Whether you’re new to blogging for your business, struggling and searching for ideas on what to blog about, or you don’t even have a blog yet and are wondering why blogging is still so popular, you’re in the right place!
The thing is, there’s nothing like a blog to provide rich, long-form, value-based content. Yes, podcasts are popular, social media usage for business is rampant, but these other outlets don’t offer the same value as a blog. This is not to say these and different marketing strategies are not essential or strong; it’s just that they don’t provide the same opportunities that a blog has to offer…
Why Is Blogging So Awesome?
A blog can significantly benefit your business for a ton of reasons, including:
- Improving your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) so Google can more easily connect your ideal clients to your business.
- Helping you to create a more sustainable Pinterest strategy with a means for regularly creating fresh URLs on your website
- Allowing you to dive in deeper and build your audience’s trust in you, in turn building your authority on the subjects you want to be known for!
So now that you know why it’s so important to have a blog let’s talk about how to blog for your business.
Step 1: Define Your Goal
Before going any further, it’s important to take the time to set a goal for yourself as to why you’re adding a blog to your business (it’s not enough of a driver to have one just because you’ve heard it’s important!)
Here are some potential goals and reasons why a small business may decide to start blogging:
- Increase cross-platform brand awareness and recognition
- Provide rich education and behind-the-scenes looks at products and services
- Market business on Pinterest
- Improve SEO
There is no goal here more worthy than another… it’s about creating your own goal for this space. Blogging is alot of work, so it’s important to have this vision and clear goal to carry with you as you get started so that you can constantly ground yourself in the reminder of what this is doing for your business. How will this blog bring immense value to your business? Once you know the answer to this question, you’re ready to…
Step 2: Create Your Strategy
Before you begin blogging, I highly recommend taking the time to create a simple strategy for yourself that covers…
- What topics you want to be known for – this is where it will be important to draw on your SEO strategy and consider what keywords you want to target on your website, so you can create rich content around these and related topics on your blog.
- How regularly you WANT to post – like I said, blogging is not easy work! So you must take the time to ensure it will work FOR you and your business. Don’t get caught up in the ‘shoulds’ here in terms of how often to blog! Consider YOUR goal. For example, if the reason you want to blog is to promote your business on Pinterest, I recommend blogging at least 3 times per month to be feeding Pinterest’s robust search engine! Whereas, if your purpose for blogging is to improve SEO, which is a long-term goal, you could decrease your frequency to 1-2 posts per month.
For more step-by-step strategies and instructions on blogging, check out this post!
Step 3: Determine Your Technical Needs
When creating a blog for your business, there are also some technical decisions to be made! This will first depend on what website builder you currently use (if you use Showit, you can add my blog template to your website in a snap!)
The process for adding a blog to your website will depend on the website builder and host you use. Here are some resources from the top website builders for your to have at the ready:
- How to add a blog to your SHOWIT website
- Add a blog to your WIX website
- How to add a blog to your SQUARESPACE website
- Add a blog to your WORDPRESS website
Step 4: Create a List of Post Ideas
Once you have your strategy set up and know the technical requirements for adding a blog to your website, it’s a great idea (though not necessary!) to take the time to create a list of blog post ideas that you can begin to create for your business over the next several months.
When creating this list of content topics, you’ll want to remember:
- Your SEO keywords
- What you want to be known for
- The topics are trending or popular
- Any subjects your ideal client deeply wants to understand and learn more about
When searching for inspiration, a great resource is actually Pinterest itself!
When you begin to search on Pinterest, the search results will automatically start to populate based on popular topics and searches like so:
As a special bonus for you, my friend, here are some post ideas you can use for your small business!
Bonus: Blog Post Ideas for Small Businesses
- Do a profile of one of your team members
- Showcase your client experience with a case study
- Show the BTS process of something you create (or a service you perform) in your business
- Educate your audience on your offer by providing tips on a complementary subject
- How to _________________
- # Reasons Why It’s Time to _____________________
- The Ultimate ________________ Checklist
- # Rules For _________________
Step 5: Decide How You’ll Share + Promote Your Blog With The World!
Not to be forgotten when it comes to blogging for your business is how to promote your blog and share it with the world! This can be through social media, email marketing, and more!
Determine at this stage…
- How you’ll share new posts with your audience – will you announce each on social media? Will you do a monthly blog round-up email?
- How frequently you will share
- Organic ways you can encourage readers to share the content to social media or with others – such as including pins with a Pin this for Later banner to encourage readers to share the post to Pinterest.
Start Blogging For Your Small Business Today!
With my easy-to-use, aesthetically pleasing blog template, you can add a blog to your Showit website today. It’s time to build your authority, improve brand recognition, and more by blogging for your business!
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