7 Tips for Starting a Business Blog

What Does the Future Hold for Augmented Reality in Digital Marketing?
6th April 2018
6 Tips to Help Understand Your Brand
3rd May 2018

Having a blog is important for the long-term success and reputation of your business. If you’ve started your business blog but don’t know what to do next, consider these seven tips to push past the introductory phase and start thriving.

1. Make a Budget for Time and Money

Maintaining your blog is time-consuming, so before you begin, make a plan for how much time per week you can spened preparing and marketing the content. Putting in about one to three hours per post is a good standard. Allocating the right amount of resources when establishing your blog will have a huge impact on its long-term success, so in addition to budgeting your time, you might want to make room in your budget for:

  • Advertising on social media platforms
  • Plugins and other features for your blog
  • Expenses to make specific content for your blog such as videos and audio podcasts
  • Marketing expenses for newsletters and alternative promotional means
  • Website hosting if your website doesn’t have blogging capabilities

2. Determine your Main Objective

Consider what you want the purpose of your blog to be. Ask yourself: Am I going to use my blog as a marketing tool, a communication tool, a journal, to obtain leads, as the company’s primary website, a landing page, or as a way of increasing company credibility? It doesn’t matter which you choose, as long as you understand how you will use it to promote the growth of your small business.

3. Determine your Target Audience

Before you start sharing posts and developing content, you need to define your target audience. If you don’t, you’ll be unable to pick the optimal topics, content styles and marketing channels that will reach potential clients and/or consumers. Consider the people you want to address to establish the tone best suited to your audience’s preferences.

4. Examine Competitor Blogs

Examining your competitor’s blogs is a great way to make sure your strategy and content is unique. Get a better understanding of the competition’s strategy by looking at:

  • User communication
  • Content technique and styles
  • Site layout and user experience
  • Keywords targeted
  • Subjects included

5. Develop a Content Plan and Make an Editorial Calendar

Make a list of categories for the content types you plan to use. But first, you should do some keyword research. Once you determine these keywords, title your content categories with the keyword names, so when you make a blog post, your content will be more likely to appear in search engines. Also make an editorial calendar. This will help you form a schedule detailing when you will post or how many posts you will make per week.

6. Be Responsive

Because every business has a blog nowadays, it is imperative for you to be responsive if you hope to attract subscribers. Increase the likelihood of receiving relevant consumer views and comments by responding quickly and commenting on other blogs in your industry.

7. Use Social Media and Analytical Tools

Social media monitoring and analytical tools can help you understand what your customers are saying about your business. For example, if a competitor announces a promotion, real-time marketing and social tools can notify you, giving you the opportunity to decide whether you want to offer a promotion as well. Monitoring tools can also help you manage consumer complaints made on social media platforms. So, if a consumer complains about your products or services, monitoring tools can inform you of the complaint and give you the chance to respond quickly.

Source