
across the web, and giving others the ability to like, comment, and share your
information, goes a long way in developing a brand of industry expertise and a
following of potential clients for your business.
Blogging is a great way
to really humanize your business. It gives your target audience something to
connect you and your industry with, and it allows you to communicate with your
peers. It can be a challenge to get started and maintain a quality content
marketing schedule, but you’ll quickly find that content creation gets easier
the more you do it. Keep at it, and you’ll start to see the fruits of your
labor: more business, industry respect, and a fantastic sense of
accomplishment.
Register for our upcoming 15 minute Coffee Break webinar on Thursday, December, 17th at 11am, PST where we’ll dive into more tips and technologies to help you build your blogging strategy!
Want to learn more about how Qebot can help you grow you business? Check us out at qebot.com.
