Blogs are a great way for small businesses to share their expertise with their customers or potential customers. Businesses that have blogs on their website are able to generate more traffic and leads, which may also lead to new and continued business.
There are three essential elements of a successful blog that every business should consider. Blogs require planning, content, and continual maintenance to be effective. If you are just getting started blogging, follow these simple rules to get off to a good start.
The cornerstone of any successful blog is great content. Without content that people want to read, your blog will become stale and will fail to bring new visitors to your website. Identify who your audience is, measure what type of content they engage with best, and select skilled writers who can speak to this audience.
You will first need to decide what you will write about. Identify topics that are relevant to your industry that will also appeal to future customers. Create thoughtful, insightful blog posts that will encourage a discussion among your readers.
If you are having trouble dreaming up blog topics, do a quick search of other industry blogs to get started. After the wheels start turning, and after a little practice, blog topics will come easily. Be sure to keep a working list of blog topics to refer to when you get stuck.
Always keep your audience in mind, and ask yourself what type of content they seek. Your blog posts will rank in search engines, so write blogs that answer the questions your customers are asking. The more relevant your blog content, the more traffic you will receive.
Next, you will need to determine who will write the blog posts. Consider utilizing others in your organization thathave the expertise to discuss a certain topic to write a blog post. Utilizing several authors will help keep your blog fresh while offering insight from thought leaders within your company.
Utilize the resources and knowledge within your organization to address different topics relevant to your company. There will undoubtedly be resistance from at least a few individuals who maybe don?t want to add another task to their workload or are insecure about their writing. Offer guidance and support, but don?t try to force anyone who doesn?t want to write. Many people who do contribute to a blog enjoy the experience and the opportunity to share their experience ad knowledge with others.
Create a detailed content calendar for your blog and set deadlines for content completion. Plan your blog posts several weeks in advance, but remember to build in a bit of flexibility in the event a blog doesn?t get completed or a topic doesn?t work out. Make assignments a few weeks in advance, and remember to follow up with your writers to prevent delays.
Make sure to plan for a variety of content?both topics and types of content. Remember that not all your blog content will be written blog articles. Include videos, infographics and photos as part of your overall blog content strategy.
Your content calendar should be constantly changing to ensure a steady stream of content and blog updates. Be sure to update your blog at regular intervals.
Once your content machine is up and running, make sure you are monitoring and maintaining your blog. Utilize your blog statistics to identify the best content for your audience, and also what topics aren?t as popular. You may want to try a different approach to an unpopular topic, or offer a more in-depth perspective of a popular post.
Blogs are a great way to improve your SEO rank and have been proven effective in driving traffic to websites. Implement a company blog as part of your content marketing strategy, and promote it on the various social media networks you currently utilize. A company blog should be one of the primary cornerstones of your content marketing strategy, and having an abundant archive of content will allow other aspects of your marketing strategy fall into place more easily.